Epos Triple Date Moon Phase Chronograph, Valjoux 7751 Movement, Minor Adjustment

I don't do much tinkering with watches anymore since I have Familial (or Essential) Tremor. As the name implies, it causes shaky hands and is passed down from parent to child. Lucky me. Anyway, this Epos watch was bought in 1999 (for a whopping sum at the time of $697) after we'd paid off our house loan. It was a time to celebrate and my wife and I each decided to splurge on something nice. This is what I chose to buy. It had been having minute-counter issues for a number of years. When the chronograph was started, the central seconds hand would go round-and-round as it should but the minute counter would haphazardly either count or not count up the minutes (and since the hour counter was tied to the minute counter, its movement was also intermittent).

I didn't wear the watch much lately because I'd gotten other nicer watches over the years but I pulled the Epos out a few days ago to wear it. That's when I decided to try and fix the problem. It is not a small task to delve into an automatic chronograph movement, and it is compounded immensely by both shaky hands and the fact that this chronograph is additionally complicated with a 24-hour pointer, triple-date (day/date/month) functions and moon phase. I'd watched several videos on YouTube prior to taking the plunge, so I figured I knew pretty much what the problem was and how deep into the watch's bowels I had to go.

Old Barracuda's Old Wiring Woes

I hopped in the '66 Barracuda Formula S at church one night in the dark after instrument practice and something strange happened. I turned on the headlights and very soon after I started driving, the dash lights went out and the under-dash "map" light came on. As an added bonus, the two C-pillar dome lights no longer worked, as I'd found out since I was fiddling with the headlight dimmer switch to try and get the map light to go off. Get this, all three map/dome lights are controlled by the headlight switch - it makes no sense why one light would be on steady and the other two won't turn on. I figured it wasn't a big deal to drive home with no dash lights, and they did actually come on (and the map light went out) about halfway home.

Everything's fine, right? Apparently not. When I got home my brother texted me and said he saw no taillights or brake lights when I drove away from church. Hmm. Well at least they probably came back on when the lights "fixed" themselves on the way home. So, today I started digging into the 58-year-old dash wiring (the car was built November 1965). I wasn't sure what would cause this issue, so I started at the headlight switch. The easiest way to get to it was to pull the instrument cluster. It's not a terrible job but it isn't trivial. The steering column also had to be lowered to get the dash out.

,,, And Then There Were Nine ...

It happened sooner than I expected. In fact, I hadn't expected this to happen at all. I brought home another tractor. And this one is a real doozie. It's a 1949 Ferguson TO-20. Rather than try to explain what I bought, here's a photo from the seller's ad on Craigslist. I know, it's a real peach.

1965 International 140 Industrial Tractor First Repairs

10/30/2023

As good as this tractor looks and runs, it still needs repairs right off the bat. Two issues that I found today are a non-operational hour meter and a broken seat track. The hour meter comes first.

1965 International 140 Industrial Tractor with a Model 1000 One-Arm Loader

How many days has it been since I lamented over buying yet another tractor? Um, thirty-three. Yep, I bought another tractor yesterday. Uh-huh. But I couldn't pass up this one. It was just too quirky. Here, have a look for yourself.

1951 Baird Beaver - New Front Tires and Implement Lift Repair

The front tires on this tractor are in sad shape. Holes in the sidewalls kept me from pumping them up very much. I ordered two new tri-rib tires off the net and today is the day to install them. With the wheels being a two piece design. I thought it would be a simple matter of removing the bolts, splitting the halves, and getting the new tires on. Nope. Firstly, the bolts fought me the whole way. One problem is, the head side of the bolts (screws?) have a slot for a screwdriver, so I couldn't use a wrench on that side. Secondly, the nuts were so tight on the threads that even with a vice-grip clamped to the screw heads I barely got the nuts off with an impact driver (I actually broke an adapter too). Once the bolts were removed and the old tires were off, I noticed both wheels had rust holes. Bummer.

1955 Ferguson TO-35 Hydraulic Pump Installation and Other Maintenance

I didn't end up disassembling the hydraulic pump like I'd planned. It didn't really seem to need it after looking things over. I cleaned up the outside, made sure the control valve was free, installed a new relief valve, then slapped it back in the tractor. Prior to doing that though, I got sick and didn't feel like doing much of anything. I did manage to install a choke knob.....

