Tractor Troubles

About 15 years ago I bought myself a little red tractor. I definitely needed it to make life a little easier on the homestead. Most hours have been spent plowing snow, and maintaining the dirt road that leads to the house, with quite a few dedicated to clearing and smoothing France Road (Plumas County responsibility). I have dug many hundreds of feet of trenches with the back hoe to bury water and electrical lines, and keep the area drained of moisture (wish we had a little more of that right now).

It has been a very dependable little machine, and has required only basic scheduled maintenance (oil changes, grease jobs, battery replacement, etc.). So when I began my project to replace the fence that runs parallel to old A 23 from our corral to the Grieves place, I fired up my little Massey Ferguson and started pulling fence posts. I knew it was a little over due for an oil change since we left in such a hurry to Spain last fall, so I was thinking about doing that as I dragged my scrapper along the fence line to clear the brush for the new posts.

That's when the trouble started. The machine seemed to bog down so I lifted the the scrapper (or thought I did) with the hydraulic control lever. Didn't make any difference. I looked back over my shoulder, and saw that the implement was still digging into the ground even though the handle was in the full up position. Uh oh! Sure enough, my lifter wasn't lifting...not a good thing.

I detached the scrapper from the tractor, and finished the day using the front loader bucket (which fortunately still worked) to finish the clearing job. I now had my first breakdown of this sweet little machine to deal with.

Lots of things have changed in the 15 years since I bought the tractor. Not the least of these is that the place I bought it from is out of business. All of the other places I called said they could not  work on a Massey Ferguson (one of the oldest tractor companies in America). Finally, one guy told me of a "Traveling Tractor mechanic" that would come out and take a look. His name is Tom, and he goes by Tommy. Got a nice ring to it doesn't it? "Tommy the Travelling Tractor mechanic!" It sounds like the main character in a children's book. Hmm, maybe I ought to write it?

I called Tommy, and he came out to have a look. I had him do a full service (all the fluids and filters) before we tackled the non-functioning "lifter upper". It was enjoyable working with him. We visited as I tore apart the pieces we needed off to remove the "lifter upper" cylinder and see if it was seized up. Finally, we got down to the part we needed to look at. It was not moving, and the diagnosis was it needed a new piston.

Tommy took the parts home, and went in search of new parts. After a few weeks, he was ready to come back and finish the job. We worked together re-installing the piston. It didn't take long. Time for the test!

I was pretty bummed when the "lifter upper" didn't lift it up! So, we back tracked each possible problem (like we had done on the first day). Everything was working. Finally, Tommy noticed that one of the hydraulic hose fittings had a small gap in it. He disconnected it, wiped it off and reconnected it. That did the trick!

Apparently, I had caught the connection on some brush and it had pulled apart slightly. I couldn't tell by looking at it, but it was disconnected. That was probably the problem the entire time!

So, that's how Tommy the Travelling Tractor Mechanic finally fixed my little red tractor. I didn't mind paying a little more for the repair. I got the machine serviced professionally, and learned a lot about how the thing works inside. All in all well worth the money!

Now, I'm ready for El Nino to bring on the snow!