Knock knock puddin head!

So last saturday I wanted to get the Oliver 1755 fired up for a little maintenance, it got up to a balmy 17 degrees so I figured it was a good day to get her moved. Hit the preheater for the prescribed time, turned the key and it turned over like it was full of molasses, batteries are new from this summer so I put the jumpers on it for 1/2 hour or so, still turned slow. Now I start to wonder what could be wrong. Check the connections, they look good, clean and tight except for one little detail, I use two 12 volt batteries in the old girl and had forgotten to hook one of the cables up. Worked great all summer when it was warm, but not enough to whirl her over in the cold! Felt like an idiot when I hooked them both up and it fired like it was scared not to. OOOPS I am not quite 50 and already having senior moments!!! DUH! :>) Lets hear some more dum dum moves. If you aren't afraid to make fun of yourselves!!

I had a friend that had a poor battery in a loader at his sawmill. He put in a new battery & after that it would do nothing. Somehow he got it loaded on a trailor & brought it to me. The new battery had plastic caps on the posts. He took off the red one but not the black one. He had the cable clamped on top of it. Worked fine after getting rid of the cap.

Thats a good one!

I don't feel so bad at my lack of mechanic skills now. I know enough to take the plastic caps off the battery posts.

Larry

I went to start my old 105 Deere combine the other day and it fired and ran for a short time then slowly faltered and died. I was running the choke and throttle the way I have for the past thirty one years but I couldn't keep her going.


Normal protocol is slightly forward on the throttle and full choke till she fires then no choke till she starts faltering, then 3/4 choke for a few seconds and then slowly off with the choke. If it doesn't get absolute full choke it won't start, plain and simple.


She just would not fire. Put the jumpers on her, let her sit a few minutes, cranked till the battery slowed down, repeated the process multiple times, said some words, didn't help.

Now those of you who have run the old 105-95-55's know the throttle and choke are identical levers that are side-by -side. After a half hour of trying I finally looked down at the levers for the first time in years and found out I was running the choke like the throttle and the throttle like it was the choke. I felt more than stupid! Got things together and she popped right off. I hadn't looked down at those two levers for years because I didn't need to-till now. Jim

I have a WD-45 with an electrical short in it somewhere that I can't seem to get around to tracking down. So I just unhook the battery after I'm done using it to keep the battery from draining.

One day last summer I was rushing to put up square bales before a thunderstorm rolled in. Got to my last load in and had to start this old girl one last time for the day (it runs the elevator). Whups! I left the battery hooked up from the last load and it cranked really slow and would not start. I could feel the storm coming so I RAN across the yard to grab the hand crank. I RAN back and cranked and cranked and cranked it but not even a pop. I was falling down from exhaustion when it occurred to me that I probably turned the switch back off when I ran for the crank. There was more juice left in that battery than there was in me by the time I sent that last bale up.