I've put Frankentraktor (I posted about it here, John Deere 455 chassis with a Shibaru diesel kludged into it) up for sale. It has a slow leak in one tire so I decided to fire it up and pull it out of the barn and up to the shop to blow that tire up. I've had it on a battery tender and expect it would do it's usual thing: bitch, moan and complain but eventually start.

Wrong, buffalo breath. Fine, been wanting to check out that Horror Fright jump pack I bought anyway. Hooked it up and...ruh...ruh...click-click-click-fuck! Double checked the jump pack and connections and that's not the problem. Well, hell, I've never had that starter apart and I got nothing better to do.

Disassembled, cleaned out some rusty dust, polished up the commutator, buffed off the business end of the brushes, oiled the bushings and reassembled. Incorrectly. Several times. After exhausting all the possible incorrect combinations I finally figured it out (the bendix linkage was kicking my ass...) and put it back on the tractor. Aaaaaaaaaaaaannnnd....Nada. If I jumped the terminals on the solenoid it'd spin the engine over...slowly. And the solenoid was getting real hot. I'd noticed it seemed a little lazy on the bench.

Some more colorful language, took it back off, disassembled it yet again and stood around meditating and scratching my bald spot. As you may know, that's a non-trivial task and somewhat time consuming. The only thing that occurred to me was that I might have gotten the battery and starter connections on the solenoid back-asswards, tho I wasn't sure why that would make any difference.

Wrong again, buffalo breath! Swapped 'em and bench tested it and that bendix SNAPPED in and out with authority. Put it back on the tractor and hit the key and ruh-ruh-VROOOM!

Huh. Always has been a beeyotch to start, might've been wrong all along.

It just needs more colorful language. It’s kinda like more cowbell. Maybe throw a wrench or two next time. That usually helps.

I have also found that when I drop something in the middle of a project such as yours, it always helps to pick it up and throw it on the ground even harder.

I try that about the time I have went through most of my usual swear words.

Carry on.

Buffalo breath that is a new one on me. We talking the city or the animal? Must be a Maine expression.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
Buffalo breath that is a new one on me. We talking the city or the animal? Must be a Maine expression.

I think it may be something that I made up. I just imagine buffaloes have really foul breath.

I know cows do, from personal experience growing up with beef critters on the farm. One of the many reasons I hate cows...

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:

I know cows do, from personal experience growing up with beef critters on the farm. One of the many reasons I hate cows...

I like cows. I just can't eat a whole one by myself.

That’s not exactly right. For example, there are only two ways to insert a USB stick but it will take you a minimum of three tries to successfully insert it.

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:
That’s not exactly right. For example, there are only two ways to insert a USB stick but it will take you a minimum of three tries to successfully insert it.

You noticed that too ...

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:
That’s not exactly right. For example, there are only two ways to insert a USB stick but it will take you a minimum of three tries to successfully insert it.