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williamf
11-15-2006 05:14:46
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Re: WHAT will we do - a long read in reply to No tools, 11-15-2006 03:51:47
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It'll rain this evening here, too. So this morning I'll go down in the swamp to finish the little bit of road work I was on Monday when the hydraulic line sprung a leak. Which covers what I did yesterday. And Monday.
It's the second time I've replaced that hose, and the one next to it that goes to the other end of the same cylinder twice also. After I replaced the other the second time I admitted that I understood some things better than the designers and didn't put it back in the clamp. Engineers hate to see a hydraulic hose move along its length but sometimes that's better than having it crimp and twist where it's held tight.
If I had gone back and liberated this one at the same time I would have had to find something else to keep myself busy today.
It's a serious chore to replace one of these; this one required taking the seat off and taking loose six other hoses to get to the end up under the platform. All of them hard to reach. Put the wrench on, turn the tiniest fraction, take the wrench out, move around to the other side of the tractor, climb up and twist around to reach, insert the wrench though another hole, turn another tiny fraction, climb back down, go back to the first hole and insert a different wrench, another miniscule movement.... The only thing that kept me going was knowing I had done it before so it had to be possible. I was younger then, though.
It took eight hours actual work time and two trips to town. The bright spots: I replaced the ends on two of the really difficult hoses - they were male ends that required turning the whole hose to unscrew them. With to 90* turns in the hose that's a job for three hands.
Also, by chance I wore a t-shirt from the mill where I work to the hydraulic service place. Turns out the counter guy did a lot of business with the maintenence folks in my department, we knew a lot of the same people, when he wrote up my bill he gave me the same discount IP gets. Bill was half what I expected.
It's who you know.
Better day today and much needed rain tonight.
Wm
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