Re: The Colorado BS thread
Not unexpected with a 30+ year old piece of equipment... we've had some repairs to do on the "Little Blue Ox" (skid). I have to learn the ins and outs of this little booger one way or another, so each failure is a learning opportunity.
First week - starter failed. Appears the cables from the solenoid were not tight, so it started arcing, causing the solenoid to fail, causing constant current to the starter and therefore it welded itself together. Pretty easy repair, replaced the starter, solenoid and all three battery cables.
Second week -- first hydraulic hose failure gave me a nice shower of hot hydraulic fluid. I went to the local machine shop and had a new one made for $20, and told them they would likely see me frequently as my 30-year old hoses start giving up the ghost;
Third week -- noticing it runs like shit, lacks power. Appears Briggs and Stratton engines have no built in altitude adjustment, so I need to replace the jets in the carb with high-altitude models (5,000 feet +), since this machine came from +/- 1,500 feet of altitude in eastern Nebraska... ordered said jet from Amazon after a shitton of interweb research;
This weekend -- hydraulic hose number 2 gives me shower number two. At least it was 5pm on Sunday and the work was all but done. got another made yesterday and installed last night. I also changed all the fluids (engine oil and hydraulic fluid), filters, plugs, etc.... the hydraulic wheel motors are supposed to have 1 gallon of hy-tran hydraulic fluid in them -- right side was dandy and clean. Left side I pulled out 4 gallons of this watery muck:
clean as a whistle now with the right amount of fluid -- hopefully nothing catastrophic occurred while it was being mostly "water lubed"...
My replacement jet showed up in the mail yesterday, so after replacing the hydro-hose and after a 1"+ rain shower, I went out to kneel in the mud to disassemble the carb. What a PITA. I managed to destroy the fuel solenoid in the process, and once I got the carb disassembled, it is clear that I have TWO main jets, not one... more research, more jets/solenoid parts ordered... dead in the water for now.
But, it has been handy as hell in getting a lot of dirt work done in the last month (Sheila loves that first pic
):
