Raining again?

October 18, 2007 (6:11am)

50º F, Rain, E Wind, 14 mph.

Good morning,

Another few days of rain it seems. The wind is cool and brisk, so should be a raw day a-coming I think. Not a day to work outside I think. Good thing I got the wood in yesterday after coming home from Eli’s. I had covered the splitter and the split wood before the rain and darkness came on Sunday and I sure am glad I did. The smaller, triangular pieces the wood became, take up less space than the larger pieces I started out with. I have about two-thirds of the wood in the lean-to, and it takes up less than half of the space all of the wood took up! I stopped when I had only one course in. I need to make some more sleepers to keep the wood up off of the concrete before putting in the rest.

I was surprised yesterday when the 12 volt conversion kit arrived at Eli’s. That is pretty fast service! Didn’t expect it to arrive until Friday at the earliest. Sure seemed to be a small package for such an amount of money though. As soon as I could, I got to replacing the old system with the new. Several parts needed to come off the tractor, before I could start to assemble the new system. I think I have all of the old off and a third of the new on. In the process I needed to remove the old wiring tube over the head of the engine. I got a surprise. The tube was fastened with a couple of the head bolts and when I removed them the antifreeze came up and out like a fountain. Wasn’t expecting that at all. Didn’t loose too much, as I tried to get the bolts back into the holes as quick as I could, taking only one out at a time. Part of the new mount for the alternator is also held on with a couple of head bolts so had a couple more fountains installing it. I did get the alternator mounted, more or less, then started to make a lot of mistakes, so called it a day.

I discovered that I will need a new terminal block the ballast resistor is mounted on. One of the connections has broken loose from the terminal board and I don’t think there is any fix for it. The new system adds another resistor to the original one, so can’t get by without it. That is unless Eli has a “fix” for it that I don’t know of. Also think I will need to get a new starter solenoid, as one of the terminal is bunged up on it also. Always something.

I did get the transmission/rear-end drained and refilled. What I put in sure was different than what I took out! I didn’t even spill any of the old oil either, which surprised me greatly. One of the drain plugs is missing a gasket, so will need to put on in down the road sometime. Hope the metal to metal seal works for the time being. While I was down under, I also replaced the lift arm with another. Used a torch for the first time since closing the store. Forgot how all of the controls on it worked, so had a quick lesson from Mick - after lighting it. Eventually it did work correctly and I was able to use it to remove one of the nuts on it that wanted to stay where it was.

Eli did a similar thing with the new lining for the wood furnace as I did for the eating kitchen cabinet here - measured wrong.! He was just a grumpy as I was when he found the error. He had two pieces of ¼” steel rolled into half circles to install. He could not get it through the door of the furnace. Mick and I came up with no ideas either. It would only go in about half way. The solution was to cut it in half, into quarter rounds rather than halves. Meaning one more weld in each of the two pieces. When he got the first in - he discovered his error. The pieces were 24" wide and the firebox was 36" internally.

Time to get the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><

P.S. So this didn’t go out this morning. The internet died as I was putting it on the blog. - Sorry about that.