That pressure sprayer

 I mentioned dad's pressure sprayer the other day. It's for an upcoming project I haven't told you about yet. I've been holding back because it's moving slowly but I'll have something soon.

Anyway lets talk a little more about that sprayer, it's been a bit of an adventure.

It's a Troy-Bilt 2700psi sprayer, kind of low end, they make these up to nearly 4000psi. This one is actually made, as far as I can tell, by Briggs and Stratton who also make the engine.

Dad bought it from a friend of his about 3 years ago. What he didn't tell me is that his friend hadn't run it in at least 5 years. Oh and it was stored with gas in it. The gas smelled BAD.

I'm not good at remembering to take pictures, this one was so I could remember how to put the linkages back in place on the carburetor. This carb has an "automatic choke" thats the rod running across the front of the engine, to the upper left in the picture. Over by the engine theres a thermostat that must move when the exhaust gets hot and opens the choke.

I wish I had taken a picture of the inside of the carb, the needle was stuck hard into the seat and there was some kind of goo in the gas intake so it wouldn't flow fuel. This picture was taken after the 3rd or 4th time I went into the carb. If you look carefully to the right of the carb you can see that I installed a fuel shut off. Ideally if we remember to shut off the gas after every use we can save a world of hurt in the future.

The biggest problem in working on a gas powered sprayer is that you have to have water running into the pump whenever the engine is running or you'll burn the pump out. The problem there is that the pump is constantly trying to build pressure, especially on a machine that hasn't run for 8 years and has a stuck bypass valve. I eventually dismounted the pump to make working on the thing easier.

The pump mounts up under the engine, the bolts that secure it actually secure the engine also so dismounting it means you need spacers to hold the engine, otherwise the bolts are too long. I used some big sockets for the job.

I did finally get it running when I realized that it won't start unless there is at least a half tank of gas...

This is the quick connect for the spray nozzles, it lives on the end of the spray gun. It's really just an air chuck. Deep inside, where you can't see, is a 9mm ID o-ring. Remember that, it's 9mm. I couldn't find that published anywhere. The o-ring on this one fell out at some point and the water would spray out everywhere until I replaced it.

I've always hated garden hoses, the connections are always leaking. The manual for the sprayer says "Apply silicone grease to connections". I got to thinking and remembered I had a tube of Sil-Glyde, for lubricating the pins on brake calipers. A little dab on each of the connections and suddenly I had a garden hose that didn't leak. You can see the red garden hose washer in the picture. It's nothing special, I got it at the hardware store and it leaked like crazy until I put Sil-Glyde on it.

The other thing in the picture is the inlet screen. I wish I'd taken a picture of the old one before I threw it away but it was NASTY and the screen was all broken. Replacements were less than $5 for 2 at the hardware store.

They sell an o-ring and screen kit for these but my Harbor Freight o-ring kid had all the o-rings I needed and the screens were cheap. For less than they want for the kit I have enough screens for 2 machines and enough o-rings for probably 10 or 15 of them...

Dang mice!

 Do you folks have battles with mice? Are there places in the world where mice aren't a major consideration? They sure are around here.

During our last trip to Maine dad sent me home with his pressure washer. It'd sat in his shed for a couple years which is wicked hard on stuff, the mouse presence in his shed is STRONG. So the first thing I did when I got it home was to pull the cover and see what they had wrought.

This kind of nest is typical. It was pretty easy to fix on this thing, the ducting is all plastic so the next didn't stick as badly.

Last fall I took his old lawn tractor up north with me, it's mouse nest was MUCH worse.

It was sort of like a can of snakes as I pulled the tin off, it kept getting bigger and bigger. This infestation was so bad that the starter was completely locked up. I had to take it apart and spray PB Blaster into the bearing and then wiggle it with pliers. Surprisingly it recovered and I've mowed with that machine a couple times this year.

It shouldn't be a big surprise that we have trouble with mice in the grooming machines either. Last winter when I ran the Tucker a big ball of mouse nest poofed out of the heater vent at me. I cut up some old cloth into about 2" squares and soaked it in peppermint oil as a preventative. I've been doing that for a few years in the ASV and haven't had nearly the troubles with it. When I first took over the ASV it stank of mouse, now it smells kind of like the dentist's office. Kind of weird but thats a trade I can handle...

I'm bi-tractoral!

