Sunday, March 27, 2005

Further proving what an idiot I can be

I noticed back in the Fall that the Ferguson had a minor coolant leak. When I replaced the radiator last spring, I replaced the bottom hose but not the top one (I'd actually bought one, but it was, of course, the wrong size). Since the upper radiator hose was original equipment I assumed it had a pinhole in it and didn't think much about it since I wasn't using the tractor that much. I figured that, come Spring I'd take care of it when I do all mine little maintenance chores.

Well, I pulled the hood off Thursday evening to see where my leak was coming from and it wasn't the hose... The last time I had the hood off of it (last summer) I didn't pay any attention to what I was doing when I put the muffler back on. I put it on backwards, which over time wore two lovely 1/2 inch holes in the top of my-brand-new-shipped-all-the-way-from-Ireland-by-way-of-California radiator.

Waaaaaaay too beeg to use the wondrous JB weld on. I'm just glad the holes were in the top so bigger brother could braze it without me having to pull the damn thing. I hate pulling the radiator on that thing, it's a freaking nightmare. I think the engineer who designed it had issues... Like maybe his wife had ran off with a tractor mechanic.

But at least it is fixed now, without too much of a problem. Now if I can just get the Deutz to crank without rolling it down a steep hill...