Okay, don't beat me up too bad here. Wrong brand of tractor (I've kicked myself for the last 16 years for buying it), and some just plain stupidity on my part.

Took my old Simplicity 12hp out for the first time the other day. Noticed it wasn't running good after one round so I shut it down to look it over. Acted like it was starving for gas. Pulled the fuel filter off and saw some gunk in there. So much for getting the grass done in a hurry. Drive to town, get a filter, put it on and she fires right up. Running good. I figger the problem's solved. Before I can get it backed out of the garage, it spits once and dies. So, I crank and crank. She'd start, run and then die. I'm in no mood for this and I'm using language that the Clergy is not familiar with (good thing I'm a long way from anybody else). Anyway, I notice that I've got fuel running out all over the place at the carb. Pulled it off and sure enough there was crud in there keeping the needle from seating. Appearantly, there were small chunks of the fuel hose downstream of the fuel filter working their way into the carb.

Here's the dilema. I replaced the fuel line all the way from the tank to the carb (we don't even want to go into that one. Suffice it to say that it involved a sawzall, and a 2x2. Part of the time the 2x2 was used to vent my frustrations on the tractor. Gonna have a hard time explaining all of those dents to Momma). I drained the oil, which had lots and lots of gas in it. Now, am I safe to just re-fill the oil and try to run it? If not, what's the proper course of action to take here? I'm going to give the carb a thorough going over to make sure there'll be no more surprises, but the gas that worked it's way into the crankcase has me concerned even after draining the oil. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

If it is drained good, just add oil and go. Or you could even add a small amount of oil to "flush" anf drain out the gas.

Doug