Thankful to complain about this November rain.

Been one of those forgettable Thanksgiving weekends.  Thanksgiving day we lose the belt on the car as we are pulling into my in-laws.  Thankfully we were not heading up to see my older brother in the Chicago suburbs as the problem was a bad pulley that had to be replaced.  Imagine doing that on 8 lanes of interstate. 
Spent half of Black Friday waiting on the part to come in.  The other half was spent on installation.
Sara spiked a fever that night and spent Saturday sleeping.  We did get the tree up. 
And now here it is 7:00 am Sunday morning with a nice cold November rain.

Not another turkey

The rain slickened up the ground.  One of my neighbors hired hands found that out the hard way.  They were trying to finish picking corn a few days ago when it happened.  The hired man pulled the truck into the field and saw he was sinking in a little.  He whipped over onto drier ground and planned on heading out a different way than he came in.  Unfortunately he was heading over end rows.  End rows tend to be tricky because the trash from the picked corn is usually heavier than other places.  That proved to be the case here and it wasn't a big spot.  With both drive axles so close together, a slick area not much bigger than your kitchen table is large enough to lose traction.  It does not have to be deep either, once the smooth wheels spin you better pull your cellphone. 

   Luckily my neighbor has a CaseIH MX305 that was able to yank that truck right out of the field.  Check out the details on TractorData.  Due to legal constraints (for the web pics, I did not take any of my own) I do not have any pictures to post.

The Firing Order for John Deere A: 1 - 2

How is that for informational?  A two-cylinder engine has a firing order of the number 1 cylinder first and then the number two cylinder.  How complicated is that?

I mention this because I pulled the fuel tanks (the A has a 14 gallon main tank and a 1 gallon auxiliary tank that piggy backs on the big tank) last week and was looking up repair tips.  It never occurred to me to ask about the firing order but in all dead pan honesty a blogger/poster pointed it out: 1 - 2. Makes me want to roll on the floor with laughter.

As for the tanks - when I drained the fuel for the winter globs of rust came out of the fuel line.  So I pulled the fuel lines off of both tanks and tried to blow air through them.  Nothing except that heavy headed feeling you get from an industrial strength balloon.  The fuel lines are copper so the rust had to come from the tanks.  There are methods of sealing old tanks to prevent rust-thru.  I am going to be exploring those methods in the next few weeks.

1 - 2.

Still yeech

Been two weeks now.  Still hurts when I sit for extended periods.  Incision pains are gone.  Just not right yet.

Turning 40

I turned 40 on Saturday.  I had hernia repair surgery on Monday.  Yuck. 

Update on the A

    I drained the water on the A.  It came out a nice orange color but surprisingly still had the consistency of water. Next I drained the fuel.  It also came out orange. With lumps.

    For those of you new to the mechanical and chemical side of anything with an engine - orange is bad, lumps are worse. Orange means there is rust in your fluid. The darker the orange the worse it is. If you hit brown you need to look at options.
    Lumps are groupings of rust. These form when your fluid has been sitting and the rust settles into a nice low place, say the hole in the bottom of the tank where your fuel line begins transporting fuel to the engine. Lumps are capable of plugging up things like carburetors and fuel injectors which have small openings to meter out the fuel going into the engine. Picture a hairball in your bathroom sink. Equally gross and annoying. Both stop things from flowing.
    I removed the carburetor from the tractor and brought it home to work on it this winter. I have no real experience with carbs so I have begun my research. Even better, I have experts to guide me through it. My friends at antiquetractorsforum are always eager with advice, experience, pictures, diagrams and videos. Locally I have found my ace-in-the-hole, Dick Engler. No, not acehole. Brian and I take turns at being the acehole. Dick and his neighbors south of Lafayette do a lot of nice restorations. (At least from the pictures I have seen. I'll need to attend one of their shows to be sure ;)). When I told him what I was working on Dick was able to explain in detail the problems and quirks I would run into and how to handle them.
    Cleaning up the carb and putting new gaskets and o-rings will make the tractor run smoother and stronger but the real key will be preventing it from happening again. Virgil, my father-in-law, has used a product that rust-proofs fuel tanks. Performing that process on the A will not be an easy task.  I'll go into detail on another post.
    Before this turns into a full on ramble I will say: End Chapter.

Been awhile.

I am sure you hard been bored to tears without my inspirational prose.  It has been a lack of inspiration on my part that has choked the prose.  I agreed to put on the church service for Laity Sunday on Oct. 16th.  This will include me giving part of the message.  The stress has been overwhelming.  I have actually lost sleep over it.  The message isn't the hard part, I have relevant stories. The hard part is putting the service together.  What parts to include?  Do I put in extra bible or responsive readings?  One of my readers thought he would take a brief vacation to St Vincents Hospital, I hope he is ok, but that does add a twist to my planning.