RedNeckGeek
Super Member
- Joined
- Jan 1, 2011
- Messages
- 8,754
- Location
- Butte County & Orcutt, California
- Tractor
- Kubota M62, Kubota L3240D HST (SOLD!), Kubota RTV900
Good Morning!!!! 65F @ 5:00AM. Plentiful sunshine. High 94F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph.
I can't see the front of that bird, Ron, but it looks like it might be a white throated sparrow. My mom usta love their song. And as usual, great photo.:thumbsup: Nice to know that somewhere in the world, gas is back under a buck a gallon. Haven't seen that since I was in my twenties. Don't worry, though; out here it's still crowding three bux, and Diesel is another fifty cents higher. Gotta keep that bullet train project funded, you know, the one that runs from nowhere to nowhere.:grumpy:
I'm only driving once a week, sometimes once every two weeks, these days. That's plenty of time for whatever germs that land on my mask to croak, UV or no UV through the windows. And you're right, Don, my photo gray lenses don't change when I'm driving a car, and even the plastic shields on the motorcycle helmet stop enough of the UV so that they only get a tiny bit darker.
Careful with that axe, Eugene (old Pink Floyd lyric). You might want to make a copy of the firmware that's already on the bike, Rich, so you can restore it to a working state just in case, not that this would ever happen to you, a change FUBARed it so bad it wouldn't run.
That trucker was a hum dinger, Wng. I told him to curl the bucket before he started down the ramp, but that was ignored. Then when it hit, he just tromped on the throttle some more.
Lots of food being destroyed because it can't be processed, Drew. Milk, eggs, meats, all going to waste. But what are you gonna do when hundreds of people in one factory come down with CoVid-19 and the health department has to shut 'em down because the management won't?
After the trucker left yesterday, I pulled the new tractor up to the garage to start servicing it. I figured out that the message I photographed yesterday was telling me that the last oil change was 113 hours ago; in other words it had never been changed.:thumbdown: The hood release is down under the front of the tractor, and that's when I noticed there was more to the hole in the plastic grill. With the hood up, I could see that whatever punched the hole also took out the air cleaner housing. And now I know that the housing doesn't appear to be available as a separate part, and the assembly is $365. Gonna have to have a little chat with the seller about that; I was told there's nothing wrong with the tractor when I asked.
Anyway, took off the housing and used some duct tape to patch it back up. I could see that the tape was laying on part of the outer filter, but figured it was big enough to not cause any problems. Went in and had some lunch, came back out and went to start the tractor to warm the oil up a bit before changing it, and the tractor wouldn't start. Cranked, caught, then immediately died. Thought maybe it was air in the fuel from coming down that steep ramp because the tank was almost empty (starting to see a pattern here yet?). Figured out how to bleed the fuel system, and there was some air in it, but not much. Didn't make any difference. Spend a long time fooling with it until I finally gave up and had dinner. After a beer I kind of put two and two together with the duct tape. It's always the last thing you did before the problem started, right? Pulled the cap off the air cleaner and the tractor fired right up.:mur: So today I need to rig up some sort of shield stiff enough to keep the tape off the air filter. Probably roll a thin sheet of aluminum, and I just remembered where I put it.:dance1:
The other thing I noticed under the hood is that everything was covered with a beige powder. Looked like dirt dust, but it was grittier. Wasn't long after that that my arms started itching; it was fiberglass, and it was everywhere the pressure washer didn't get to. So first job this morning is to get out the hot water pressure washer and go over the whole thing again, including the engine. Only 113 hours, and somehow whoever had this tractor sure managed to do a number on it.
The "floor" of the operator's station on the backhoe is a hinged piece of sheet metal that opens to reveal the back of the tractor. That door was sticking up about six inches, enough so that when the seat was pivoted, it caught the front left corner and put a hole in the upholstery. Looks like it's been that way for a long time from the dark stains on the foam underneath the vinyl. Come to find out that the control lever for the TPH lift arms wasn't secured fully down, and the lift arms had come up and forced the door open. The knob that controls how fast the lift arms drop was cranked all the way closed so they couldn't come down, and whoever had the tractor was too ignorant to figure it out. So they just kept flipping the door all the way open and running the BH that way with nothing but air under thier feet.:duh: With the valve open, standing on the lifting arms got them back down, and that lever will stay latched until the backhoe comes off.
