Tractor stuck :(

I had some seat time today. Lots of fun, all was going so well. Sun was shining. Toothbar was doing a great job of digging getting big scoops of dirt to fill in around my septic. Only 2 or three loads to go when ..... boom ... I had a big scoop of dirt and the left front tire lost it's seal. it was loaded so lots of liquid came out making the hole I was working in a muddy mess. Dropped the load of dirt and tried to back out. No go. One of the rear tires had filled with mud, the left front tire's rim was spinning and the tire sitting still so I had no traction at all.

Got my handy dandy portable air tank and air'd up the tire. To much mud around the rim, would not seal. I tried walking it backwards with the FEL inching my way. Always got to one spot where I could not get by.

Called for help. Got someone to drive the ATV 4x4 hooked onto the tractor to give a little tow. Nope, still had to back it a little at a time with the loader, but with the loader and the ATV we got her out of the mud hole. Tried to take the tractor up the hill to the pole barn no go.

Had to raise it up to where we could take the wheel off. Took it up to the garage and sprayed it off, getting all the mud away from the rim. pulled the valve stem and had to put a strap around it to finally get it to seal. Put the tire back on the tractor and no problemo. Drove the tractor home to the pole barn. I thought I might have to leave her out all night for the first time since I got her in April 2002. Glad I didn't have to .

Worst of all, I know I caused the problem by not checking the air pressure in the tires. I knew better but didn not think of it. What a dummy I am. I will remember next time.

So, how did your day go today?

Snowing here, but I made it to work and got through the snow drifts along the way.

69 degrees here. Beautiful day for the first day of Spring!!!!!! Loving it. Monday it's supposed to go down to 25 ...they mentioned chance of snow, but that's been revised. I guess that front dumped all it had on yous guys.

My day was pretty much like yours Doc.
I usually let someone else do my oil changes for me. But since I seem to have a leak in the transmission, I wanted to get under the truck anyway so decided to do it my self. Now keep in mind I spent the same amount of money for parts as it would cost me to let them do it in 15-20 mins.
Since I haven't done many oil changes on the truck lately, all I had for the filter was an old strap type wrench. Well Ford engineers have obviously NOT worked on what they design. There's no way this strap wrench will work. It's all I have and no room to drive a screwdriver through the filter. So, anyway 30 mins later I have the old filter off. Put the new one on, drain the oil, and YES replaced the drain plug.
I put the new oil in and started it up, yep good pressure. Let me check for leaks, but the flashlight is over by the toolbox. Go to get it, turn around and see a gusher of oil under the truck. Run over to shut it off.
I guess I didn't get the new filter tight enough. There is very little room in there unless you have one of those cap type wrenches that fit on the end. Of course I don't have one. I'll go get one, but the wife is gone, I have no truck, so I wait staring at multiple quarts of oil on the floor under the truck. 2 hours later she comes home, after I cleaned out the the interior of the truck, swept out her side of the garage, watched some basketball on the garage TV.
Once she returns, I eat some lunch and run to the store. I get my new filter wrench, cat litter and more oil. I get back and tighten the filter (hmmm seemed tight enough but it gave a good twist). Added a four quarts of oil until it was close on the stick. Started it up again and looked underneath another gusher. DARN, well maybe that was the word I used, maybe not. NOW WHAT?

I walked over to the trash.....look at the old filter.......NO gasket.
Removed the new filter, yep there's the old gasket. Re-install, and more oil. Now, all is good. Except for the 6-8 quarts of oil on the floor. Two giant bags of cat litter later, maybe I'll try to scrub it up tomorrow, I'm tired.

Oh and by the way.............the transmission shows no signs of a leak. The pan is dry, the lines are dry, the output shaft seal is dry. So I still don't know where it's leaking. I spent almost double what the quickie lube charges for the pimply faced little snot to do it in 15 mins.

OhioTC18 said:

I spent almost double what the quickie lube charges for the pimply faced little snot to do it in 15 mins.

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Yea, but he probably would not have worried about that "small leak"!!


It got to about 80 here............
I fed the cattle another bale of hay, rode thru the hay fields to see how wet they are, cause I gotta fertilize & herbicide them this week. (Dang it, means more seat time!)
Then I went back to the house & finished servicing the Dixon (new belt, new oil & filter, sharp blades), jumped it off & mowed till dark.
Overall, a good day here--------------- in my TEE-SHIRT!!!




YEA, I'm real glad it's warmed up here, hope ya'll way up north can get some of this warm weather soon.

Beautiful day here too. Hard to imagine everything covered in 4 foot of snow just a couple of weeks ago. We had drifts of 6 to 8 feet and one against the front porch that was 10 foot.

The snow cover did a lot of good for the grass, it's growing great.

I spent some time raking and scooping gravel. We have a gravel road and parking apron. When we were clearing the snow some gravel got pushed and scooped onto the grass. I also had to fix some ruts in the pasture where we dig a road through the snow to get to the barn.

Jim

One of those days

I had sort of one of those days yesterday - I had all the feeding and farm work to do by myself and got most of it done without mishap- all 7200 lbs worth. except when spraying my little 60 gallon sprayer quit working and I got Grazon squirted on me real good.Got cleaned off and changed out the pump and then that one didn't work. -then a cow snorted snot all in my face and eyes. Now that still wasn't as bad as ya'lls day. Day before yesterday, I got the RTV stuck up to the floor in mud and was out in the middle of a field. We got it out with a 4x4 truck in L and several very long chains.. But at least I had a family member to pull me out- close by. Today was beautiful though. It was a great afternoon to work the cow/calf pairs and this morning I had a really good time -trouble shooting the electric fence with the RTV and bordercollie Belle. It was great to be out on it in warm weather . bordercollie

Hmmmmm....What year of Ford truck do you have? I've nevr had a problen changing the filter! Of course, I NEVER use a wrench to tighten them, either......
We got 4" of new snow Friday night. About half melted Saturday, and the rest should be gone by tonight. I have a miserable cold, so I don't get to "enjoy" it.

