I posted the other night looking for info on the Simms injection pump on my 3500 Ford industrial tractor. It"s a Simms P4665 and I have yet to find any real info on this particular pump. Even Ford"s/New Hollands web site has nothing on the pump other than an empty page.
That said, I have an original owners manual for the tractor and looked in it for any info. I had pulled the transfer pump off to clean and repair it, and had noticed that the lower end of the pump appeared to be awful dry. So, my question was how was the lower end supposed to be lubed. I looked through every section and it shows absolutely nothing about the Simms pump needing any kind of lubrication beyond the fuel being fed to it. Still I knew that couldn"t be right as the bleed screw showed fuel in the pump, and the bottom end was still dry. So, I called my local pump guys this morning and found out that this pump is supposed to have the lower end oil filled. Based on what I was told they see a lot of these old pumps that have been run far to long with no oil, or the oil never being changed.
Given that this tractor is around 45 years old, and the pump is dry makes me wonder just how long the pump has been running with little to no oil. The guy I got it from inherited it from the original owner a year or so back and didn"t use it himself, so I guess that makes me the second, real owner/user of the machine. I don"t know if the other guy ever had a manual for the machine, but even if he did how would he know to change, or check the oil when the manual doesn"t show anything about it?
Being a mechanic I know how important having manuals for your machines are both for the correct operation and maintenance, as well as repair. My question to ya"ll now is this. How many of you have all the manuals and still find that the info you really need isn"t in the manual at all, or the info that is there isn"t correct and/or complete? In any case it makes the manual all but worthless...expecially when the lack of info means that a key piece of the machine, like the injection pump, is going to crap out long before it"s time..........
I guess in retrospect a pump that lasts for 40 plus years with no maintenance, and is still basically working (just the rack is stuck, I hope) is a testament to the design of parts back when things were made to "last a lifetime" and then some.
That said, I have an original owners manual for the tractor and looked in it for any info. I had pulled the transfer pump off to clean and repair it, and had noticed that the lower end of the pump appeared to be awful dry. So, my question was how was the lower end supposed to be lubed. I looked through every section and it shows absolutely nothing about the Simms pump needing any kind of lubrication beyond the fuel being fed to it. Still I knew that couldn"t be right as the bleed screw showed fuel in the pump, and the bottom end was still dry. So, I called my local pump guys this morning and found out that this pump is supposed to have the lower end oil filled. Based on what I was told they see a lot of these old pumps that have been run far to long with no oil, or the oil never being changed.
Given that this tractor is around 45 years old, and the pump is dry makes me wonder just how long the pump has been running with little to no oil. The guy I got it from inherited it from the original owner a year or so back and didn"t use it himself, so I guess that makes me the second, real owner/user of the machine. I don"t know if the other guy ever had a manual for the machine, but even if he did how would he know to change, or check the oil when the manual doesn"t show anything about it?
Being a mechanic I know how important having manuals for your machines are both for the correct operation and maintenance, as well as repair. My question to ya"ll now is this. How many of you have all the manuals and still find that the info you really need isn"t in the manual at all, or the info that is there isn"t correct and/or complete? In any case it makes the manual all but worthless...expecially when the lack of info means that a key piece of the machine, like the injection pump, is going to crap out long before it"s time..........
I guess in retrospect a pump that lasts for 40 plus years with no maintenance, and is still basically working (just the rack is stuck, I hope) is a testament to the design of parts back when things were made to "last a lifetime" and then some.