 For years dad and I have talked about buying a compact diesel tractor with a loader. Neither of us is getting any younger and a mechanical "pick things up" machine would be super handy. At the beginning of the year I sold some stock and started looking.

Originally I'd planned to buy a construction backhoe. I'd seen some last fall for what I considered a reasonable price. Of course as soon as I started looking the prices doubled. The other problem is that even a small backhoe weighs 14,000# which puts you into commercial transport territory. I figured it'd be around $2,000 to get one moved to Caribou.

Eventually I relaxed my requirements and started looking at farm tractors. I settled on this:

It's a 1998 Ford 1920. Ford's numbering doesn't really make any sense to me, this is a 32hp machine. 4wd with a 12spd transmission. Most folks look for hydrostatic machines so a gear transmission is usually a little cheaper. For loader work it's not the best but I think for a mower or tiller it'll be fine. The transmission on this one is actually pretty cool, its 4spds each in 3 different ranges. The 4spds are synchronized so you can shift between them on the move. In practice the only on the move shifting I've done is in high range, it's hard on it to start out in road gear with a load.

I rented a U-Haul trailer to move it to Caribou. The tractor is about as narrow as you can go and use a U-Haul trailer, the front wheels just barely span the gap down the middle of the trailer. The old Dodge did a fine job pulling but the tractor has the areodynamics of a brick. I've pulled a similarly heavy car on a U-Haul trailer before and it towed much easier.

I hesitated to take the trailer all the way in to the camp but it was 10pm and I didn't want either the hassle of unhooking the trailer and hooking it back up or the uncertainty of unloading in the dark. In the end I decided I'd drive in until the trailer got hung up but it never did. Returning the trailer require a 90 point turn to get headed back up the road at camp.

Ideally the Ford is going to take over some mowing duties from the old Super M. I plan to get a 5' 3pt mower which will be much more convenient to use. Unfortunately it appears that the PTO clutch is stuck on. I hooked on to our 6' mower but couldn't get the PTO to engage. You can hear the gears clash and jump and it kicks back out. I need to pull the clutch inspection plate and have a look around. With any luck it'll be an easy fix.

Even with the fault I'm pretty happy, the engine starts with just a nudge of the key and has no computer controls. When I bought it I asked about the glow plugs and the guy said "I've never used them." I believe him, this thing has the best starting engine I've ever seen.

Along with a mower I'd like to get a scraper blade and maybe a backhoe. Ford/New Holland made one specifically for this machine, I saw one for sale just yesterday but it appears to be gone today. Alternately there are 3pt backhoes that are probably fine if you keep the limitations of the machine in mind. For now I'm pleased to be able to move some rocks/dirt. Angie has been building a wood fired pizza oven and the dirty old Ferd hauled a bunch of rocks for that project...

Mowers...

 My folks are getting up there in years and I'm trying to help out more and more. So now, twice a year I need to convert his tractor from a lawnmower to a snowblower and back again.

Dad's machine is actually pretty sweet. a JD X300, 18hp, pressure lubricated, hydrostatic transmission. It's a big machine, physically on par with the Cub Cadet 1650 that has my loader on it. I don't like that the bodywork is all plastic but I guess thats the world we live in these days...

Anyway spring 2020 was the first time I had put the mowing deck on and it took a lot of trial and error, mostly error. The lift for implements is actually a foot pedal which has a great big spring assist. When switching from the snowblower to the mower you need to loosen the spring substantially, otherwise the mowing deck never goes down. That blower is heavy and it hangs way out in front so it has a bunch of mechanical advantage. Last year I hunted around dad's house and found a dog bone wrench which worked okay but still took a lot of wrenching. This year I thought ahead and brought my 1/4" impact gun.

Okay, first trial, I spun the spring tensioner the wrong way and accidentally pulled it apart. This was a big hassle because the spring hides up above the deck inside the body tunnel. Fortunately it wasn't all that hard to fix, theres just a plastic doodad that threads inside the spring.

So I finally got the deck all installed and tried to mow the lawn, I made about 2 passes and the belt for the mowing deck broke. Rats... Fortunately NAPA was open and they had another belt. They also had a gallon of Mobil 1 Turbo Diesel truck so I could change the oil. I love NAPA, not for their prices but for their having stuff I need. Also, I recently signed up for their rewards program, totally worth it...

Anyway, got the new belt installed, made 2 rounds and snapped that one too. Double rats...

