… And I STILL smell like gas

So after an afternoon of working on Wally, I figured I’d better spend some time seeing about getting Ernie running… so this morning I ran out and bought a cheap brand new utility battery so I could treat Ernie right… So, put that battery in this morning, then went and worked on Wally… Came back to Ernie shortly before supper, after I’d run Wally’s battery out…What I figured was that I should clean out Ernie’s sediment bowl, because I could see a lot of varnish in the bottom of it…

BIG mistake…

NOW i know why Deere has discontinued parts on those puppies… So I pulled it off and opened it up… The gasket at the top was pretty crunchy… But I cleaned it out anyway and put it back together. Hooked everything back together, went to turn over Ernie… No start!

Oh wait! It would help if I opened the fuel shutoff valve! Reach over and open it, watch as the fuel flows in, go to turn the key – HEY! Why is there gas dripping out of the sediment bowl?!? Stupid gasket! Shut the fuel shutoff off, pull the bowl, drip gas everywhere! Notice that there is still fuel dripping out of the top of the sediment bowl – CRUD! The shutoff doesn’t actually, um, shut off! The next bunch of time I spend getting covered in gas, discovering that NONE of my sediment bowls (except for the one on Wally) actually hold gas without leaking, trying to figure out how to get the rest of the gas out of the leaking sediment bowl… My bright idea was to, once I’d gotten the LEAST leaky sediment bowl onto it (the top and gasket from Bror, whose valve didn’t leak, the screen from Ernie) fire up Ernie and see if I could run the gas out of the line and bowl… Hopefully keeping ahead of the SLIGHTLY dripping sediment bowl… So, choke up, throttle up, turn the key, and Ernie caught right away…. And became one great big mosquito fogger! After 30 seconds, even with the big door open, the garage was so smoky I could barely see across it! I had thought Wally smoked! Well, he ain’t got NOTHING on Ernie! DOH! So I shut Ernie down, and set about taking off the sediment bowl, and trying to carefully drain all the gas out of the tank into a handy container… But while trying to maneuver the container under the loosening sediment bowl, I caught things wrong and upset the container, spilling gas all over my face…. Sudden rush inside to do major eyeball rinse!

Okay, so, that put an end to my tractoring for the evening… an hour of showering and soaping later, I still smell like gas…

Soooo…. Now I’ve got problems… Wally still doesn’t run yet…, Ernie smokes terribly… All my fuel systems are buggered…

I figure, despite the attractive vintageness of the sediment bowl, I’m going to be purchasing at least two of the replacement shutoff valves from Deere come Monday, and plumbing in a standard fuel filter. But what to do about the not running Wally and the smoking Ernie? Perhaps I should swap Ernie’s carb over on to Wally to see what happens to Wally… At least then I could get a long enough run to see if Wally’s engine is alright…