Together again?

October 11, 2007 (5:08am)

38º F, Cloudy, N Wind, 11 mph.

Good morning,

The wind she’s howling outside this morning. It was windy all day yesterday too, along with an on and off again rain all day. Still is raining. Guess we would have a fair bit of snow if it were cold enough. The weather report is predicting some possible snow mixed with the rain in areas a bit north of us. High today in the mid-40's from the looks of it.

I went over to Eli’s yesterday afternoon and worked on Fjord a bit. Eli had built up the stripped threads and re-threaded the steering shaft while I was gone. Looks very good too. The parts ordered had come in, so I started to reassemble the steering box. The old bushing at the top of the shaft housing and really caused me some problems getting it out, but finally did. Had to reshape the housing after I got it out though.

The most challenging part of the whole deal was to reassemble the recirculating ball bearings into their proper place. After fooling around with it for a while and Eli doing the same, he suggested we get out the manual. That’s no fun! The manual said that part of the steering system should not be taken apart! Oops! It had to be removed though, so Eli could mount the steering shaft in his lathe. I think we now have it back together again. There must be 4,593 little ball bearings in it though, or at least seemed like it.

Once that was accomplished, the steering box came off of the tractor, emptied of the fluid I could not get out, and cleaned up in the parts wash. The steering box is also the top of a big open space between the clutch and the transmission, with only a drive shaft going through it. I was surprised, as automotive transmissions are up tight on the clutch. I told Eli I think it would make a good place to store one’s valuables. No one would find them there!

After putting the steering shaft/housing assembly back in and tightened down. There still was some play in steering shaft. After a bit of figuring out why, Eli happened to mention the thrust bearing must not be seated correctly. He was right! It was still in the cardboard box sitting on the running board! Since it was a “practice fit” yesterday, I thought it would be nice to take it back apart and do it right today!

From what Eli was saying, the hardest part of the whole deal is to realign the whole system, so things tend to make the tractor steer to where one wants it to go. Not each wheel taking it’s own track. That probably will be major task for today. While it looks fairly simple and open, things do need to be right. Stay tuned for the next edition of this blog to find out the result!

Margriet prepared the kohlrabi for supper last night. It was a huge one, about as big in diameter as my outstretched fingers on my hand. Surprisingly, it was not woody, but a hybrid to be huge. There is more than enough for at least two meals. It was so good, we both ate too much and there is only enough for one more meal. Normally they are hard to find in a store and very expensive when we do find them. Normally we don’t buy them, but this one was very reasonable at the stand we stopped at on Wednesday. Wish we had gotten a couple more. With the kohlrabi we had a small pork roast, done to perfection. Sounds like a good old-fashioned German meal, doesn’t it? My Woman sure does build good food for this old Norwegian.

Time to get the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><