How'd it go today?

Worked on my barn project today. Got a call from a friend who needed help with a clutchectomy on an old MM loader tractor. Looks like they built the tractor, then just started bolting bits of loader on wherever they could. Not a very serviceable arrangement. Just got home 15 minutes ago. 23000 posts, that's one helluva thread!
 
That Toyota van is gonna be the death of me, if the wife doesn't get me first!
She went out Saturday to go to the store, it wouldn't start. I went out, played with the key, door lock and gas pedal, got it to start. Then it wouldn't restart. Cracked the fuel line, no pressure, cranked it over, plenty of fuel and it ran like a champ until tonight.
She calls, it wont start again. "It's trying but wont crank over!" I attempted to ask if the engine was cranking and she told me she was getting a jump start from security.
I took Bubba to the grandparents and headed up to see WTF was going on. On the way, I picked up a can of "heat" and a new battery (she said she needed a jump start!)
I picked the wife up and we got to the van, I put the "heat" in the tank, wait a bit, then try to crank it over. Damn things spins over like a hamster on crack! But wont start. I hold the gas pedal to the floor, lights right off and acts like it's flooded, again, then clears up.
Back to the truck, I tell the wife to go pick up the boy and not shut it off until she gets home, I'll follow her to the gas station and see her at home, the low fuel light came on on the way to her.
WELL, she decided she needed to catalog the damn receipt for the new battery I bought, imagine my surprise when I can't FIND IT at the auto parts store!
Back home, wait, wait, wait, call the grandparents "she just left" finally she gets home, off I go to take the damn battery back to where I just came from! Women, I tell you!
So now, in the middle of the damn storm tomorrow, she's taking the day off and it's going to the shop! I've heard anything from the fuel pump to the coolant sensor, and I've no idea where to even start, and I'm DAMN sure not going to be doing it in 16deg and dropping temps, with 30-40mph winds in snow/sleet/rain or who knows what else may come down!
I guess I'm getting soft!
 
IF, IF, it were labeled, I'd replace it, BUT IT'S NOT! Then, why does the damn thing run like a scalded ape at 75mph down the highway?
And still no check engine light! I assure you, I've picked a LOT of brains the last couple days, it's going to one of them's shop!
 
Sorry, I guess you need to understand a bit, I'm a decent wrench, but the guys I know and call on, are certifiable genesis! One that I can pinpoint is Daryl Futhey (about half way down the page), he won the 2007 Ford nationwide diagnostics challenge. Another is the ONLY certified Viper tech in KS. Another worked for Saturn when they first started, he had a "ghost car", worked on the damn thing for two months! At one point he had 11 multimeter's hooked up to the car trying to figure out the short in the wiring harness. It got to where Saturn bought the car back, sent it to the engineers and they crushed it because even they couldn't figure out why the fuel pump would die when it felt the need!
Yet another, has gotten so advanced by Kenworth on the new line of school buses, Kenworth calls him to ask what he thinks might be wrong!
Then I can get into the guys I know with heavy equipment, but that gets flat scary:lol:
Sorry, I just found it odd, for all the guys that can rattle off about any fix in a matter of seconds, to be stumped! This is the crew that when my sister called crying about needing a starter for her late '90's Caddilac, which her BIL gladly priced out for over $500, and he's ASE Master tech, mind you. Told me that in those years Caddy used piss poor contacts on the relays, to save a buck (like the aluminum wiring) and to replace them. Whola! $32 in relays, fixed!
 
Skwerl said:
You can only get lucky so many times.
Click to expand...
That was prophetic, Brian!

We had a storm last night, knocked a few trees over, not too bad, but it was still gusting real bad today.
A wiser bunch of people would have stayed out of the woods, but we are running behind scedule on our contract.

Around noon I had a big beech that had been left over last time the area was logged. Had to go crosswise to the wind.
Instead of doing the smart thing and leaving it for a calm day, I went ahead and cut it.

Mistake!

A big gust of wind ripped it right off the stump, 90 degrees sideways to the face.

I had to make a fast decision as to whether my 3 months old 660 or my life was worth more to me.

But the tree jumped right over the saw, didn't touch it at all.

But fell across an ancient stone fence and into a field.

I'm gonna have to sweet talk the forwarder operator to help me clear it away.

That sure ruined the day.

I'll bring my camera out tomorrow, get some pics for y'all to laugh at:(
 
It survived.
It is not a fancy fence, but just stones piled on top of each other. All the forests belonging to the king ( later to the state) used to be fenced like that to keep livestock out.
In the state forests they care a lot about those fences, which is why I can't just have the skidder pull the tree back into the forest.
 
I'm glad both you and your 660 made it out ok. I won't laugh, but I think this may affect the betting odds when you and Erik meet up for a log-off. :/:
 
Yes, as for the odds it would have behooved me to keep mum about this.
But when one posts pictures when things go well, it needs something like this to balance things out.

Nope, no slowmotion feeling. It went REAL fast once that wind hit it, just pinched the saw and went over sideways. I tried pulling the saw out, but had to give up or get hit.

The amazing thing is that it went over the side where the saw was stuck and actually jumped over the saw.
I was completely sure that the saw was lost.

The two other guys had been smart enough to only fell trees that were going with the wind and setting backstraps.

The damned thing is, it is going to be quite a while before the forwarder comes up that way, so that tree'll be laughing at me every time I go by and see it sticking out in the field.:lol:
 
sorry to hear you'll be getting laughed at by the tree for a while yet stig. Glad you and the saw are both ok. We are never too old or good to learn eh?

(i'm thinking Eric now......hmmm...)
 
Damn van stumped the mechanics today, made me feel a little better! They even got it to act up, not something that is easy, cars never act up around mechanics! Fuel pressure is right, coolant sensors were within 4deg of outside air temp, they did a map of it on the Snap-on Modus, nothing. Only code in the system was one O2 sensor read odd ONCE, could have been run through a pile of snow, who knows.
They told me a tune up might help, "OK, I'll do that later this week when it warms up." They laughed at me. You have to take the whole front cowl off and remove the upper intake manifold to do this! "Andy, I know you can do it, but I don't think your back can!" $340 for a damn tune up! They just seem to get off on making it impossible to work on anything anymore!
 
long long day today, contract climbing ABC tree and stump, just dont get how folks can make money when they hand load brush then hand unload it, when they have a chipper to boot:|: One more day of this tommorow, a split leader pine that will get a few binders on the way up.
spring has sprung peaches blossomed almost overnight now they get to freeze over the next ccouple nights.
 
You have peaches this far south?

And I hear you on the subcontracting. Half the guys I sub for are broke, have always been broke and will continue to always be broke. This afternoon I had an entire crew (5 guys) stop loading brush into a pickup bed to come gawk at my saws when I pulled out the 395 to drop a spar.

Anyway, in the spirit of the thread I had two easy jobs today. First was picking moss out of half of an old live oak (property line tree). Then while eating lunch I got another call to cut down an oak that was too rotten to climb. both jobs took about an hour and a half each with maybe an hour drive time total for the day.

My friend Mike got on a plane to head home to Ohio this afternoon for a funeral. His brother in law died a couple days ago from a brain hemorrhage. He slipped and cracked his head on some icy stairs last week and hurt himself worse than he thought, three days later he died from internal bleeding.
 
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