The Plan...

Tonight (if I get time after getting this irritating work business out of the way) I shall fill the tractor up with water, and crank it up & see what happens.

First though I have to put some oil in the gearbox! I checked, and (I hope you're sitting down when you read this) there was absolutely none! I took the filler cap off, and looked inside... nothing! Then I made a paper dipstick about 30cm long, and put that in to see if I could find any oil in there, and... it came out dry. Whoops! It makes me sweat a bit now to think that we ran the engine a few weeks back.

I don't suppose... er.. that this could have done any harm, could it? I don't suppose that the tractor was ever really used with no oil in the gearbox; the previous owner is a pretty sensible chap.

Don, Brian: You're more than welcome.. but, you realise how dangerous it is to visit Finland? I mean, you do know that there's 'no escape' as the saying goes?? I'm a Brit, which I'm sure you realise. I came here for six months... er.. six years ago!

Cheers, and many many thanks again

J-P

OH yeah one other thing - how much oil to put in the air cleaner? Do I just make sure the wire mesh element is liberally coated (which is what I've done) or does there have to be oil in hte bottom of the 'can' too? Sorry for all these daft questions!

I just wanted you to know that detail John-Paul, keep us posted of your differential lube level and if and how fast the transmission fluid leaks into the differential housing.

I couldn't put any of 'the plan' into operation yesterday because my girlfriend was sick, which meant that I had to exercise the horse. Tonight we shear Harald and Hemingway (the Kainuu ewes, they look a lot like Shetlands) and at the weekend we have two crazy toddlers to look after, so I'm afraid it's likely to be next week before there's any more news about my transmission oil levels. I hope you can wait that long!

Cheers for now,
J-P

Just briefly... 1. How do I make sure the pto is disengaged? Handle forwards or backwards?

2. Is there any possibility at all that the vehicle could have a negative earth? I ask because the battery leads have the correct size terminals for negative earth (is the earth slightly fatter?), anyway the battery fits this way round, also the previous owner says that it is so, and that his Super Major also has the negative going to the chassis, also this is how we started it up! Having said that, my first ever job was driving an ERF 16 tonner that had a five-cylinder Gardner diesel in it which would run backwards after a fashion if you happened to stop cranking it at just the wrong moment. Entertaining to discover that you had ten reverse gears, and alarming to think about just how effective the oil pump was running backwards...

Cheers everyone and have a good weekend

J-P

PS Brian, as you're a Brit, did you ever notice any anachronistic ERF 'A' series wagons on the road during the mid 80's?

My brother drove ERF's with the Rolls - Royce diesel with air shift in the late 80s. Eight wheelers, Some machine. My memories is of the 1960's when a local coal merchant had a Foden with a horizontally opposed two-stroke, similar to a Commer TS3. Again an eight wheeler and with a full load of coal, when it pulled up a short hill away from the traffic lights in our town, the windows of our car showroom 50 yards away used to vibrate.

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Now I also remember that I have to dismantle the front mounted hydraulic system before I can run the engine again - there is no oil in that either and I don't want to destroy the pump. I have to get a film for my camera before I take that lot apart as I have promised Karl some photos.

Thanks, I will be careful!

J-P