Re: When giving advice.

Posted by ScottyHOMEy on October 24, 2009 at 16:24:25 from (70.105.238.87):

In Reply to: When giving advice. posted by dennisinoklahoma on October 24, 2009 at 05:33:25:

I've been watching this thread all day.

Up to a point, I can agree with you, Dennis. I've always had manuals going all the way back to the big Chilton's books I got as a kid and (except for one that got away) still have. I wouldn't be without them. I keep an Owner's Manual, both the I&T and the IH service manuals, the Parts Catalog and any sub-component manuals to cover all my tractors.

There are several types of folks that show up looking for advice here. Some are looking to rebuild a motor and ask for every spec on the motor from ring clearances to torque on the rod caps. They need to go get a manual. Some of them will ask piecemeal. They'll get answers, but the third time they show up looking for valve spring dimensions and compression specs, they may get the answer to their question but they'll be told to "get a manual."

Then there's the one who just rebuilt a motor using his service manual and wants to know how much oil to put in and where. Of course, we'll tell him, but he needs an Owner's Manual to answer his maintenance questions as opposed to service/overhaul. In the case of the IH letter series anyway, the Owner's Manuals are written as if the the owner has just come into possession his first wheeled vehicle powered by internal combustion. It assumes no mechanical expertise and is much more detailed about things like brake and clutch free-play adjustments than the service manuals are about those and many other jobs. I was always tickled by IH's line in their service manuals about how the operation of an assembly "will be evident upon examination."

Which leads to the folks who have more manuals than experience, are in unfamiliar territory and can't make sense of the sketchy instructions. I don't believe anybody minds helping them. I recall a fellow who was having spark problems and had been advised to polish up and check the gap on his points. He was back the next day to report that he had been all over the inside of his distributor and didn't see anything "pointy" in there. We got him past that obstacle and he's done enough other work since that he's now a regular contributor, extending good help and advice to more people than he asks for for his own stuff.

The parts catalog is a wonderful thing for someone who is going to go all the way through a machine, or even just a tranny or motor, but I hesitate to send somebody out to buy one if they've got one project and the catalog page is available online. An example would be the guy whose tractor otherwise runs fine and always has, but who didn't note the orientation and order of things when he dropped the bull gear out of the final drive on a Farmall A to replace the bearings and seal, and couldn't get it back together. The online parts blow-up did the trick.

The newbies who admit that they nothing about it are the best opportunity for manual sales. Where do I check my oil? Where is the oil filter? What is that long rod dangling from my brake pedal -- should it be connected to something? Some of them wouldn't even imagine that the manuals are still available for a lot of these old girls, and I don't mind answering their questions, but still pointing them to the manual that they need to get and read.

And then there's all the stuff that isn't in the manuals that we who have encountered them can share. Like those pesky flat rings under the oil filter housing that have a nasty habit of taking on the appearance of being part of the base and have to be dug out if you hope to get a good seal with the new gasket. Or the two set screws that IH and maybe others put in in place of zerks on distributors to cure the problem of farmers pumping their distributors full of grease.

To your last point, we on the Farmall board are blessed to have BobM, who maintains a photo page with an assortment of wiring diagrams for different variations on the letters series (including 12v conversions!), and bermuda ken who maintains a library of wiring diagrams on more of the tractors on the site where he works at Carter and Gruenewald.

Yep, manuals are great, but so is experience and willingness to help others, and there's a lot of both here.

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