After a number of near-misses, this morning I finally managed to run my MF35 diesel dry. On the county road at the end of the driveway. In a wind chill of -30F. With no power cord within 400 yards. It was bright out, though.I dashed to the service station to stock up belatedly on diesel, poured it in and started pumping. Needless to say the battery gave out before the oil made it back to the injectors. I hauled out my new mini-generator and ran the block heater and then the battery charger. Then the starter quit with an expensive little puff of smoke from the front end. A tractor-savvy neighbour stopped (I'm on the road, remember?) and said, "Starting one of those is a terrible job! You picked a lovely place for it. You only do this once." I asked if he could tow me off the road, and he agreed he could do that, since he'd had his John Deere running that morning, so he climbed into his SUV and drove over the hill. When he backed up for the tow I asked if I should try chain-starting the tractor on the trip back to the barn. He said, "Sure, but choose road gear or the wheels will drag." Twenty feet of towing and a couple of strange whumps and the 35 was purring like a kitten, except that my brand new tractometer no longer worked. The tach came back to life as it warmed up, but there still remained the problem of the non-functioning starter. After I popped a shear pin on the snowblower (not my day)I shut the 35 off just inside the barn doors. As I expected, the starter refused to respond. Off the starter came and to the rebuilder we went. The starter, a long British model, then went into the dumpster and I left with a new-looking Delco starter, $379.00 lighter in the wallet. Next time I think I'll keep better track of the contents of the tank. Diesel is the cheapest thing I can put into that tractor.
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