There is a lack of consistency in my pages and it is unintentional, the type faces should be the same throughout, I intend them to be the same but something is weird about the way they are saved or displayed and I have yet to determine where the issue lies. I will get it fixed eventually, right after I get everything else organized and put away........HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHa.

Okay that was fun, now to the issues at hand. The organization is coming along , very slowly. I expected no different. I seem to attract people with no place else to go. I suppose it is because I usually look at a "lost cause" situation as a challenge of sorts. Case in point, a local fellah showed up with a lawn tractor, MTD Yard Machine, Hydrostatic, 50" deck, 20 HP twin Briggs engine. The engine ran great, it was started using jumper cables from his trucks battery, and a screwdriver to activate the bendix. Being hydrostatic it had to be running to move, you can't push , pull or coax hydrostatics to roll, (unless they are on a hillside and running into your truck, another story), so it was not convenient that the steering wheel would pull out and having done so leave the machine uncontrollable in every circumstance. The battery was bone dry, the majority of the body parts "broken plastic" and screws and bolts were missing all over. OH, and he had taken it to a dozen other mower repair places and set a limit of $250.00 to get it fixed, needless to say, here it was in front of my garage. I told him I'd take a look at it, and let him know, about the steering issue. The rest I just let ruminate, you may have realized by now, that's how I work. If not, you have not been paying attention.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the pictures above, the parts in the blue circle were what was missing, as near as my engineering expertise would allow me to discern, the picture on the right is what they looked like assembled, you might also notice I welded up the gear and reshaped it with a hand grinder, that took a couple minutes! Anyway, I created the parts required to fix the steering issues, and installed them and safety wired them so they shouldn't get lost again, and used thread locker, and tightened them against lock washers.( Probably fall out in about a week). I welded the "steering tower" back in place as the ravages of rust had freed it from the frame, where it was previously held in place with stupidly small screws. Okay here's the RANT! This used to be the International Harvester Cub Cadet Line of lawn tractors, Of which I have two (and a third on the line). They are tremendously capable little units and the hydrostatic is nearly grenade proof! When MTD took them over they redesigned the best features "out of them" by replacing a rather costly steering box with a piece of "stamped stupidity" and a gear that generally fails in the first 5 years. Instead of the heavy cast parts that IH used, it is all stamped light weight steel sheet and with it's lack of weight, comes a total lack of durability, and function. It is a crime to even associate these units with their ancestors. So I'm going to stop now, before I have to arrest myself!

I added water to the battery and it came back! I don't know how long it will last it is 9 years old, but I'm guessing it has been dry so long it is really only about two seasons old, I kept it to play with. Anyway when the tractor left, it would start from it's own battery, run, shift, steer and had the hydraulic release back in place to allow its being pushed by hand. I have also ordered new filters for it (Not from Auto Zone) and will install them, when I receive them. I also noticed it was missing the cooling shield from the left cylinder, I made one for it, these little air cooled engines will burn up if not cooled properly, and like I try to explain to people, if it was there, it needed to be, or they would have saved the money it cost to make it in the first place, look how they cheapified the rest of it, from when it was an ....... (legal warning!)

Oppsie... there I went again.

The neighbor brought me a little project earlier in the same week, all he wanted, was for me, to braze it back together. I knew the chances of that working were slim, and impossible. So, I told him I would make another one, he said Okay, and left, I don't think he believed me.( It is the red, three piece version on the right) I started on it right away and worked on it for 5 hours, it was dark when I went and tried it on the machine it came off of, ( I knew which machine that was, because it was spread all over the area next to his shop). The dogs made such a racket that he came out, and told me just leave it, he was doing payroll and would get to it in the morning.

The next day, about 11AM, (MY "first thing in the morning") I went to see if it had worked okay, and he was tickled, and all smiles," I just finished two fields and it's working fine, you know, you ought to open up a machine shop or something if you can do that kind of work...." Always good to have an appreciative audience.

