On Sat, 9 Jan 2010 10:34:14 -0500, "Karl Townsend"
wrote:


By the end of that spring, I could do short blocks or swap transmissions
in about 1/2 hour. Total time from putting it on the bench to test
running the repaired machine.

Sadly, I can do a clutch replacement in a Ford tractor with the same speed.
I can even lay out all the wrenches I need in the correct order. No small
job, this involves splitting the tractor. Poorly designed PTO clutch in an
application that stresses the s#$t out of it. And I got four Ford tractors


Hey Karl - When you get *that* good at doing the repair, it's time
for you to stop tilting at windmills and make some wholesale changes.

That's the time I would get frustrated, call the local Case or John
Deere dealer and see if they did it any better. See about trading in
one of the old Ford tractors, where someone who only plans to pull a
gang-mower and not pound on the PTO can get a lot more use out of it.

Me, when they changed to the new emissions gas with the MTBE and
Acetone and other mystery chemistry added, and that blew through the
old diaphragm material in a few weeks... I got my Corvair Fuel Pump
swaps down to five minutes (and always on the way in to work, never on
the way home...)

Then I finally got smart and installed an electric fuel pump,
bypassed the factory mechanical pump... Problem solved.

(NOW they make the diaphragm sheeting for the fuel pump kits with
the proper modern rubber blends that will hold up to the fuel. Where
the heck were they in the 1980's?)

-- Bruce --