Yep, definitely not a good way to start a new project. Bummed me out big time. But was able to shake it off and actually get a few things accomplished.
I first pulled a tank off of another old mower, didn't fit worth a crap but was able to hook it up temporarily so I could check the engine out. Got that all hooked up along with some jumper cables since the battery in it was so dead my charger can't even recognize that it's hooked up. And then had to hot wire it since something seems to be wrong with the key switch. But once I got everything set up and energized the solenoid it cranked for about fifteen or twenty seconds and was running! I was smiling like a complete idiot I was so happy. I was pretty impressed that it started so easily after sitting for ten years. I had to tell somebody so I called the fellow I got it from and he was as surprised as I was. Told me I must be a heck of a mechanic. I told him I didn't do a thing other that give it a drink and shoot some electricity to the starter. It was pretty cool.
To make a good day even better he showed up at my door with the owner's manual and the bill receipts for everything he'd ever had done to it. Pretty decent of him to do that and I really appreciated it.
So anyways I went back over this afternoon and started taking her apart. Got a pretty good start. Took off the hood and grill and a little side panel that gives access to some of the stuff under the floor board. Going to take off the running boards tomorrow probably.
I want to run it one more time, long enough to warm up the oil so I can change it before I paint anything so I'll try to get that done tomorrow too, the oil change that is, not the painting. of course ( :
I looked at a few of the plastic patch/sealer products and most of them say not to use on gas tanks. But there's a bunch of them so I'll check into them further later on. I don't think the barbed fitting idea will work as the plastic is so thin there'd be no room for threads. But I did see a fitting that Briggs makes for putting a shutoff valve in their tanks and it looks like it has possibility's, need to check it out further though. I'll come up with something sooner or later, even if I have to build a tank myself. It's basically just a rectangle so wouldn't be too hard to weld something together that would fit right in there. Wouldn't be original is the only drawback.