[AT] Dead short...

[Indiana Robinson]

First it's good to hear folks piping up that they are OK. I do try to keep
up.
Made the hard decision to skip Portland this year. I'm also skipping a huge
Amish consignment auction that we normally attend twice a year. They
canceled the spring one but are having the fall sale. I love their sale and
they do a great job with it but... Diana and I are both high risk and a
"LOT" of people normally attend. One year my bid number was above 2,500.
It's a mixed crowd, most are just good folks that love sales. Sadly being a
large crowd means more people that you would avoid if you could.  :-)  Some
are clueless, some are just thoughtless and a very small number but way too
many are just rude jerks. Those would crowd in and bully people and
intentionally cough in folks faces or about anything else to make trouble.
That is just who they are. I just don't have time to sit in jail for
clubbing someone with a PTO shaft... As much as I love those sales they are
the only sales where I have had stuff stolen before I could move it. I have
a good idea who they are but can't prove anything. There are a few guys
that when you buy some things and sit them aside to load those guys will
start looking in boxes etc. that others have bought. They also spend a lot
of time looking around them and you rarely see them bidding on anything.
Oh, well.
*
About that dead short... My little VAC Case was getting hard to start. It
would fire and run OK but barely turn over. Sometimes it would kick in and
spin fine. "AFTER CHECKING THE GROUNDS"  :-)  and load testing the battery
I decided that it was the big push button starter switch sticking out of
the dash in that awkward spot behind the steering column. Picked up a new
one from Rural King for about $15.
Pulled the battery and cleaned up the battery box. I painted the switch
(only new paint on the tractor) and the screws for it and painted the floor
of the battery box. I put the new switch in and did minor repairs on the
battery cables etc.
Went to install the ground cable (+ ground, still 6 volts) and got a big
old spark... Yes I did jump a bit.  :-)  Went back over everything I did
which didn't take long, this thing is pretty basic. Had to be the new
switch... Pulled it and tested it, yep, one  post was a dead short to the
switch shell. I didn't want to take it back, some idiot there would have
probably said I voided the warranty by painting it.  :-)  You can unfold
the 4 little bent tabs and open those. In fact you can open them and rotate
the contact bolts a half turn to extend their use. When I opened it I could
see the problem. The thin bolt head/contact on one bolt had rotated as it
was tightened and its sharp corner had punctured the thin fiber insulator
that lined the body of the switch. It had sharp corners because the heads
of the bolts are quite thin compared to the older ones (Surprise).
I got it back in proper position and filed grooves in the outer end of both
bolts so I could tell if they stayed in alignment as I installed the cables
to it. I also added a bit of insulation to the punctured area. Spins over
like a new one.
Another simple 20 minute job completed in only about 3 or 4 hours... That
is my life now.  :-)  :-)  :-)

-- 
-- 

Francis Robinson
aka "farmer"
Central Indiana USA
robinson46176 at gmail.com
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