Ed S. (IL)
11-03-2007 19:14:57
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Went out to pick corn today, and when I hit the starter button, the starter motor spun like crazy, but didn't engage the flywheel. Scratched my head a bit, tapped on the starter, and finally pulled it out. The pin that holds the bendix in place had worked out, and I almost lost the bendix into the bowels of the flywheel housing before finally extracting it safely. Pulled a pin from an old starter, and noticed that it was about 1/16" too long to fit down inside the large washer that was supposed to lock the pin in place. A few moments with the bench grinder corrected the problem, and after reassembling everything, the starter actually slipped right into place on the first try, and worked fine.
That problem solved, we hooked up the two-row New Idea picker and started picking corn. It's about all the little 8N can do to run it, but it was working more or less okay (plugging frequently, though - I think the N moves a bit too fast in 1st gear for the picker to keep up).
Got about halfway done, and glanced down at the oil and voltmeter, and the VM had pegged itself on the + side of the dial (was working fine when I started out, as I remember checking it). Figured I'd better check it out, and since the wagon was almost full anyway, I headed back to the barn.
The needle stayed pegged when I shut the engine off (switch off), and was still pegged even after removing the + cable to the battery. Based on this behaviour, I'm guessing the gauge is busted rather than some other problem. If it was a genny problem, the needle should have gone back to neutral when I shut down, right?
At any rate, that was my day on the N. We finished the day by eating some delicious cornbread that was made from leftover sweet corn I let dry on the stalk and then hand ground.
es
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