[AT] One of those days

[Dean Vinson]

Minor tinkering today with my Farmall Super M, chainsaws, and Ford 3600.
Nothing quite went as expected.

 

This morning I went into town to pick up the Super M's right front wheel,
which a local tire shop had finished pulling thorns out of and putting a new
tube into.   When I got home I went to put it back on the tractor, which is
sitting by itself on the (relatively) clean concrete floor in the far corner
of my enclosed shop.   Got the rim in place and went to bolt it back on,
only to discover I was short by one nut.   Neat little pile of hardware on
the floor right where I'd left it, three bolts, three lock washers, but for
some reason only two nuts.   Couple of wrenches nearby but nothing else, no
junk, no random stacks of supplies or half-full jugs of engine oil, nothing
to camouflage the presence of the missing nut.   (My shop is not exactly
short of any of those things, but they're all over on the other side near
the workbench where I spent most of my time, not here where the tractor's
been sitting.)    I got down low and looked, picked up the wrenches and put
them back down, checked under the other front wheel, checked the area,
nothing.   Big dang nut for a 5/8" bolt just disappeared.   Scratched my
head for a minute but soon enough gave up and went back into town to visit
the local hardware store for another nut.  Problem solved, tractor is now
all back together.

 

Next task was to clean up my two chainsaws and figure out why one of them
wouldn't start last time I tried to use it.  I take both with me when I'm
clearing osage orange and honeysuckle from the old overgrown pasture.  The
newer saw cuts clean wood, and the older saw with a
no-longer-fresh-but-still-halfway-okay chain cuts stumps down low and serves
as the backup in case I get the other one pinched.   Last time I went out I
absolutely could not get the #2 saw to start, but it's been an egregiously
long time since I cleaned (much less replaced) the air filter.   So today I
got the saw all cleaned up, and also cleaned up the other one while I was at
it, but didn't see anything that looked bad enough to keep the saw from
running.  Scratched my head for a while and then finally thought to check
the fuel tank, which of course turned out to be bone dry.   Last time I went
out I must have somehow forgotten to fuel that one up.   This was mildly
funny to me today, but it had not seemed so last week when I was out there
in the woods yanking endlessly on that starter rope and scaring away
wildlife with a loud string of curses.

 

Last task was to take delivery of my Ford 3600, which for several weeks had
been at a local shop for an overheating problem.   The shop's diagnosis, as
written on the completed service order, was that the "coolant was nasty and
radiator was almost plugged."   They removed the radiator, sent it out to
get cleaned, then put it all back together, function checked it, and brought
it back to me late this afternoon.   After their driver started it up and
idled it backwards down off his tilt-bed truck, I went to put it in the
barn.and as soon as I throttled it up past idle, the oil pressure light came
on.  I tried throttling down again and then back up, and shutting the
tractor off then restarting, but same thing every time:   Charging system
and oil pressure lights come on when key is turned to the "run" position,
then both go off when the tractor starts, but the oil pressure light comes
back on at anything above a moderate idle and goes back off upon returning
to idle speed.    I checked the oil level and it's about halfway between
"Full" and "Add" on the dipstick, so I wouldn't expect it to just be an oil
level issue.   Their driver hadn't left yet so he called his service manager
and gave him the rundown, but by then it was nearly five o'clock so the plan
is they'll call me in the morning and figure out the next step.   I won't
need the tractor for anything until springtime, but still, dagnabbit it I
was looking forward to having them all back home and in one piece today.  :)

 

Oh, and of course, as I walked back through the shop to close up the doors
and turn the lights off, I stumbled across that missing nut about 15 or 20
feet from where the Super M is parked.  Maybe I somehow kicked it over there
without realizing I'd done so, or maybe a cat had been entertaining itself,
who knows.  But now I have an extra 5/8" 11-pitch nut in a shop drawer, in
case I ever need one.

 

Dean Vinson

Saint Paris, Ohio

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