[AT] OT lubricating a cable

[pga2 at BasicISP.net]

Way to go, John! Thanks for "giving us the reat of the story".

Phil in TX

--- jtchall at nc.rr.com wrote:

From: <jtchall at nc.rr.com>
To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Subject: Re: [AT] OT lubricating a cable
Date: Sun, 16 Nov 2014 11:40:35 -0500

Thought I would update everyone on how my frozen cable turned out. Folks 
seemed to like the idea of using diesel fuel so I stayed with that. The best 
suggestion I got was to take the cable off and bend and flex it to break up 
the rust. The second best suggestion was to give the diesel time to work its 
way through the cable. To put it bluntly, the lower 1/3-1/2 of the cable was 
frozen into the position it had been in for the last 40 years. I found the 
protective rubber coating was broken for some reason on the cable in a few 
places which probably allowed water to get inside. This cable was about 8 ft 
long and around 5/8-3/4 in dia. It took a bit of effort to flex it enough to 
get it straight. To lubricate it I used diesel fuel under pressure. I took a 
short section of hose and clamped to the end of the cable with an adapter 
rigged up up on the other end to plug an air line in. I would pour in 2-3 oz 
of diesel and then hook up the air line, positioning the cable so the air 
line was at the highest point.  OK common sense time here, kill the power to 
your compressor so if something ruptures, your compressor doesn't run 
non-stop while an air hose whips all over the shop. Likewise think about 
what could happen if something ruptures and you blow flammable liquid 
everywhere. Your shop, your health, you take what precautions you deem 
necessary.

I did this for a couple days on the most rusted end, then I switched to the 
other end. After about 4 days I decided to start forcing it to move, nothing 
to lose. It appeared diesel was seeping out the damaged areas of the rubber 
cover. I had to clamp vise grips to the metal sleeves on the cable so I 
could beat them with a hammer. It was very slow going but I got it to move 
some. Afterwards I hooked it back up to the air line to push more fuel 
through it. after a couple more days I could clamp it in the vise and using 
both hands push/pull by hand. I left it alone for a week and finally could 
move it with one hand. Meanwhile I unhooked the other shift cable to 
lubricate it. It was already working pretty good, after just 15 minutes I 
was pushing diesel through it with the air hose.

In the mean time I did locate a good cable in a junkyard as well as someone 
who'll make a new one for 1/2 what Deere wants---they don't keep them in 
stock but have the print for it, the name of the place is Baum Hydraulics.

Hooked it up yesterday and it is shifting with about 1/4 the effort it was 
taking.

John 


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