1951 Baird Beaver Garden Tractor

Joining a tractor club has its benefits. It also has a downside. Namely, tractor club members usually have excess tractors taking up space at their residences. To that end, I bought two tractors in two consecutive days, from two tractor club members. I've posted about the Ferguson TO-35 but not about my new 1951 Baird Beaver. Just look at this cute little thing. The funky piece of steel poking out the front of the tractor is for a blade, which unfortunately didn't come with the tractor.

1955 Ferguson TO-35 Hydraulic Pump Removal

Ok, it's not as bad as you might think. It took me less than two hours from start to finish. Rachel Gingell on Youtube has a video about taking the pump out of a Ferguson 35, and that is what I basically followed. This first photo is of the fairly unmolested tractor before its guts were yanked out...

1955 Ferguson TO-35 Comes To Life

Yes, the new tractor project lives. In the last entry I mentioned that the carburetor was not installed when I purchased the tractor. Not knowing its condition, I proceeded to take it apart. It was clean inside but some bits were not tight, so I just put the thing back together and tightened up anything that was loose, then installed it on the tractor. I didn't feel comfortable putting gas in the tank yet since it hadn't been cleaned, so I just squirted some gas into the carb inlet, hooked up a battery, and let 'er rip. Here's a video of the process:

What's This, Another Tractor? 1955 Ferguson TO-35

Yep, another tractor. So that makes how many? Six? I may have a problem.

Rummage Sale Finds - Three Multimeters, Triplett and Fluke

I ran across a church rummage sale a few days ago down in the Portland, OR area and spotted some old multimeters in the sea of stuff. A Triplett and two Flukes. I figured they wouldn't work but decided to get them anyway, just because they looked cool. This first photo is of the Triplett, a model 630-NA Type 4.

Dad's 1940's Stanley Bailey Type 17 No. 5 Hand Plane

I'm working on a slab of Maple for a project and I needed to plane some raised parts down. I grabbed my small Stanley plane that I got at a garage sale eons ago and went to town. Hmm, the cutting blade wouldn't adjust very well and chips weren't coming off nicely, so I took the plane apart and figured I'd put the plane parts together wrong in the distant past. The blade bevel should go down and I'd had it facing up, so I turned it around and put the plane back together. It worked much better now. But then that got me thinking of Dad's plane I inherited from him years ago. I wondered how old it might be, and how it might work on my project. It took me several minutes of hunting in the basement to find it, as I always use the cheapo garage sale plane. I'm not sure why I didn't use Dad's. I do remember using it when I was a kid and didn't own my own plane.

2007 Kubota BX24 Hydrostatic Drive Abrupt Stop in Reverse

Anyone who owns a BX24 (or the "50-series" like BX1850/2350) knows of the issue these tractors had new from the factory regarding the abrupt stop when letting up on the reverse pedal. Mine is no exception. Recently I decided to do more investigating to see if anyone has come up with a solution, as Kubota never did issue a recall. I ran across a guy's posting on the internet that showed that he extended the lever arm that the damping gas strut acts on, which he said did solve the problem. I decided to give it a try. This first photo shows the original arrangement, with the gas strut attaching point being on the rod that runs back to the transmission from the foot pedal.

1950 Briggs and Stratton Model 23 9hp Engine from an AgriCat

I went to a garage sale and saw this engine sitting there with a $25 "as-is" price tag on it. Hmm, I can't pass that up now can I. So home it came. The guy selling it said he had the piece of equipment it came out of, an AgriCat mini dozer (the Briggs being replaced with a modern engine). He said this Briggs probably still ran  Uh-huh, sure. At least the crankshaft turned over and the engine had compression. What I don't understand is why he would sell the original engine out of a 1950 AgriCat. I'm not complaining by any means, it just doesn't make sense to me.

1986 John Deere 650 Tractor - More Repairs and Updates

A tractor like this that's seen more than its fair share of use and abuse, it's no wonder that there is never a shortage of things to do on it. Take the front loader bucket, for instance. Both sides are bent in at the leading edge. I'm not really sure how that happened but they are needing some help. More precisely, help from an 18" pipe wrench. This first photo is of the right side of the bucket.

1986 John Deere 650 Tractor Repairs and Updates

The engine has been difficult to start after the rebuild (same situation as before the rebuild), and was particularly difficult after the engine had been running for a while. Sometimes it had to set a spell before it decided to start again. I figured the best place to focus on first was injector pump timing. This timing evolution is sometimes called a "spill test". The instructions say to undo the injector lines at the pump, then pull out a "delivery valve" on injector pump #1 outlet, then install a suitable piece of tubing on top of the outlet. At certain points of crankshaft rotation, fuel will flow freely out of the tube since the delivery valve is removed, then at some point of crank rotation the flow will stop. This point is called "beginning of injection". That point should put a timing mark on the crankshaft pulley in line with the timing pointer.

