I got the engine part of the tractor finished today, I have it wired so I can start and stop it from the seat except the first cold start as I have not even looked at the choke, I am using what it has and likely will continue to do so as I have to lift the hood and turn on the fuel anyway, I have always turned off my fuel on my pressure washer engines because one time I found an empty tank when I knew it was not empty, it was in the crank case, I have turned it off since as the pressure washers bounce around a lot in the trailer.
I also figured out it was not charging, so I wired it so now it is charging, I have not really figured out what I wired wrong.
I likely will have to do other things but it starts and runs and I can move it, I also didn't change a thing on the engine, it can be removed and be put on a pressure washer, it had been sitting a few years and as time goes by it gets harder and harder to start, so now I can start it whenever I want and mow the lawn if I want to, well in the back as I cannot get it out front unless I move 2 vehicles.
Here it is, I will get better photos when it is outside one of these days.
You can barely see the hood bumper I made in the closed hood.
Here is the engine compartment.
Here is the guard I installed after a slight modification to clear the oil pump pedestal.
“The difference between genius and stupidly is that genius has its limits” Albert Einstein
I mowed my lawn and my neighbors lawn today, I was not very good at selecting the height and ate into the ground a few times, while he and I were talking about how it would be nice if I had some kind of gauge to control the height of the deck he grabbed this mechanism I had tried moving before without successes and moved it with 2 fingers, I looked at it, started the engine up and moved the deck up and down and this finger hit that mechanism, that thing was the height control, problem solved by the neighbor.
Here it is in the driveway, it's not the prettiest thing out there, but it will mow the lawn and move a vehicle around that doesn't run, I also have a trailer for it.
This is what controls the deck height when it is lowered, I tried once to move that thing with the spring but it would not move, he moved it with 2 fingers.
I could not get the blades to not turn when the engine was running, even though the drive was not engaged, it is likely a engine height issue, I have the engine mounted maybe an eighth inch too high, well I suppose I could lower it with a lot of effort, but there was a 1/4" hole in the deck so I dropped a long gutter nail thru the hole and now the blade on the right side rests against the nail and now none of the blades turn so that will work for me, remove the nail to mow stuff, maybe there is something on the tractor I have not seen yet that locks the blades, I will have to look closer when I get the chance, I am working tomorrow and it is supposed to rain, I don't want to lay in the mud, the nail works fine right now, it doesn't even effect the idle RPMs.
“The difference between genius and stupidly is that genius has its limits” Albert Einstein
I picked up some scrap wood from a building site less than a month ago, decided to make a couple saw horses this morning/afternoon, I made them fold-able for easier storage.
Today I went out and got the infrared thermometer out the the 521 kingcab and I am checking my temperature now(95 degrees) on my forehead in case I start feeling bad in the future so I have a number to start with while I am feeling good.
I really don't know how accurate this is but if I am running a fever it will likely be higher, my forehead averages around 95/96 degrees, the back of my throat is around 93 degrees, I thought it would be higher and my forehead would be lower.
“The difference between genius and stupidly is that genius has its limits” Albert Einstein
I had pneumonia last October, but I have concluded that was caused by breathing in fiberglass, I don't know this, but it is a good guess since I had cut that bed cover a week and a half before without wearing a mask(very stupid).
I went into a lot of places a couple days ago looking for TP, I finally found some at Winco, enough for a month, I have enough food here to likely make it a month, but the end of the month would be a lot of pasta and no fresh veggies, just frozen veggies.
The way I look at this is the more time that passes the more chance one has of getting it, I wrote this reply on Ratsun after Dmike said once you have had it you could not get it again.
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Wait a minute here, getting it more than once has not been figured out yet, that was on the news an hour ago, they also said they were not sure yet that a vaccine could even be made, it was also brought up that they still don't know if one can be a carrier for life like smallpox, but this was on the news, who knows what is true and what is not true.
They are not even sure if we(our own bodies) make antibodies for this virus yet, but again this was on the news.
“The difference between genius and stupidly is that genius has its limits” Albert Einstein
There's a lot of panic being "reported". Near as I can decipher, we're all likely to be exposed. Those with underlying conditions are most vulnerable. If you're in a higher risk group, limiting exposure is probably wise. Otherwise, life goes on.
When the only tool you have is a hammer every problem starts to look like a hippy.
I am not walking around obsessing I am going to get this Virus, I am not the type, what happens is going to happen, I am not going to stress myself out and make my immune system weaker, but I sure would like to be able to sleep like I did before I took that statin, I still am not back to normal sleep, my blood pressure is almost back to where it was before, not quite, but almost.
“The difference between genius and stupidly is that genius has its limits” Albert Einstein
I worked on the tractor again today, my issue was the lawn mower blades would not quit turning(half speed) and it annoyed me, it also made it hard to start the engine as the drag made it turn over too slow to start when cold, so I lowered the engine around a quarter inch which would be a half inch on the belts, it worked great, the blades do not turn anymore until I engage them with the lever like it was made to do, it is also a lot quieter.
“The difference between genius and stupidly is that genius has its limits” Albert Einstein
I have always needed saw horses, but I seemed to always use them for something permanent and then they eventually rot outside where I am using them, this set is going to be kept available so I don't have to bend over and work on the ground like I usually do, when cutting a 2X4 or pieces of metal I prop whatever needs cut on top of a 2X4 so the blade doesn't hit the ground, I am tired of being bent over to cut, measure, mark, but I suppose it is exercise doing squats all the time.
