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The happy Nada Farmer, Short page due to the lawn tractor trying to kill me, but that's a Malfunction Jucktion page, and this one may get expanded in the future, or not.
Keep coming back, page Thirty Three follows......soon.
Major Projects under way and updates!
In these hard economic times we find ourselves faced with the tough decisions Coke or Pepsi? Cup or Cone? Cow Burger or Bambi Burger? Bees, or sleeping in the big house?
I got the new discs for the case tractor's brakes, and had them installed in about twenty minutes. Now that's the way to build a tractor. Of course the old Case VAC (1946) has the same system. I took them apart to check them when I got it, to make sure they weren't frozen up and causing the trouble with "inability to rotate the rear tires" when I first got it. Anyway back to the "new" old tractor, I still don't know for sure what model it is, anything from a 400 to an 800 seems pretty similar. But it has been running really well for me. Mowing mostly, and the other day, on a walk, I realized there are areas I have to continue to mow.
A girl from church came to visit, and we took a walk around the farm, not the total here's the creek and lets out run the cattle walk, but a pretty comprehensive walk non the less. And I found there are areas that have to be mowed in the woods... I really thought they would maintain themselves and that the constant calvalcade of wild life would keep them opened up but the paths were starting to grow in. So I spent an evening chopping through the underbrush with the Cub Cadet, quite exciting a in a couple of areas particularly on the large down hills into the woods, the Cub has no brakes at all, well it's supposed to have them, but they haven't ever worked while I've had it, really! I just reverse the hydraulics and it trys to go backwards, like a space craft, retro rockets! But it is a little different, in that it is usually, for me at least, already in a "highspeed blast down the hill" before I remember I can do it, and how to. Not a good combination on the dusky back hill of the woods, at twilight. Oh yeah it was the last outside operation of the day. And I just had to do it then, because I could.
This is the casting under which the brake discs live. I removed the bolts and actually replaced a couple lock washers and one bolt which was missing to start with. I did it in about 5 minutes, had it apart and figured out how to replace the ball bearings that cause it to press against the discs and stop the tractor. They were in pretty bad shape, but of course I had replacements for them, in my junk collection.
This is the visible difference of the new discs versus the old. Though, the fact that it now stops when I push the brake pedal is a good indicator too. And it worked not only while mowing in the fields, but even while pulling the hay wagon for the Rankin Reunion Hayride. I even took the hay wagon back with it, and everything worked fine. The only issue I have with it, is a rough ride, it really bangs my decrepit spine, there is a point at which the seat bottoms out and it is brutal. So I have that to work on when I get a spare minute. It also leaks oil, but then, everything I have leaks oil. mostly bad seals or gaskets and mostly where I have to disassemble the entire unit to fix them, one of the reasons I have these particular units, they need major overhauls. But what fun would all new equipment be? I'd worry about scratches, and dings and dents and bending and twisting things, as I learned to use them. That would be torturous to me, I like things I can rough house and bang around and not hurt.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch.... Chris's Ford Explorer which has 238485 miles on it quit running. Now I was contemplating changing the oil and maybe a new set of plugs, but nothing major. Geez, I just put new tires on it a month ago!
Well, it died, right in front of Birds Run Church. She was taking Ryan home and was going to meet Russ half way. As they cruised down the hill just before the church, it just quit running. I of course was at the garage at home, not near a phone, and not going to be for most of the day. In fact, when they returned home, with Russ towing the Explorer, I was in the garden, trying to expand it enough to be worth planting things in. Running the Gravely rotary plow and the rototiller, expanding the plot to the entire size of the fenced in area, next year it goes clear to the side of the Machine Shed, but that is another story. After having the Explorer being checked by two shade tree mechanics on site, the plan was to tow it home with Russ's Super Truck. Using a 12 foot long tow strap and Chris driving the towed vehicle, without power steering or power brakes, and on the windy little roads we live on, it was a towing masterpiece. Neither vehicle was molested, and it was done without my involvement! Hey who needs me, anyway? Well, I still did a thourough troubleshoot, after spending an entire day looking for the book I knew I had, somewhere there was a repair manual for that car I know I have used it before! I finally found it! And started at the crack of noon, checking everything as directed. Well it all pointed to pump failure.
OK, Jack the car up in the air high enough for a cripple to maneuver around under it. Remove the steel guard plate. (Heavy Sucker) Remove all the hoses, (Use the special tools I bought years ago and still knew where they were) Remove the gasoline. (Use the pump I had from the gocarting days to empty the fuel out of the little engines every week.) Remove the tank. ( still an awkward situation as I had to be under it to move it out) Open the tank. Remove the pump, (and don't bend the fuel level sensor) and replace the pump, and reattach the fuel level sensor, ( and don't bend it) replace the strainer, (weird little clothish filter gizmo) and hook everything up again, and put it all back in the tank and (DON'T BEND THE FUEL LEVEL SENSOR) and screw it all back into sealed position, and lift the tank back into place and connect all the lines and replace the heavy skid plate and.... IT WOULDN"T HAVE WORKED! And why? Because the problem wasn't the pump, or the relay, or the fuse, or the hoses, or the filter, or anything they tell me to check. It was... the plug! Connectors in the plug, actually, they had become saturated with ???salt??? or something and turned green and corroded out of contact, the wire they were attachted to was corroded as well. Now this is not the first time the wiring harness under a Ford has been an issue because of corroded and screwed up wireing. In fact, last year the speed sensor in the Pickemup truck quit working. It is a plastic gizmo on the punkin. I bought a new one, not that expensive, finding out where it was was a challenge, but when I tried to unplug it, the plug disintegrated and the wireing toward the chassis was entirely crumbling in my hand, I eventually got to a point that the wire was undamaged, and soldered the sensor to it. Well same deal here. Soldered the pump wires to the chassis wireing. Then I put everything back where it went and started to replace the large steel skid plate, that sucker is HEAVY. I had a heck of a time doing it, because I'm the weakest lifting anything that uses my shoulders, so I had to improvise, with jacks and levers and boards and blocks and rocks, what a pile of junk, At least if the car had tried to fall on me it would have never gotten past all the clutter, of course I used jack stands to make sure it couldn't get me anyhow. I started doing that years ago when cars kept trying to smash me. Well actually it was after a particularly gruesome Fire Department call, where a really fat guy was squished under his dumb little minivan, he didn't get crushed, he just couldn't breathe, and nobody knew he was in trouble for quite a while. He didn't make it.