It's a 2003 5.4

I spent almost double what the quickie lube charges for the pimply faced little snot to do it in 15 mins.

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The last guy that changed the filter probably didn't lube the gasket before putting it on so it stuck to the frame.. I once had to use a cheater pipe to take the drain plug out of a Honda car after a complimentary oil change. It was so tight the gasket was ruined. I was really ticked. It was a miracle the threads weren't stripped in the oil pan. I will use a torque wrench if I am in question about the drain plug tightness. Silly I know , but when I am upside down under a vehicle, I use a ratchet so I will be sure to be turning the right way when I am loosening the plug. Bordercollie

Yup. The only time I have ever had a leak was on a 84 Taurus. I hadn't noticed that the filter gasket came off the filter. I have a 2003 F-150 with a 5.4. Never had a problem reaching the filter. Like I said, though, I never use a wrench to install one. I've never had a leak, and 95% of the time, don't need a wrench to remove it, either. They don't need to be "torqued" on there, just tightened.

I forgot to mention that I always wipe the surface where the filter meets the engine to remove any grime, etc. This procedure has saved me several times by removing foreign objects from the seat area, same goes for the drain plug hole seat area.. I have a box of exam gloves that come in handy for such tasks. bordercollie

bordercollie said:

I have a box of exam gloves that come in handy for such tasks. bordercollie

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You have no idea how many of those I went through yesterday.

Real men don't need exam gloves.....

What! No pics?!

Um, I sort of did the same thing and forgot pics. I used my mini excavator to trench through a soupy area where two different 4X4 backhoes got so stuck that they had to use a big dozer and a winch to get them out. I walked right over the areas with my 7 ton excavator and got the job don without a hitch. I don't think I ever even spun a track.

The trouble was when I decided to use my track loader to fill the trench (faster) rather than the excavator. All was actually fine until I decided to make that one last pass back blading the the area. Since the trench was 6' deep and the fill was like pudding, the weight of the 12k track loader caused one wall to cave in.

Man, was I ever stuck! I actually climbed "up" out of the cab onto ground level. With the winch dozer long gone, my only way out was to use my excavator. Believe it or not, after burying my front blade on the excavator into the ground for stability and having someone in the track loader just to keep the tracks turning once I started pulling, I was able to pull it out first try. It just took me 2 more hours cleaning up the track loader and and another 2 hours filling in the hole I left.

we had 4-6" of snow that drifted the road shut again after the plow went through.
it got replowed Sunday around 1.
I stayed inside and helped keep the 3 month old neice and her other aunt & uncle entertained.

Yeah, no pics.
I actually thought of them, but already was covered with mud up to my elbows, so I didn't even want to mess with the camera.

I saw the weather coming and went and dove into the PTO. Been off since last Thursday, the weather was maaaaaaauuuuurvelous!

Thursday - Had 25 ton of limestone delivered to the house for inventory, hauled limestone for 2 winter beaten driveways and upgraded the trailer lights.

Friday - Started with backhoe work looking for the water line to tie the garage into, found it, wasn't anywhere near the locater wire. I nicked it but not any thing more than what I was going to be doing to the line to make the tie in. Colt and I then went to visit a new gun shop in Punxy, stopped for a few beer and wing's at the Rayne Drop Inn. Hit Lowes for weekend work supplies and went home and mended the water line temporarily. (Ms. BD was getting home from a business trip so we had to have water ... )

Saturday - Two more paying customers for driveway limestone. Back to the hoe and dug the trench for the water line, tied the garage in, backfilled and set the PVC conduit for the water and power, slab to be poured TOMORROW (3/24).

Sunday - Day of rest (well some rest). Ms. BD and I went to a Sunday brunch, watched the start of the race and then got on the tractor. Put the forks on a moved some stuff around, tidied up the ditch one last time, and then commenced to marking receptacle locations in the garage, finished with a Strongbow.

Best 4 days in a row I've had in a lonnnngggggg time!

OhioTC18 said:

Two giant bags of cat litter later, maybe I'll try to scrub it up tomorrow, I'm tired

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I was taught a little handy trick for cleaning up oil spills on concrete floors by a old body man a few years ago and it works like nothing else. Pour the kitty little out over the spill, get yourself a 2x4 board around a foot long and then set the board ontop of the kitty litter. The next step is simple, act like you in the Karate Kid and do the "Wax on, Wax off" motion all around the oil. Just add more kitty litter if necessary. I wouldn't recommend doing this on a concrete surface that has a nice finish as it will scratch it, but smooth to rough surfaces it doesn just fine for.

Good tip Klumpe. Thanks. I'll have to remember that one. Oil has a way of getting on the driveway no matter what I do to prevent it. Changing oil in the Kubota this weekeend, so I might get to try the tip out soon.

Sounds good Dawg. So, are you getting enough work to pay for your toy (that beauty of a dump truck you have)? Wish you were closer ...I'd be buying a load or two from you. Or ..do you have FREE delivery?