Fixing and then refixing........

On Sunday I had the chance in this beautiful weather to do some tractor work.  I have been itching to work on both the Oliver and my second Bolens Groundskeeper for some time now so between work calls I got to it.  The Groundskeeper has a bad hydraulic pump resulting in bad steering and no lift.  The pump is an all in one pump and reservoir belt driven from the motor.

You can see the pump here in this picture.  I replaced the belt as well that runs both the pump and the generator.  The pump is by no means a new pump, I am lucky enough to have a parts tractor that has some major transmission problems that I can rob parts off from.  After getting the new pump on and all hooked up I tested everything and blew one of the six foot hoses that come off from the pump.  I looked back in time to see the line spraying the whole back half and underside of the tractor in hydraulic fluid.  I have since replaced the hose and on a nicer note also added an exhaust to this tractor.

This exhaust is well needed and I think, on nights like tonight when I changed the hydraulic hose at nine o'clock and tested the tractor - the neighbors like it.  My next step on this tractor is to take the spare push arm set up I have and make a carryall for the front of the machine.

An update on Jacob's tractor.  I thought I had a motor that would fit on his tractor but as it turns out this engine wont work as it is a little different than most Briggs and Stratton engines and it has the exhaust pipes coming out solid towards the dash of the tractor and we would have to butcher the dash up too much to make it work.  So we are still on the search for an engine for Jacobs tractor but - wait and see I have a plan for this engine. 

I have also found another great use for the Quadractor as a tow truck. When the GroundsKeeper blew the hydraulic hose I towed it up the driveway to in front of the garage door with it.  Then today I decided that this snowmobile needed to go so I hooked on with the Quadractor and hauled it down next to the road to sell.  It has more than enough power to haul it and is so convenient with the winch I can just hook and drag. This leads me to a whole other matter with the Quadractor.  I have learned from experience now that if you have to change a cable that you should change them both.  When you only change one at a time the tensions are different and they often aren't lined up the same and this happens.

On that note, when the cable has sprung off and is loose you can still drive the Quadractor in a straight line to get it to a serviceable area.  I'm not sure that it would do well on rough terrain but on the driveway it made it fine.  I am going to pick up two new cables, (luckily they are cheap) and have help to keep the steering wheel and the wheels lined up and try to redo the steering cables again.

While the passenger side was twisted around as you could see in the last picture the drivers side is still relatively straight.  The Quadractor is a pretty frequent flyer at the Rusty Gold Farm Repair shop but when I get to run it around it is worth every minute of working on it. 

So I leave you with this glamour shot of the Quadractor and hope you come around and check my blog out often to see the latest fun we are having here at the Rusty Gold Farm.