ridgeandvalley
Member
Bear with me, as I'm not a mechanical guy. Over the years I tinkered enough with my 8n that I became fairly comfortable with some of the basic adjustments and replacements. A few weeks ago, I bought a 960 because I needed something with a bit more HP to power some haying equipment. Since I got it, I've worked it only a few times (other than just a bit of driving practice).
1.) Brush hogged about 4 acres of tall weeds. Everything worked perfectly.
2.) Cut about 5 acres of hay with a haybine. The PTO engagement lever wouldn't move without a couple of gentle whacks with a rubber mallet. Other than that, it did great and handled everything like a champ.
3.) A couple of days later, I hooked up a small square baler. About 10 minutes in I was on a bit of a sidehill (not steep but noticeable) and I noticed smoke on the left side of the tractor (downhill side). My first thought was that my "new" tractor was burning up... I took a quick peak and could see some fluid burning off on the hot manifold. I decided to pull ahead about 30 yards to a flat area where I could unhook from the baler. As the ground leveled out, the smoke diminished. My wife's grandpa, who was a farmer all of this life, was there "supervising" the process, and he was looking at the tractor and said it looked like oil was running out of the joint where the valve cover joins the engine... dripping on the manifold / exhaust and burning off. Said he thought it was probably just a bad gasket and that should be an easy and cheap fix. Well, we brought in the "plan B" tractor and finished off the baling. I used the 960 to haul hay wagons back and forth and had no more smoking.
My question is, does this "in the field" diagnosis sound reasonable? If so, is it relatively easy to remove the valve cover and replace the gasket? If not, what else might explain what happened?
When I make hay off of my small 5 or 6 acre hayfield twice a year, it's kind of a family affair. Most of my wife's side of the family grew up on farms and love to come "play farm" a couple of times a year, which kind of makes it fun. This was the first year I had "my own tractor" that could run the haying equipment, and I was kind of disappointed to come limping in on the first round with a smoking tractor.
1.) Brush hogged about 4 acres of tall weeds. Everything worked perfectly.
2.) Cut about 5 acres of hay with a haybine. The PTO engagement lever wouldn't move without a couple of gentle whacks with a rubber mallet. Other than that, it did great and handled everything like a champ.
3.) A couple of days later, I hooked up a small square baler. About 10 minutes in I was on a bit of a sidehill (not steep but noticeable) and I noticed smoke on the left side of the tractor (downhill side). My first thought was that my "new" tractor was burning up... I took a quick peak and could see some fluid burning off on the hot manifold. I decided to pull ahead about 30 yards to a flat area where I could unhook from the baler. As the ground leveled out, the smoke diminished. My wife's grandpa, who was a farmer all of this life, was there "supervising" the process, and he was looking at the tractor and said it looked like oil was running out of the joint where the valve cover joins the engine... dripping on the manifold / exhaust and burning off. Said he thought it was probably just a bad gasket and that should be an easy and cheap fix. Well, we brought in the "plan B" tractor and finished off the baling. I used the 960 to haul hay wagons back and forth and had no more smoking.
My question is, does this "in the field" diagnosis sound reasonable? If so, is it relatively easy to remove the valve cover and replace the gasket? If not, what else might explain what happened?
When I make hay off of my small 5 or 6 acre hayfield twice a year, it's kind of a family affair. Most of my wife's side of the family grew up on farms and love to come "play farm" a couple of times a year, which kind of makes it fun. This was the first year I had "my own tractor" that could run the haying equipment, and I was kind of disappointed to come limping in on the first round with a smoking tractor.
