Last evening I was waiting for my small-engine guy to come over to install a throttle cable on my Sears Craftsman lawn tractor. While waiting I cut a piece of aluminum in half to use as a support for the shaped support I created earlier this week (see previous posts). Then I drilled holes in all three pieces with which to attach them to the hood. So that is out of the way.
My small-engine guy came and got the Sears tractor back into operation. I asked him to look at my sandblaster since it isn't running and I'd like to use it to clean the rust off the hood. He took the hose off the bottom ball valve and found pieces of rock and of a drill bit that were impeding the flow of sand. He also found the hose was blocked and cleaned it out. The sandblaster began to operate and he took some of the paint off the hood but the flow was pretty intermittent. He recommended that I take the bottom ball valve off and clean it out. I am also going to buy another ball valve to replace one on the top of the sandblaster that has a stripped post. At least I know what I need to do now. Perhaps I can get the hood cleaned up on Sunday.
We also figured out some issues with the Bolens 1455 tractor with front-end loader. We determined that it did not need 1" ID O- and Quad-rings on the parking pawl bushing. I had found a 1" O-ring on it and replaced it with 1" Quad-ring and O-rings, as the parts diagram appeared to call for. Turns out the Quad and O-rings were supposed to be mounted on the pawl itself, rather than on the bushing. I also ordered and received a new bushing. The new one should be a big improvement over the old, which had scratches inside it that allowed the hydraulic oil to leak out.
The next issue was whether to replace the sealing washer on the bushing. We decided to hold off adding hydraulic fluid at that time (also because we didn't have the right size socket to tighten it up anyway). Today I looked for a new one and the closest I could find to the Bolens 1719869 sealing washer called for was a BPP 6001-12 parallel British Dowdy seal. Even found a company in Houston that sells them. But I called an Eaton transmission expert in NC, Don Duff, and he said as long as the original sealing washer is not deeply scratched or damaged it should be fine to put back on. At least now I know what to look for if I need another. The BPP 6001-12 is .968" ID and the Bolens one is 1" ID so am not sure it would fit but I suspect it would.
Mr. Duff did recommend taking the hydraulic lines off the transmission and the hydraulic cylinder to ensure all of the old fluid is drained out. He also recommended using Traveller hydro gear oil, made for hydrostatic transmissions, available from Tractor Supply. These were helpful suggestions and I will probably follow them to make sure that 1455 runs properly.
He also mentioned that he thinks he has a set of Wisconsin YQ-16 points for the Bolens 1250 we have mounted on the motorcar trailer. I am going to call him back on Monday since Frank Glatzl has strongly recommended that I pick up a set as replacements for when the current points wear out.
All in all, these are helpful developments bringing us closer toward our goal of getting all our equipment up and running.
No comments:
Post a Comment