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'round the pot-bellied stove / Western Ohio Update

« on: December 12, 2012, 01:44:14 PM »

It's been pretty wet here but at least it isn't cold.
Suppose I ought to take the tiller off the Ford 4000 as I'm sure I won't be using it for awhile.

On another note..... I turned 65 this past Monday.  Got my first "senior rate" haircut yesterday which saved me a whole dollar!

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'round the pot-bellied stove / Western Ohio Update

« on: November 29, 2012, 04:53:30 PM »

It's been awhile since I last checked in.
Looks like this thread is the only one showing any sign of life.

As for news, I did get another Ford 4000 with the 3 cylinder diesel.
I was having problems with my other 4000 so I bought another one instead.

My old one had the SOS transmission which was okay and I really didn't have any problems with it.  But that tractor never did start well cold and always needed the manifold heater and a bunch of cranking to get started it the engine wasn't already warm.

Although the new tractor I got looks like crap compared to the old one, at least this one starts without needing the manifold heater!  This one also has the manual transmission and the pto is much stronger.  My old tractor if I was tilling and got too deep or mowing and got into really heavy stuff the pto would start slipping.

I'm starting to wonder now if my starting problems on the old tractor was maybe the timing was slightly off on the injection pump.

I may end up robbing some of the nicer stuff off my old tractor and move them to the newer one.

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ATIS General Tractor Discussion / Stupid mistake

« on: May 16, 2012, 12:39:08 PM »

Last Thursday afternoon I decided to till the garden area again.
I've got a Ford 4000 (3 cylinder diesel) tractor with a tiller.
The tractor has the 10spd SOS transmission so 1st gear is great for tilling.

I had just made a couple passes when I noticed the engine RPM was dropping so I bumped the throttle to get RPM's back up and soon the RPM's were dropping again and this time it died.

Yep,  I hadn't checked my fuel level and ran out of diesel.

Unfortunately I have a battery/starter problem where I can't do a lot of cranking.  Usually need to hook up a charger to start the tractor if it doesn't fire off quickly.  So I had the tractor out in the garden area with the tiller sunk in the ground and a fuel system that needed to be bled.  I did put some diesel in the tank and tried briefly to crank the engine hoping that being warm it would start quickly, but must have enough air in the system that it became obvious that I wasn't going to start it in the garden.

Ended up taking my Bobcat skidsteer out to the garden to take the tiller off the tractor.

Then used the Bobcat to tow the tractor back to the shop where I can bleed the fuel system and also use the charger.  Of course having the SOS transmission the tractor couldn't be towed until I could move the drive disconnect lever to disengage the SOS transmission.  It didn't want to budge until I used a piece of wood as a lever.

Haven't had time to bleed the fuel system yet and get it started.

You can be sure that next time the RPM's drop unexpectantly that I'll shut it down quickly before getting more air in the fuel system!

Not sure what my battery/starter problem is.  It will crank fine for a few seconds and then fairly quickly slows down to a slow crank.  Doesn't seem to make any difference if I've got a second battery jumped to help it start or not.

Not sure if the tractor battery is bad or if the starter is the problem.

Actually, I've got a heavy duty new battery I just bought for one of my cars that I might try on the tractor.  If it behaves the same as the current tractor battery it might indicate the starter has a problem.

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'round the pot-bellied stove / Western Ohio Update

« on: April 09, 2012, 01:44:54 PM »

Yesterday I mowed my fields with my Cub Cadet riding mower.  This is the first time I've tried mowing it this year, we've had a record amount of rain during the month of March.  Had standing water in places where we've never had standing water!  I usually mow the fields with my Farmall Super A and Woods belly mower, but the ground was still so soft that I used the Cub Cadet instead.  Even using the light riding mower with its high flotation tires, there were a few areas in the field I had to skip as the ground was still too soft and I almost got stuck a couple of times.  Was lucky enough to have enough forward momentum and able to turn towards some drier ground.

I also mow the grass for our church and haven't been able to do that either.  At least for the Easter egg hunt this past Saturday, the tall grass made the egg hunt a bit more challenging for the older kids.

Will definitey be glad when we get drier weather and I can use the Farmall for mowing as it takes half the time of using the riding mower.

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'round the pot-bellied stove / 69 Members?

« on: April 09, 2012, 01:36:03 PM »

Not sure what the secret is to getting more forum activity.

No secret.  Spencer just needs to decide to update some links to the forum.
Also the home page for the forum needs to be updated as too much of the stuff hasn't changed since 2009!

As far as I know some of the features mentioned on the main pages about publishing stuff and other things have never been turned on so we can use them.

I've wondered a long time if this was just an experiment to see what happens to an unsupported website.