1986 John Deere 650 Tractor Reassembly

I'd been waiting a week to get a new pressure plate delivered but it has now arrived. New pressure plate, you ask? Well, yes, the old one is broken and the broken bits are the reason the clutch wouldn't completely release when I first got the tractor home, thus grinding gears when shifting into gear. In the first photo below, the two metal tabs are 2/3 of what is supposed to pull the pressure plate away from the clutch disc when the clutch pedal is pressed down. Without those two tabs, the pressure plate stays somewhat engaged with the clutch disc. So, I had to order a new pressure plate. I didn't realize the broken status until I was installing the clutch and pressure plate onto the rebuilt engine, at which time I noticed something wasn't quite right. This little detour did save me money though, because if I'd purchased the pressure plate from the company I bought the engine gasket kit and parts from, it would have been about $40 more than the $60 I paid for the one I got off eBay.

1986 John Deere 650 Tractor - New Loader Mounting Pins

Here's a quick post about the pins I made for the loader. I had to drill out the old pins, as they were purt-near welded in place, it seemed. I found a two-foot chunk of 1-1/4" diameter round bar in the basement that I cut two 7-1/2" chunks from.

1940s Homemade Garden Tractor Gets an Engine and Clutch

I've been busy working on the John Deere 650 lately so I haven't posted much on this homemade tractor. As I'd mentioned previously, I crudely mounted a 1947 Onan BH twin cylinder engine. Since then I permanently attached the engine and made a belt tensioning clutch assembly and belt guard. This first photo is with a trial belt that is too long.

1986 John Deere 650 Tractor Engine Reassembly

Parts for my engine rebuild came in so it's now a simple matter of putting everything back together, right? First up was to press the new main bearings into the engine block. The front bearing presses directly into the block and the back bearing presses into a flanged casting that then bolts to the back of the block after the crankshaft is installed through the rear of the block. There is a funky center bearing on the crankshaft that is held in place by a large circular split casting. The crankshaft is installed into the block, then the center split casting is bolted to the block with one bolt. The rear bearing and seal flange is then bolted to the block. Here's a photo of the flange when I was removing the bearing:

1986 John Deere 650 Tractor Engine Disassembly

This is a Yanmar 2T80UJ two-cylinder diesel engine. Yanmar made the engine (and the tractor) to JD specifications, and I understand it's not identical to any Yanmar-branded engine. Fortunately there are still some aftermarket parts available for these things.

The first step in this engine's disassembly process was to get the engine moved from the motorcycle jack to the engine stand. I took the plastic fan off first, as it already had chunks missing and I didn't want to cause any further damage. I then took the engine stand's main bracket (the black thing that bolts to the engine) off the stand (the red thing) and bolted the bracket onto the back of the engine, then jacked the MC jack all the way up to get the engine as close to the height of the engine stand as possible. I put a blanket over the engine so I didn't get covered in oil when giving it a bear hug to move it, then manhandled the engine from the jack to the stand, fitting the bracket's rear stub pipe into the pipe of the stand. It's one heavy little engine, let me tell you. I'm guessing 200+ pounds. And you may be wondering why I didn't use the engine hoist? It's got the loader hanging from it.

1986 John Deere 650 Tractor Engine Removal

With the loader out of the way, I moved forward with taking out the engine. The first step in engine removal is to remove the front frame and axle. Of course it is. Ok, so the reason is because the engine block is an integral part of the tractor frame. The front frame bolts directly to the engine block, and the engine block is bolted to the clutch housing.

To get the frame disconnected, I first needed to remove the rear support for the loader (another "of course"). The steering arm drag link needed to come free of the front steering knuckle, and wiring for lights (of which there currently aren't any) also needed to be fished out, then seven bolts are removed. I supported the rear half of the tractor with a jack stand, then used a floor jack to balance the front end and roll it away.

