Re: Feelin' pretty depressed...

Posted by paul on June 03, 2002 at 23:15:13 from (209.23.145.52):

In Reply to: Feelin' pretty depressed... posted by Homesteader on June 03, 2002 at 17:59:14:

Camshaft doesn't sound right. But some shaft
might be bungled up.

Would a story from my past cheer you up? I
farm for a living, small farm, but it's my living -
or lack of.

Several years ago I was combining - here in
Minnesota, you don't get a long time to do that,
with our short season & changing weather.
The combine started running very rough, I
pushed in the clutch & was just thinking of
what could be wrong, when I hear a
bone-jaring BAM! and everything was quiet
except for the combine thrashing cylinder
spinning down.... Oh boy. Just for fun I turned
the starter key - not a thing. Got down, looked
back at the engine - there was smoke coming
out of the hole in the oil pan.

We dropped the header off the combine,
pulled it home backwards, got it under a hoist
we have, pulled the engine off, put it on the
pickup & took it to the neighborhood
mechanic. (Most neighborhoods have one, if
they are good they don't advertise because
they get enough business they don't have to.
Ask around, you'll find one. Mine used to work
for the IH dealership until they quit, he took his
tools home & set up shop working on all
colors of ag equipment.) He said he can save
it. took the oil pan off, & lots of parts fell out.
Parts of rings, piston flakes, a few lobes from
the camshaft (cracked it at every bearing!).
Hummm, well it will be a job, but he can fix it,
cheaper than getting another. He pulled it all
aprt, & figured that a main bearing turned, cut
off oil to 3 pstions, and one rod let loose,
swung around & just HAMMERED everything.
Found out an oil channel got smashed in the
block, rebuilding that would have cost too
much. So, he got me a used running engine.
Got me back in the field in under 2 weeks.

So, whatever went wrong, it can be repaired.
Someone around you can do it. Or, with more
time, you can do it yourself. While it's always
depressing to have something big happen
like this, it won't be that bad. You'll do ok.

By the way, 20 years earlier dad had about the
same thing happen to his combine - a valve
broke, hammered itself through the pistion,
etc. He honed the cylinder, replaces the
mashed parts, & kept going. Used a lot more
oil after that. :)

--->Paul

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