Oh what a fun evening. Sent my wife out for Diesel 911, Walmart is the closest place so she tried there, shelves empty. Called Advanced Auto which is about 10 minutes further out and they had it so she picked it up there.
You could see the separator in this next pic all cloudy. So I figured this was likely the issue.
Took the separator housing off with a pair of adjustable wrench pliers to break it loose. It was a tight fit and I had to turn the pliers backwards from how you would normally use them to get in there. Not sure if they make an actual wrench for removing these, but the pliers is what I had and I've used them on other tractors in the past for those large nut rings on the separators/filters.
Emptied the housing, filled it a little more than 1/2 full with the 911 treatment, reinstalled, and the gel from the separator housing all fell off, so I dumped it and filled it again. It was a bit of an art to get the right amount but somehow I managed to know how much to put in the second time fitting the housing.
Once I got it installed, I opened the bleeder on the top of the fuel filter but I never got any fuel coming out of this even after I remembered to open the fuel valve (dulh, I was really ticked at myself for that). So, I tried turning the key over twice to watch for fuel there, didn't get anything, so I tightened the bleeder and tried to start. It did start (the second time after turning the fuel back on) and then ran for about a couple minutes until I noticed the separator filling up with gel again. I didn't catch it in time and it shut off again.
So, I put the heat gun to it (far away, like where the loader frame was, probably 18", I was a little chicken to get it too hot) and let it thaw the gel. I then started it and rocked the tractor back and forth to get the treatment distributed through the tank. Then I had the gun on the separator for about 5 minutes while the tractor ran and that kept it from geling up at low idle enough to get the treatment into the lines.
This is what it looked like when it started to gel up again:
And here it is all the way clear:
Lesson learned, don't trust anyone that tells you the fuel they gave you had additive in it. The school board in the county I just moved from also learned that today as most of their buses would not start, and I suspect it likely was a fuel issue because they used a biodiesel blend (they were proud when they switched to that to save money and be more environmentally friendly). They said the fuel had additive. I think when it gets as cold as it is if you don't have enough you just get screwed. I always put enough treatment in mine for below 0 operation and have never had to deal with this ever in the past. Ever. Still mad at myself.
Then to top off the night, I went to us my Duramax Flo'n'Go 14gallon tank and the hose handle on it somehow was frozen and started leaking. Big fail. It isn't going to work with my tractor now anyway because the hose isn't long enough. The last tractor I would put it in the loader, lift it, and gravity would drain it into the tractor's tank. I'll likely get a couple metal cans to put diesel in for the tractor, I can't stand the crap plastic ones they sell anymore (all my old plastic ones for gas, like 10+ years old, are fantastic but I use them for my gas equipment).
It won't break freezing here until early next week. All of this chaos today was done at around 6F, but tomorrow evening it will drop below zero again. I don't know how folks further north do it. You all probably just laugh at the rest of us when you send your cold south.
Edit: Thanks to everyone on this thread that had suggestions for the op. They were very helpful.
Matt
