The Projects Never End

[Toolslinger]

New rope finally.

Should have really inspected the wedge beforehand. The socket and wedge are ok if old/rusty, but the pin end it beat bad... New one on the way, but this one will do for finishing up, and keeping some weight on the line to keep things straight in the myriad of sheaves.

New wedge is going to screw up my overhaul weight. This one is cast to fit over the existing, and that isn't going to work with the new style Crosby sells where the clamp runs through the wedge. Will have to come up with a below wedge ball or some such.

Still need to do the rotation cable, and the equalizer, but the lift rope was the one that wouldn't let me consider using the unit.

Clam is right about 2000#. Book tells me to put some weight on the system after new cable, before putting it in service... Left that hanging for a few hours.

I have to say that getting inside that gantry to rethread the rope is less than pleasant. I'm no bigger than I was 20 or 30 years ago, but the flexibility ain't the same. Glad that's done.

The upper power plant has been a bit cranky. I don't blame it, since I've been neglecting the project for some time. It's actually a Ford 223. All my paperwork indicates 240's, and I never actually looked until the heater delete plugs started leaking, and led to doing all the coolant lines. Seems to possibly have a fuel pickup issue in the tank too. Shut down with no fuel in the filter when there was a bunch in the tank. Guess it could be a weak pump, but will have to keep an eye on it. Have a pump, but don't want to mess with it if not needed. Put 5 gal in the tank, and didn't have any issues getting fuel. Guess it could be a collapsing line too, I would say that's due for replacement too.

Can't get the truck to fire off... Fires on ether, so compression, and ignition are workable. Knew the carb needed work before, so ordered the rebuild kit, and I'll start there. I desperately hope it ain't the pump, because while I can see it, I can't figure out quite how to get to it. No access from the top without taking the PS system apart, and from below, likely the oil filter housing would have to come off first. Truck is a 361. While I was under the hood and covered with coolant anyhow from the upper, I bypassed the heater core that drips, and got rid of a coolant line that was sitting on top of the air compressor trying to melt...

I'm pleasantly surprised that the bypass on hydraulics has calmed down. Guess things needed a little exercise to lube seals, and moving parts. It's not perfect, but way better than a few years ago when I last played with it.

Also managed to get a line on a jib... Do I need another 20'? No, not a chance. I do like to have options though, of course. It's the same guy I got the crane from... Guess he forgot he had it until now... Waiting to hear back. Guessing it will be a bear to mount if needed, but that's why I have loaders... That would put the total at 55' of stick. Chart falls way off with the jib, but that's ok. The only thing I could imagine it doing for me is give me radius to drop some light equipment across my stream/pond. Can't get a generator or such over there easily. It's got 500# at 55' radius which certainly covers my 100# generator.

This is leading up to repairing my deck... I want to pull off the drawbridges, since they're not rotted due to getting to dry out up in the air. Plan is to unbolt it, lift it off whole, rebuild the structural underneath, and then swing it back up in place. This sits around 10' above the ground on piers. These are the problem one lives with when a bit of a crazy engineer built the house... The whole deck is redwood, so not rebuilding the drawbridges is a significant amount of money saved. More than enough to offset having to replace the cable on the crane and do some mechanical troubleshooting, or honestly, buying the crane in the first place....

[sdunt]

I'll throw one in there that turned out to be a nice little project. We have a small old farm barn on the property and getting anything up into the "haymow" is a PITA for my 64 year old back. Or should that be PITB ??

I finally figured out that if I got a hold of a "cordless" winch - hoist I could pull things up to the upper level with ease. After some Facebook marketplace surfing I picked this up from a guy for $25, which made the project inexpensive to accomplish.

I had previously had to remove the trolley track and trolley when we jacked the roof up and trussed it up, so I reinstalled the old track and trolley below the trusses and attached my "cordless hoist" to the trolley.

This is a 1 ton rated unit (the trolley and track might handle 200 - 300 pounds) so this is more to move bulky stuff, Not going to be lifting any tractors with this.. This particular used chain hoist already had control chains and a lift chain on it that are long enough to allow me to operate it while standing on the 1st floor of the barn. (most new ones I saw for $$$ only had 8 foot control chains, this units about twice that long.)

The son and I are working on storing our various CCI tractor parts in the haymow so we can see our "inventory" and find stuff.

[Toolslinger]

It would very nice if my barn still had the track for the hay fork. Getting things in and out of the lofts is always a pain. A track, and chain fall would be a massive improvement in convenience, and safety...

[Toolslinger]

The 750 continues to elude me...
Rebuilt the carb. That's a complex assembly. The carb proper isn't horrible, but there's bonus parts on this one like a governor on one side, and I'm not sure what on the other... Regardless, I was able to do almost all of it. Couldn't get the choke plate mounting screws off, so couldn't do the shaft seals. Not really a big issue. It could stand some replacement parts in the linkages... The accelerator pump linkage is seriously sloppy... It'll be fine for my application, but I expect it would be a pain to get it all running smoothly.

