"Keep in mind how fast things pass by and are gone - those that are now, and those that are to come.
Existence flows past us like a river: The 'what' is in constant flux, the 'why' has a thousand variations
Nothing is stable, not even what's right here.
The infinity of past and future gapes before us - a chasm whose depths we cannot see
So it would take an idiot to feel self-importance or distress. Or any indignation either.
As if the things that irritate us lasted." - Marcus Aurelius
The old tractor is up and running again. That's the good news.
Previous posts about this project are here:
I also re-wired the headlights, which had not been working. One of them has a dead bulb, which is a special-order item.
The steering knuckle shaft keys turned into a major project, especially on the left front knuckle, because the steering arm had a different size key than the shaft. So one side of the key had to be ground down smaller than the other. The steering arm is not the correct one for this tractor, but it was faster and easier to make a custom shaft key than to try to locate a 50 year old steering arm for a gray-market tractor.
It was a battle to get the tractor started, because the fuel injection system was bone-dry. It's difficult to get fuel flowing through a diesel injection pump once it's run dry. They don't like to pump air.
Once I got it primed, it was mostly pumping water from the bottom of the fuel tank. Diesel fuel always contains a bit of water, and over time, the water falls out of suspension. So even once I got the pump primed, it was injecting water for a while into the engine, instead of diesel fuel. But eventually it fired, and smoked and sputtered, and set off the smoke detector in the shop.
So I had a clattering tractor, a smoky shop, and a woman screaming at me from the ceiling telling me to GTFO, there's a fire. It was a pretty happy moment.
I took it out, drove it around the property, then pressure washed it and took a few photos for posterity.
The top radiator hose has a leak where it connects to the engine. The hose is is in pretty rough shape, like the rest of the tractor. I should be able to find a replacement locally.
Almost ready to re-attach the bucket, except for a couple of small issues.
There's one fly in the ointment though. It's leaking oil. A lot of oil. This much fell out of the bell housing after a 5 minute drive. No telling how much was lost during the drive.
So it looks like I have a bad rear crankshaft seal. This sucks, because I just had the tractor split to fix the original problem, and now it needs to come back apart. Damn it. I'm estimating that it will lose a quart of oil per hour, which is unacceptable on a machine with a 3 quart oil capacity.
Below is a picture I took when the tractor was split. The six inside bolts come off, and the leaking crank seal is underneath that center plate. I wish I'd known that it was leaking when it was apart...
Also, since I had the steering knuckles apart, I'm not sure if the seals for those were damaged. I will be replacing those seals as well, before filling the front axle with gear oil.
So I have some seals and a gasket on order. The gasket below seals the plate that holds the crank bearing and crankshaft oil seal in place. The price is five dollars, and two days of my time off.
The actual problem - the crankshaft seal - costs about nine dollars.
The steering knuckle seals, which I don't know if they are damaged or not, are pretty inexpensive as well. The vertical section has a seal in it #81 to keep gear oil from running out of the front axle.
In any event, I'm pleased with the progress. Tractor runs again and goes down the road without the front wheels flopping around loosely. I'd call that a major battle win in this particular war. The war ain't over, but victory is within sight!
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