Old Equipment Quirks

I have been working with and on let's say equipment that has been away from the factory for a while. Tractors,trucks,dozers,cars,and dump trailers that is the way we were raised looking for older stuff in good shape working on and maintaining it ourselves.Through the years you realize that almost everything has its quirks. Maybe a tractor that you have turn the steering wheel while cranking or maybe barely blip the choke to keep from flooding or knowing it pulls better in 4th gear than 5th.
Two weeks ago my brother bought the dump trailer you see in the picture. It is what we call a Rip Rap trailer heavily built to haul large rock and we will use to haul broken concrete. We brought it home but needed to change the hyd. fitting to a quick disconnect that we have on our trucks. Anyway My brother and I changed the fitting I put away the tools and He jumped up on an excavator to start loading and I got in the truck pulled over to get loaded and decided to run the body up to see if there may be any problems with the cylinder. I engaged the PTO and flipped the valve to raise the body and nothing happened so I checked the controls everything is right, revved it up still nothing. I looked over at My brother and He is watching Me and I threw up my hands,It won't go up. He looks at Me with a smirk on his face and points to the front of the trailer and says"You might want to hook up the Hyd. hose." OK that's the first quirk of this old trailer It likes to have the hydraulics hooked up to work.I'll remember that.

Ron

Good story; most of us have had at least one red face moment.

I installed a battery in my wifes car.Would not start not getting power anywhere. She came out to check on things because she had to go shopping. Told her it might be awhile. She ask is this post supposed to be black.I forgot to remove the cap off of the negative post.She went shopping and I went back to bed.

Nice try to keep her from going shopping. If she didn't want to go she'd never seen what you did.

Better results to splurg a whole $15 for a manual destroker to eliminate hydraulic pump drag.

Buddy of mine tied to start the lawn mower, pulled and pulled and pulled and choked it and pulled and pulled. Wife leaned out the window "Got any gas in it sweetie????"
He scowled back "Yess, of course."
She went back inside, he pulled and pulled and pulled, thought about it, undid the gas cap and it was bone dry.

Seems like most of my equipment quirks are operator error. Oh, by the way, I'm the operator.

(quoted from post at 12:31:15 05/19/12) Buddy of mine tied to start the lawn mower, pulled and pulled and pulled and choked it and pulled and pulled. Wife leaned out the window "Got any gas in it sweetie????"
He scowled back "Yess, of course."
She went back inside, he pulled and pulled and pulled, thought about it, undid the gas cap and it was bone dry.

Click to expand...

Old lawn mower, you had to prime about 20-30 times to get it to start (why? I don't know).

Newer mower, you have to turn the gas on to get it to start. :lol:

The old tiller... You have to either pour some gas into the cylinder or hit the air filter with carb cleaner to fire it up.

The old tractors... You just have to feel out whether or not they want to catch, because if you flood 'em, you either have to pull start them or wait for 5 minutes.

(quoted from post at 14:50:56 05/19/12)

(quoted from post at 12:31:15 05/19/12) Buddy of mine tied to start the lawn mower, pulled and pulled and pulled and choked it and pulled and pulled. Wife leaned out the window "Got any gas in it sweetie????"
He scowled back "Yess, of course."
She went back inside, he pulled and pulled and pulled, thought about it, undid the gas cap and it was bone dry.

Click to expand...

Old lawn mower, you had to prime about 20-30 times to get it to start (why? I don't know).

Newer mower, you have to turn the gas on to get it to start. :lol:

The old tiller... You have to either pour some gas into the cylinder or hit the air filter with carb cleaner to fire it up.

The old tractors... You just have to feel out whether or not they want to catch, because if you flood 'em, you either have to pull start them or wait for 5 minutes.

Click to expand...

Ford 961 - just bump the throttle above idle and crank about half a revolution and it is running. Might have to use the choke in cold weather, though. Easiest starting Ford I ever saw.

Myron

My old AC WC wants 3 notches of throttle to start. I tried today and cranked about 12 times. Then moved the throttle lever to the 3rd notch, cranked 3 times, and fired right off...She is a hand cranker....

Strangest thing I ever had to start was the old chainsaw I used to cut slices of silage out of the trench. It flooded and wouldn't start so I stuck a lit match into the open exhaust port, poof, and started next pull. Did it every time after that.

my wife generally does not like old equipment, which is all we can afford. She says I have a trick to operate or start everything. Well, I had no trick, the equipment does, and I just figure it out sooner or later.

That's why I like Stihl chain saws. The ignition switch and choke are all in one. It's impossible to attempt a cold start with the ignition off.

When starting my H Farmall, no matter how cold, you never touch the choke until it starts.

The starter will spin it a few times, it will fire and rev up, then begin to shut down. When it begins to shut down, THEN you hit the choke just enough to keep it going.