[AT] One of those days

[Dean VP]

Dean,
I've had all too many days like that. it can be exasperating. As I get older, they seem to come more often. Lost items can usually be better described as misplaced items. Absent minded excellence.  I'm really good at that. But in your case, it is all because you sold the JD 620. If you had sold the M you would only have had 5 nuts to contend with rather than three, but the advantage is missing one out of 5 is not nearly as serious as one out of three.  But eventually you will see the light!  :-) 
But I will admit I have never had the light sequence you are experiencing. Probably because JD did not use idiot lights on the two-cylinder tractors.  But it is exactly opposite of what one might expect. Is it possible that with your multiple tractors you have forgotten how this one is supposed to work? I don't recall any piece of machinery that that has worked like that except my JD 750 Compact Tractor.  It has a light on the dash that turns on when the key is turned on and stays that way and is not dependent on RPMs. Since I too have multiple tractors and this is the only tractor that works this way, it has more than once caused me to stop and question what is wrong. Then I realize this is the way this one works. 
I cannot think of an oil pressure sensor could possibly fail backwards.  This will be interesting when you find out what is going on.
The other Dean in AZDean VP 

    On Wednesday, January 21, 2026 at 04:53:43 PM MST, Dean Vinson <dean at vinsonfarm.net> wrote:  
 
 
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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