Anyway, the next project interspersed with the Yard Machine was Ryan's truck, We had the computer ( thanks to Advanced Auto Parts), and after a half hour upside down, and experiencing just a few of the endless joys of vehicle repair, Ryan finally got it slipped back up where it had come out of. I'm sure he thought it couldn't have possibly been out of that spot, originally, and would never go back there, (mainly because he said so a dozen times), but finally he managed to shake, rattle, and roll it just right, so it slipped back into it's bracket, and the plastic plugs were eventually coerced back into their sockets. And we tried to start the engine. I had the air cleaner off, so I could see if the injectors were operating, and they weren't. I went to the fuel filler and listened for the fuel pump to activate, and it did, we even added 5 more gallons of gas just to be sure it wasn't a stupid issue... (AIN'T GOT NO GASSS IN IT! /SlingBlade) and tried again, with the battery eliminator/charger in place, so it wouldn't be a low battery issue. (Even though it is a new battery.) NOPE, no fuel. So I started over again trying to find the issue, just for kicks, I dumped some gas down the throttle body, no effect! I checked for spark, nope no spark, Why the ..... Well after another afternoon of internet searching, studying the book and accidentally finding an online semblance of a theory of operation, Which I think all mechanics manuals should be required to provide, I discovered the fuel only flows if there is a detectable spark present. So the computer, which was replaced because it wouldn't provide a signal to drive the injectors (and provide fuel) was doing it's job, because there was no spark to ignite it. The site I found, also tells how to work your way back through the ignition system to determine where the system has failed. So I did, it was the coil that senses the rotation of the distributor. Which is the precursor to the crankshaft position sensor, which I suspected was the problem from the start, but I forgot this engine is so old it still has a distributor. So I popped the cap lifted out the rotor and removed the rotating magnetic disc that creates the pulse that fires the coil.......Yeah that was the plan, unfortunately I had underestimated the devious cretins that design engines for detroit. The magnetic disc, is pressed on the distributor shaft, and the distributor has to be removed and disassembled in a vice, to get to the little coil. And after 24 years it was sort of brittle, and of course as it is a $2 part, it is unavailable, and only a total replacement is economical, you know $200.00 rather than $2.00. So I am waiting on the replacement to arrive, I think I have it ordered, I have been billed, and have a tracking number, but, I have also been this far before and ended up with a non native english speaker explaining they don't do that on the internet, repeatedly, and offering to help me "with anything else?" So we will see.

I was getting sort of unhappy about this truck and its situation, I mean, it has been here for over 6 months and, except for a couple days, doesn't run and has never been dependable for more than an hour! But then I realize it was delivered on a trailer with parts I have never seen, spread about it's disassembled interior, which was filled with water, and the engine was encased in at least a half inch of grease and had number 8 copper wires melted through on top of the valve covers. The fact that it has run at all, is sort of amazing. So I will give myself another month to get it working. I just wish parts would stop falling off, or disintegrating when I touch them. I wonder if they realize it could have antique plates in another year? And avoid E check entirely? What a crock, E check. Another scam brought to you by your over involved, meddling, government Jackasses!

Oh well.

Now here's a surprise! When the distributor arrived, it was the correct part, and when I put it in in as near as I could tell the same position, (gear wise versus timing situation) it worked! I don't mean, it just went around correctly, it actually started right up! So aside from the melted wire and the "probably not bad computer" It seems the real problem may have been the $11.00 pickup coil in the distributor. I don't feel good about the extra costs, but I do feel good knowing that the exotic parts are good. And any further issues should be surmountable. In fact the check engine light went out right away and hasn't returned as I have been using it for a go kart around here for a few weeks now. I put my welder in it, so I could move it around and do things away from the garage, and it gives me more room in the garage to do a couple other little projects.

 

 

I have had these wagons for a couple years , one is Chris's from an auction, and one came with the place, so I guess technically, it's half Chris's as well.

The one in the rough condition shown in the first picture, is the one with the red wheels below. The one with the blue wheels, is the one found in a pile when we moved in... There is a great big messy story behind them, so it will be a Malfunction Jucktion page eventually. But as a teaser, here they are mostly done, and at least, able to be played with, and used for gardening and stuff.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have been trying to get the water control plan finished around the house. The original plan called for a 5 foot gravel moat around the house, over a plastic sheet, to keep the weeds and grass out, and direct the water that was going under the house into the 3 foot deep gravel filled ditch I dug when we had the track hoe for the water tank. Well I scored a real deal at Tractor Supply on a roll of plastic, and I have been doing a couple feet of clearing the area, each day. (all my back will allow) I am fairly happy with the way it is going, if not the speed at which it is progressing. I had hoped to be able to use the back hoe to do most of it but the backhoe is a dud and the oil companies are duplicitous at best. So I am getting concerned about the possibility of getting any money out of them, at this point, so the actual tractor issues are on hold as well. I am considering making another attempt at a wider mower as it takes all day to mow here and a full day to go to Akron to mow the Lake Street Estate.

I have to go and do some things so I will have something to write about, and as most everything I try to do ends up costing more than makes sense. This is getting to be a really expensive page....

ray...