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SEL General Stationary Engine Discussion Forum / Fairbanks Verticals

« on: April 09, 2012, 01:29:30 PM »

Dave,

If you check this forum sometime this year, here is something for you to consider for 2013.
The 2013 show at Antique Powerland (Brooks OR) will be featuring vertical engines.

I know you have a bunch of verticals, so you might want to bring a few of them up for the show.

George

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ATIS General Tractor Discussion / Empire tractor

« on: April 05, 2012, 12:02:23 PM »

In August I'm planning on hauling my Empire tractor to the EDGET&TA National Show which is near Billings MT this year.
That's a 900+ mile trip each way for me.

I'm hoping to get some of the other Empire tractor owners in the NW (not many of us) to take our tractors to that show and the annual Empire tractor show is always in the eastern or midwestern part of the country since that is where the majority of the owners are.

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'round the pot-bellied stove / 69 Members?

« on: April 05, 2012, 11:58:15 AM »

I  think this is the first time this year that I've checked on the forum.
Sad to see that it is still only a few people using the forum.

I put the blame on the lack of having any link to the forums from http://WWW.ATIS.NET, plus the past there was a lack of support or updates to the forums.
I haven't looked around to see if anything has changed since last year, so I apologize if there have been changes and I just haven't seen them yet.

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'round the pot-bellied stove / Lots of views, but few responses

« on: July 21, 2011, 12:35:13 PM »

I'm back!
I see that while I've been away that Charlie passed me up for number of posts.
Glad to see someone else at the top of the list! :-)

In June I led a tour group of 10 (including myself) to the Coolspring engine show, as well as visited private collections in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, Ontario, New York, Pennsylvania.  Oh... and also visted the Rough & Tumble showgrounds at Kinzers.

It was a fantastic trip and saw some of the top engine collections in the eastern states and provinces.  Even saw a few collections that also included tractors.

George

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'round the pot-bellied stove / In Search of Spring

« on: March 29, 2011, 05:39:08 PM »

I'm ready for Spring too!
Where I live, we've set a new record for the longest period in the new year without a 60 degree f day.
There is a chance we might make it to 60 in the next couple of days.

We're also having the 4th or 5th wettest March on record for our area.  We've had measurable rain every day in March.

I'm looking forward to my trip in a couple weeks down to California where I hope to see some sun and wamer temperatures.

George

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'round the pot-bellied stove / March 2011 posting

« on: March 22, 2011, 01:38:03 PM »

Just checked in to see if there had been any activity.
At first I thought there was nothing posted this month until I got down to this one.

Not looking good, but good to see that a few of the diehards are still around.

Kind of like having a private forum for the half dozen or so of us that post to this forum.

Not much news from me.
Still getting my Empire tractor ready for the Tulare show next month.
My forklift died last month (starter problems) and I haven't fixed it yet although I really miss not being able to use it.
Fortunately, my Bobcat with pallet forks fills in for the forklift in most situations.

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ATIS General Tractor Discussion / Hood repair

« on: February 14, 2011, 11:27:33 AM »

I'll try to get some pictures of this posted later.

On Saturday I had a guy fix my Empire tractor hood.  At some point in the tractor's life, a F-head Jeep engine was installed and a hole was cut in the hood so the carburetor on the taller engine would fit.  Same problem the Willys 4x4 people had when they swapped out the flathead engine and installed the later F-head engine.

The guy that fixed the hood for me usually works on restoring old cars and lately has been doing a lot of Porche 356 work.  He's one of those guys that can take a piece of sheet metal and make a fender out of it or any other sheet metal part.

Was quite interesting watching him work, fitting the patch piece he shaped to fit the hood then welding it in place with a torch and rod of mild steel.  When he was finished there were only a few spots along the seam where a little bit of filler will be needed.

I'm still planning on having this tractor at the California Antique Farm Equip show in April.

I realize that CA is a long ways away for the few people on this forum, but maybe Dave will make it since he's in Nevada and probably closer to Tulare than I am!

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ATIS General Tractor Discussion / It's Back!!!!

« on: January 14, 2011, 11:59:58 AM »

Take a look at the 'front page'. Note from Spencer on there, along with the start of a new look. I 'think' we may end up migrated over here with all the trouble the lists are giving him.

-steve

 
I really think that the forums could replace the SEL mailing list, but the forums are a bit hard for anyone to find.  There is no link to or mention of the forums on the http://www.atis.net website.

George

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ATIS General Tractor Discussion / Roll Call

« on: January 14, 2011, 11:55:06 AM »

I check most days.

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ATIS General Tractor Discussion / It's Back!!!!

« on: January 10, 2011, 10:26:57 AM »

Glad to see it back up!  I was afraid last week that Spencer had pulled the plug on ATIS.
Still was hoping for his end of the year update to the forums and was hoping he'd do something about the FrontPage.

However, I am glad to hear he didn't just give up on ATIS and decided to drop it.