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baymee

First time for everything....Gasoline fireball in a tractor

baymee
11 years ago

Today was a first and a good lesson learned.

I was working on a tractor that wouldn't crank through one revolution because the valves were too loose. After adjusting the valves yesterday, it was starting like normal.

I went out this morning to double check the starting before returning it to the customer. It turned until compression and stopped. A few tries later, it still wouldn't crank through compression. So, I'm thinking wth, this worked great last night.

I removed the plug and saw that it was wet, so I moved the tractor outside, like I do all equipment with suspected gas in the cylinder. I cranked the engine and the gas blew out against the front of the hood and erupted into a 2 foot round fireball. I guess the plug wire was close enough to metal that a spark formed.

Well, no damage done, except that I've done this a hundred times before with pushmowers and never had ignition.

Keep this in mind next time this happens to you.

I drained the entire fuel system and thoroughly cleaned the fuel line and needle/seat. I have the plug out now and will see if any gas is leaking past the seat tomorrow.

If there is gas in the cylinder again, I'll crank it over to get it o.......maybe I won't do that any time soon lol.

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