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489 Posts
Guys,
I use one of those yellow, plastic diesel cans to refuel my 1026R. Unfortunately, no matter what I do, the fuel just slowly gurgles into the tank about half as fast as I'd like it to. Meanwhile, I'm supporting the heavy can over the tractor's fuel port. So here's what I did: I used a very small phillips screw driver to punch a vent hole into the diesel can midway betwee the 2 handles. There is actually a square, flat spot that seems to be crying out "VENT ME HERE" at that location. Then I used a slightly larger phillips screwdriver to make the hole a little bigger. I then took one of those commonly-owned, plastic drywall fasteners (the kind that you push into the drywall and its 3 arms spread out behind the drywall as you screw in a screw) and pushed it into my hole, seating the large end of the fastener against the outside of the can. My fastener actually matched the yellow of the can perfectly! This allows air into the can as the diesel fuel escapes thereby doubling the flow of the fuel into my tractor's tank. I found that a 1/2" long roofing nail works very well as a vent seal when done filling the tank.
While filling my tank, I also noticed that I can watch the float controlled fuel guage move toward full. Wow. What I thought was a rinky-dink fuel guage suddenly seemed more valuable. It works without the tractor running unlike those modern electronic guages that are dash-mounted. It's much easier to monitor the filling of the tank via the guage rather than trying to see into the fill port with the diesel can in the way.
One final note. I was mowing the lawn yesterday and I drove close into some fir trees on my right side to cut the grass under the branches. Unknown to me, one of those branches moved the fuel shut off valve on the glass fuel filter to OFF. Well, the tractor didn't stop immediately. Instead, it waited until I was driving on the other side of the fir trees so that the left side of my tractor was against the branches. That's when it stopped (In Aviation we call this "fuel starvation" as opposed to "fuel depletion".) So there I was, on a steep hill, jammed up close to the trees, curvey edging to my left and a dead engine. I tried restarting and it would start and then stop within 2 seconds. Well, I put the range selector in Neutral and slowly let the tractor drift back down the hill toward the lake stopping it when I reached a level area.
I was half sure the hill had something to do with it since I'd been mowing for 20 minutes and this was the first point at which I had to climb a hill. I thought the problem seemed like fuel starvation but I had 3/8ths of a tank of fuel. Then I thought it might be a plugged fuel cap vent because I had been using the MMM to blow a lot of clippings across the street in the front yard prior to moving to the back yard. So I looked at the cap vent but it looked fine. Eventually, I discovered the closed fuel valve but it took a while because the tractor had stopped running when the right side of the tractor was totally clear of the tree branches. I should have checked it more closely the first time I looked at that valve. Live and learn.
I use one of those yellow, plastic diesel cans to refuel my 1026R. Unfortunately, no matter what I do, the fuel just slowly gurgles into the tank about half as fast as I'd like it to. Meanwhile, I'm supporting the heavy can over the tractor's fuel port. So here's what I did: I used a very small phillips screw driver to punch a vent hole into the diesel can midway betwee the 2 handles. There is actually a square, flat spot that seems to be crying out "VENT ME HERE" at that location. Then I used a slightly larger phillips screwdriver to make the hole a little bigger. I then took one of those commonly-owned, plastic drywall fasteners (the kind that you push into the drywall and its 3 arms spread out behind the drywall as you screw in a screw) and pushed it into my hole, seating the large end of the fastener against the outside of the can. My fastener actually matched the yellow of the can perfectly! This allows air into the can as the diesel fuel escapes thereby doubling the flow of the fuel into my tractor's tank. I found that a 1/2" long roofing nail works very well as a vent seal when done filling the tank.
While filling my tank, I also noticed that I can watch the float controlled fuel guage move toward full. Wow. What I thought was a rinky-dink fuel guage suddenly seemed more valuable. It works without the tractor running unlike those modern electronic guages that are dash-mounted. It's much easier to monitor the filling of the tank via the guage rather than trying to see into the fill port with the diesel can in the way.
One final note. I was mowing the lawn yesterday and I drove close into some fir trees on my right side to cut the grass under the branches. Unknown to me, one of those branches moved the fuel shut off valve on the glass fuel filter to OFF. Well, the tractor didn't stop immediately. Instead, it waited until I was driving on the other side of the fir trees so that the left side of my tractor was against the branches. That's when it stopped (In Aviation we call this "fuel starvation" as opposed to "fuel depletion".) So there I was, on a steep hill, jammed up close to the trees, curvey edging to my left and a dead engine. I tried restarting and it would start and then stop within 2 seconds. Well, I put the range selector in Neutral and slowly let the tractor drift back down the hill toward the lake stopping it when I reached a level area.
I was half sure the hill had something to do with it since I'd been mowing for 20 minutes and this was the first point at which I had to climb a hill. I thought the problem seemed like fuel starvation but I had 3/8ths of a tank of fuel. Then I thought it might be a plugged fuel cap vent because I had been using the MMM to blow a lot of clippings across the street in the front yard prior to moving to the back yard. So I looked at the cap vent but it looked fine. Eventually, I discovered the closed fuel valve but it took a while because the tractor had stopped running when the right side of the tractor was totally clear of the tree branches. I should have checked it more closely the first time I looked at that valve. Live and learn.