Yet again I had to adjust the grill/hood because I lowered the engine to keep the blades from turning when not engaged, every time I change something on the engine I have to adjust/change something else, I think I got the hood clearing again so it's not rattling, but the grill mounts are now touching the front engine sheet metal on the bottom, I don't expect it will hurt anything but I am trying to stop any rattling, it sounds so much better without them blades spinning underneath, they need to spin to mow the lawn, otherwise they don't need to move at all.
I worked at 4 different addresses today(small jobs), now nothing is scheduled till April 6th.
“The difference between genius and stupidly is that genius has its limits” Albert Einstein
There is no difference for me as I am semi retired, I cannot do big jobs anymore, it makes me sad when I see the work being done because I am unable to do it now, I have a regular customer that had his tile roof pressure washed just recently, I was over there cleaning the gutters out and replacing the broken tiles, he likely paid twice what I used to charge him and he got a shitty job, his neighbor next door wants his done but I am kinda scared to do them now.
The reason I am scared is because when I first got out of the hospital after my heart attack I was on pills that caused me a great amount of joint pain)right foot, both knees, both hip joints, right wrist, and my right shoulder, this went on for 10 months, then I quit taking one of the pills and I got dramatically better, I thought that pill was the one but it was not, I took the other pill for 3.5 years, when I quit taking that one I got better after a few months, but the problem is I slowly did less and less big jobs till a couple years ago I quit doing all tile roofs, so 2 years went by and I quit taking that other pill, well after I got better I tried working longer and could not as my joints cannot take it anymore, I appear to have permanent joint damage now, especially in my right foot and both knees, the reason I am scared is that when I am near the edge and adjust the wand to do the edges/ends of the tiles, there is a lot of sideways knee pressures, if my knee gives I could go to the ground, also the wand at pressure(3200psi) pushes me around, my balance used to be awesome, it's not so good anymore after not pressure washing roofs for so long, I am not strong as I used to be either, if I fall I likely will break something, or worse cripple myself and not die, it just is not worth taking the chance.
I tried teaching 3 different kids around 3 years ago to take over the tile roofs while I would be on the ground and do that part, well I guess I might start looking for someone again, since the economy just collapsed maybe I can find someone to take over that part of the business.
“The difference between genius and stupidly is that genius has its limits” Albert Einstein
I figure I will keep doing the little jobs till I cannot climb a ladder or get up on my feet and walk without pain, pain will likely determine when I retire unless something else happens before the pain.
Yesterday I replaced some tiles on one house, then I went to another house and cleaned out the gutters and treated one spot under a gutter that empties onto the lower roof, then I went to another house and lifted all the valley tiles(4 short valleys), cleaned out the flashing under the tiles and then put it all back together, then I cleaned out all the gutters, then I went to another house and inspected/looked at the moss issue on the roof, they had been treating the roof themselves and everything up there was dead, I cleaned their gutters out and was done for the day, I didn't really make much money, I was gone for maybe 4 hours total.
Here is a lifted valley that is cleaned out.
Here it is put back together.
Here is one I really tore apart in the past.
This is what happens underneath the tiles, fir needles and mud get backed up on the tiles sitting in the valley and when it rains the rain water gets diverted out of the flashing onto the felt paper, eventually the felt paper gets wet and dries out so may times that one day when it dries it shrinks and cracks and then rain water can get thru the crack and into the house and stain the walls and ceiling, or worse the ceiling falls down onto the floor if the leak was bad.
“The difference between genius and stupidly is that genius has its limits” Albert Einstein
I used to be able to do that kind of stuff all day, I roofed my own house 7 or 8 years ago, it took me 2 weeks and 2 days to tear it off, replace bad plywood and put the new roofing on a section at a time, it is documented in this thread, it was above 80 degrees most the time, above 90 degrees some of the time, I did all this with a plugged artery.
That first photo of that cleaned out valley is very interesting to me, how that design was legal/passed inspection is baffling, that house was built under fir trees, them valleys with the sticks sticking out into the flashing like that plugged up very fast and that house had leaking issues within the first 5 years.
In the second photo where the roof is put back together you can see I put valley flashing in the valley, this flashing is something I thought of, it stopped fir needles from getting underneath the flashing, it stopped rain water from getting under the flashing, the house quit leaking after I put that step flashing in, you can see the tips of the metal sticking out in the center of the valley just below the tiles on each layer/level/row of tiles.
Here is a photo of the flashing installed with a tile in position on one side, you can see how it works, I stopped a lot of leaks over the years with this flashing, it even worked as a temporary fix while raining so I didn't have to pull anything apart, I would just shove it under all the tiles in that valley and come back later when it was not raining and fix the issue.
“The difference between genius and stupidly is that genius has its limits” Albert Einstein
It's been my job for over 25 years, the reason them tiles are clean is because I pressure washed that roof, actually a cop lived in that house and when he found out I took photos he was very unhappy, but he sold it and moved out a long time ago, I worked there at least a couple more times for the next owners and it never leaked after that as far as I know, they did some real goofy stuff when they built that house, like retarded goofy, like having a dormer valley empty into a gutter that was under the roof tiles, really, I had to remove the roof tiles to clean out that gutter, it has to be one of the top 3 stupidest things I have ever seen done on purpose when putting a roof on a house, that house was built under fir trees.
“The difference between genius and stupidly is that genius has its limits” Albert Einstein
I was good at it and people paid me good money to do it, I get $70.00 an hour these days and I work when I want to.
This has all worked out great for me so far, I am semi retired and have enough regular customers left to pay my bills and have a little play money, the people I work for cannot do what i do so even though the economy has taken a dump they will still hire me because they cannot do it themselves.
We shall see how this virus thing all turns out, let us all hope we like what we see/what is left when it is over with.
“The difference between genius and stupidly is that genius has its limits” Albert Einstein