All that said, I was pretty sure the carb wasn't the issue as soon as I opened it up. Everything was bone dry. Dusty, filthy, and needed a cleaning for sure, but it hadn't seen a drop of fuel in a while.

Well the there isn't much else... I got under there, and amazingly managed to get the fuel filter bowl to come off, and changed the filter. There was a little fuel in the bowl, and the filter was well past its prime, so I was hopeful. I even ran the crane engine to make sure there was fuel up in the line out of the tank. No luck starting, and no fuel in the carb. So it's either the pump, or fuel line. This all happened Friday. Friday afternoon, I ordered a new pump. Saturday was a rain washout again... But the pump came in, so perhaps I will be able to work on it again today...

[Toolslinger]

Well, I had the time, and it dried out enough. Managed to pull the original pump. It may well be the original as it's still a bolt together housing. I then managed to get the replacement mounted (and that took over an hour, in a really uncomfortable position). It was then that I discovered I had messed up the in and out fittings... There was no way I was taking that pump off again, so I swapped the fittings in place. After that, it wasn't too bad getting the 2 lines put back.

Skys were getting kinda dark cloudy, temp was dropping, and the wind was picking up...

Cranked it for 20 seconds, and nothing. Not shocking yet... Another 20 seconds, and nothing... Starting to worry. Once more, and I heard a pop... Feeling a lot better, 'cause that means fuel!... Once more and it fired off. Didn't want to stay running, but it would run for a few seconds playing with the choke...

Decided that was enough. Don't push my luck. I've got fuel again, and fire... So now it should just be a matter of getting the carb set better. The fuel is old at this point, so it doesn't shock me it isn't thrilled, but the upper 223 runs ok on it, so the 361 should, even if it isn't perfect...

Calling it a win for the day. Probably try again tomorrow to see if I can get it to run...

[Toolslinger]

Well I tried the next day.
It fired up with choke. It requires almost full choke to run. So I started looking for vacuum leaks.

I didn't find anything, and what's weirder, is I pulled the PCV valve, and someone has completely plugged it, so it ought to be running rich, not lean. It's gotta be getting air in somewhere. Sprayed carb cleaner around the unit, and didn't note a change to indicate a leaking gasket someplace.

All that said, I have never had this engine run without lots of choke. So it's not like there's been a change. While I will pick at it a little when I can, the goal was to get it running so I can move the crane to where I need it. So mission accomplished as far as that goes. I am not going to mess with it much beyond diagnosis so I don't screw it up enough not to run...

In unrelated antique truck news... I managed to adapt a current production 6v blower motor to work in the Diamond T's heater unit. While I don't think I'll be running around in the cold, that box also provides defogging, and that I absolutly need based on memory. Small cab seems to equal foggy windshield if the windows are closed. The heater core is at a shop for recoreing. It's all bypassed currently, but should be a pretty simple reinstall when it comes back.

[DavidBarkey]

@Toolslinger Does that thing have a vacuum booster or vacuum wipers????

[JSinMO]

@Toolslinger Does that thing have a vacuum booster or vacuum wipers????

That’s a good thought. I bet it has a hydrovac brake booster under the cab. A stuck check valve would sure do it.

My first thought was maybe it’s not getting enough fuel. I’m wondering if a fuel line is partially blocked.

[DavidBarkey]

@Toolslinger Does that thing have a vacuum booster or vacuum wipers????

That’s a good thought. I bet it has a hydrovac brake booster under the cab. A stuck check valve would sure do it.

My first thought was maybe it’s not getting enough fuel. I’m wondering if a fuel line is partially blocked.

Pull and block the booster port and see what happens.

[Toolslinger]

Good thoughts on the booster, but nope. It's got air brakes, and air wipers, both of which leak, but not enough to be a problem creaping around the farm.

Fuel quality is for sure on the table. It's old fuel at this point. Probably 15 or 20 gal still in the tank, and that's from a few years ago, other than 5 I put in this year. The crane's 223 runs it ok, so I'd think the 361 would do ok as well, but that's assuming they're both in the same condition. (other than dirty, and old)

Most of the fuel lines are steel. I haven't traced all the way from the tank to the fuel pump, but it leaves the tank in steel, runs to a tee in the frame to split to the crane, and at some point it goes to a soft line that supplies the 361's fuel pump. It's all thread fittings, or I would have changed the soft section, because it feels really soft at this point (as does the crane's fuel line). I have to see what fitting I need back at the tee to go to all barbed, or I have to come up with the correct crimped hose. The carb is filling to the right level, so I'm less concerned about this though.

I guess it wouldn't hurt to siphon off the fuel, and burn that up in the 8N cutting the fields. Fresh go juice would at least eliminate that question, and I'm going to chew up the fuel either way. Doing a basic ignition tuneup probably wouldn't hurt either to give me a little info about cylinder conditions. I've read some less than pleasant posts elsewhere about changing plugs on this particular engine... It wouldn't help me at all to go and snap off a plug.