I'm beginning to understand why someone would pay full price for a new tractor now. Wonder what other dragon eggs I'll discover in today's adventure?:confused2::confused3:
I can't see the front of that bird, Ron, but it looks like it might be a white throated sparrow. My mom usta love their song. And as usual, great photo.:thumbsup: Nice to know that somewhere in the world, gas is back under a buck a gallon. Haven't seen that since I was in my twenties. Don't worry, though; out here it's still crowding three bux, and Diesel is another fifty cents higher. Gotta keep that bullet train project funded, you know, the one that runs from nowhere to nowhere.:grumpy:
I'm only driving once a week, sometimes once every two weeks, these days. That's plenty of time for whatever germs that land on my mask to croak, UV or no UV through the windows. And you're right, Don, my photo gray lenses don't change when I'm driving a car, and even the plastic shields on the motorcycle helmet stop enough of the UV so that they only get a tiny bit darker.
Careful with that axe, Eugene (old Pink Floyd lyric). You might want to make a copy of the firmware that's already on the bike, Rich, so you can restore it to a working state just in case, not that this would ever happen to you, a change FUBARed it so bad it wouldn't run.
That trucker was a hum dinger, Wng. I told him to curl the bucket before he started down the ramp, but that was ignored. Then when it hit, he just tromped on the throttle some more.
Lots of food being destroyed because it can't be processed, Drew. Milk, eggs, meats, all going to waste. But what are you gonna do when hundreds of people in one factory come down with CoVid-19 and the health department has to shut 'em down because the management won't?
After the trucker left yesterday, I pulled the new tractor up to the garage to start servicing it. I figured out that the message I photographed yesterday was telling me that the last oil change was 113 hours ago; in other words it had never been changed.:thumbdown: The hood release is down under the front of the tractor, and that's when I noticed there was more to the hole in the plastic grill. With the hood up, I could see that whatever punched the hole also took out the air cleaner housing. And now I know that the housing doesn't appear to be available as a separate part, and the assembly is $365. Gonna have to have a little chat with the seller about that; I was told there's nothing wrong with the tractor when I asked.
Anyway, took off the housing and used some duct tape to patch it back up. I could see that the tape was laying on part of the outer filter, but figured it was big enough to not cause any problems. Went in and had some lunch, came back out and went to start the tractor to warm the oil up a bit before changing it, and the tractor wouldn't start. Cranked, caught, then immediately died. Thought maybe it was air in the fuel from coming down that steep ramp because the tank was almost empty (starting to see a pattern here yet?). Figured out how to bleed the fuel system, and there was some air in it, but not much. Didn't make any difference. Spend a long time fooling with it until I finally gave up and had dinner. After a beer I kind of put two and two together with the duct tape. It's always the last thing you did before the problem started, right? Pulled the cap off the air cleaner and the tractor fired right up.:mur: So today I need to rig up some sort of shield stiff enough to keep the tape off the air filter. Probably roll a thin sheet of aluminum, and I just remembered where I put it.:dance1:
The other thing I noticed under the hood is that everything was covered with a beige powder. Looked like dirt dust, but it was grittier. Wasn't long after that that my arms started itching; it was fiberglass, and it was everywhere the pressure washer didn't get to. So first job this morning is to get out the hot water pressure washer and go over the whole thing again, including the engine. Only 113 hours, and somehow whoever had this tractor sure managed to do a number on it.
The "floor" of the operator's station on the backhoe is a hinged piece of sheet metal that opens to reveal the back of the tractor. That door was sticking up about six inches, enough so that when the seat was pivoted, it caught the front left corner and put a hole in the upholstery. Looks like it's been that way for a long time from the dark stains on the foam underneath the vinyl. Come to find out that the control lever for the TPH lift arms wasn't secured fully down, and the lift arms had come up and forced the door open. The knob that controls how fast the lift arms drop was cranked all the way closed so they couldn't come down, and whoever had the tractor was too ignorant to figure it out. So they just kept flipping the door all the way open and running the BH that way with nothing but air under thier feet.:duh: With the valve open, standing on the lifting arms got them back down, and that lever will stay latched until the backhoe comes off.
I'm beginning to understand why someone would pay full price for a new tractor now. Wonder what other dragon eggs I'll discover in today's adventure?:confused2::confused3:
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