Took the deck off again (I'm getting good at it now) and:

Yeah that pulley isn't supposed to be like that...

So we were stuck. A couple days later dad went to the JD dealer and got a new pulley. Two weeks later I stopped in on my way to camp, dad had already gotten the pulley installed so I tossed the deck back on and managed to mow the whole lawn with no problems although I'll admit I was very gentle every time I started the deck...

Okay, back home after breaking the belt on dad's mower I got my old 1965 Snapper Comet out to mow our lawn. That Snapper is super trusty, it never fails, until it does. Wouldn't you know it:

Well I apparently forgot to take a picture of just the broken belt but you get the idea, this is the broken belt overlaying the replacement. Checking my notes it looks like the last time I replaced that belt was 2009 when I brought the machine out of the weeds. I think 11 years of mowing is pretty good for $18...

I love how serviceable the Snapper is, to install the belt requires wrapping it around the mower drive pulley, through the tensioner, which does have to have it's bolt loosened but its really easy to do and then back to the drive pulley.

Getting to the drive pulley is really easy too, just stand the mower up on end, it's got wheelie bars for just this purpose. The worst part of the job is sneaking off the cover over the mower pulley.

I don't have any pictures but in the middle of the story at camp we were having trouble with our Craftsman mower. It's an MTD made cheapie and the belt kept falling off the mowing deck. I found in the garage an old belt in 5/8x96" with a note that we should use 5/8x97 next time. I'll save you a whole bunch of hassle and point out that 5/8x96" is kind of uncommon so apparently at some point we substituted 1/2"x97 which is way too long which is why it keeps falling off. 5/8x96 is definitely too small, with one installed the deck never turns off.

Here's the thing, when you switch from 5/8" to 1/2" the belt effectively gets larger. This happens because the thinner belt rides lower in the pulleys and takes a shorter path. So when we went to 1/2" we should have gone to a shorter belt. In the end I'd like to use a 5/8" belt because that mower really takes a beating and a heavier belt will slip less and cut more.

It looks like Home Depot can actually get 5/8x97", I'll order one for our next trip north.

Struttin'

It's been a busy time so I've neglected you dear readers. So now I'll take you back a couple months. Angie and I jumped in the 2015 VW Jetta TDI to go to dinner. As we backed out of the driveway the front end of the car made a funny sound and as we headed down the road it pulled hard to the left. Here in the US we drive on the right side of the road and the road is crowned in the middle so you generally steer a little left to fight that crown. So its a weird feeling to have to steer right to fight a left hand pull.

When I jacked the car up to look at it I found: 

What are we looking at? Well the picture is actually upside down, this is the top of the strut and that spring should be pushing down (well, up, the picture is upside down remember) into the cup.

Yeah, broken spring. I've never had that happen before. By the look of the rust the break occurred a while before I found it. The noise and weird steering were from the bearing at the top of the strut disintegrating.

This is a job I DEFINITELY should have farmed out. I'd done rear struts on the '98 Jetta and '05 Golf but the fronts turn out to be held in by a totally different mechanism. On these the strut tube is clamped at the bottom. Replacing the driver's side I ruined a big screw driver prying the clamp apart. Then I didn't have the right socket to get the axle nut off so I decided I'd remove the axle from the inside, at the transaxle.

Big mistake, I'd already disconnected the strut at the top so when I undid the last inner bolt the whole assembly fell out on my head. It gashed my forehead and rang my bell pretty good. I finished the job on pure pig headedness.

After that debacle I bought the proper tools. ID Parts sells a cam action spreader for the strut clamp. They also had the proper 24mm triple square socket for the axle nut and the triple square driver for the pinch bolt in the clamp. The passenger side has clearance issues but the correct tools made the job MUCH easier. I still need to pick up a 16mm socket, this car is plagued with 16mm bolts but the sockets don't come in most kits...

Working on the passenger side I did manage to rip the wheel sensor cable apart. 

From VW they're VERY expensive. Parts Geek had one at a much more reasonable price. You do still have to splice it into the line. I find this pretty cheezy, any cable that hangs out in space is going to get ripped off occasionally, they should be easier to replace.

Carnage, you can see how, with the bearing failure, the spring could come right out of the one strut.

Did I need to replace both struts? Technically no, the car would have been fine with only one replacement but the driver's side sat a little higher after replacement so it made sense to do both. They came as a set anyway...