1986 John Deere 650 Tractor Front Loader Removal - 10-hour Job

Yes, I caved and decided to remove the loader (like the service manual says to do, and frankly is required since the front axle and frame come off for engine removal) before going further on engine removal. Removing a loader isn't usually something worthy of writing a blog posting about. It's usually a fairly simple task of removing four pins, unhooking four hydraulic lines, and hoisting the loader off with an engine hoist or something similar. My tractor unfortunately is not simple. Nope. Removing this loader is about as far from simple as you can get without falling off the edge of the earth. The reason? Someone must have lost the two rear bottom pins and decided to make some. Problem was, the pins were made too large for the bushing bores and Big Bubba knocked them in with a 12-pound sledge hammer, I'm guessing. This first photo below is one of the pins. After about an hour of trying to beat one of them out with a 3lb sledge hammer, judicious application of heat from an acetylene torch, and an 18-inch pipe wrench with 2-foot pipe on the end (and getting absolutely nowhere), I decided something drastic was necessary.

1986 John Deere 650 Tractor Miscellaneous Repairs and Clutch Issues

Getting a tractor this old that has a modicum of electrical and electronic paraphernalia, it's bound to have been tampered with in the past. This tractor is the epitome of being tampered with. But I digress. The first order of business was to see if a new tachometer drive cable would get the tach working again. No telling how long it's been stuck at 4,906.3 hours. As you can see in the photo, the tach is now working. Not too sure about the hour meter yet.

1986 John Deere 650 Tractor Transmission Repairs

I got this tractor kind of in pieces. The front and back halves of the tractor were bolted together when I bought it but that was only to help with moving it around. The tractor had to be split apart to put the transmission back together after someone had pulled it apart and abandoned it. This first photo is the tractor shored up in preparation for the split. I figured the front half was rear-heavy but I put the ladder and blocking there just in case I was wrong. Turns out I was correct, it was heavier to the rear of the front axle.

1986 John Deere 650 Tractor 4WD Splined Shaft Repair

Yesterday I decided to try and fix the broken front drive splined shaft on the JD 650. These first two photos show the before and after condition of the shaft.

1986 John Deere Model 650 Diesel Tractor

Yeah, yeah, I just recently brought home the little bitty homemade tractor, but for some odd reason I couldn't pass this one up. It's part of my affliction of browsing the local online sale venues. This tractor is in need of a bit of work (no, really?), just the way I like them. It's a 1986 John Deere 650 tractor with a two-cylinder diesel engine and front end loader. It's got quite an impressive list of things going on: diesel engine, model 67 front loader, 4-wheel-drive, rear differential lock, 4-speed transmission with hi-lo auxiliary transmission (giving 8 forward speeds and two reverse), power steering, 3-point hitch, PTO. As the below photo shows (kinda), it's not currently running, so the previous owner is pulling it onto my trailer with his tired mini excavator.

1940s Homemade Garden Tractor

This little guy followed me home a few weeks ago. It was advertised in the local Craigslist as Yard Art (!). Well, I suppose it is pretty far gone, but that's not going to deter me from trying to get it going. This first photo below shows it in its natural habitat, waiting patiently for someone to come along and give it a little TLC. The lady who owned it said her late husband (Ron) built it on the farm in the Key Peninsula area of Pierce county.

More Wood Turning on the New HF Lathe

So far I'm putting the new/old wood lathe to good use. Ok, maybe not "good" use but it is getting used. I've had the lathe for almost a month. I've made three bowls, a candle holder, a dried flower holder, and two pens. This first photo is the latest, a candle holder. Next to it is a fused glass piece my wife made in her studio.

My First Woodturning Pen Project on the HF Lathe

New tools in the basement usually require new accessories. My new/old Harbor Freight wood lathe is no exception. Just setting up for pen turning required $56 worth of stuff: metric drill bits (yes, I've gone 60+ years without a set of metric drill bits), pen mill barrel trimmer, cyanoacrylate (CA) glue (so-called super glue), and glue activator. And then there's the pen kit. That was another $22 but I opted for a better quality pen.

Central Machinery (Harbor Freight) Wood Lathe - Making a Spindle Handwheel

I noticed folks online talking about these Harbor Freight lathes not coming with a handwheel on the left side of the headstock spindle. They'd mention that the Jet JWL-1236 lathe had an available handwheel that might fit this HF lathe. After more searching, I did find in one case someone took the chance and actually did buy a Jet handwheel to see if it would work on their HF lathe, which it did. That was back when the handwheels were $33 shipped. Today (2023) that same handwheel is somewhere around $90 to $140, if you can find one. That price is out of the realm of most people buying one just to "see if it fits". Fortunately someone did the legwork back when they were cheaper. This first photo is a stock photo of the Jet handwheel that I grabbed off the net.

Central Machinery (Harbor Freight) Wood Lathe T34706

Yes, I just got done saying in the last blog that I was keeping the ShopSmith wood lathe. Then this shows up in my basement.....

Shopsmith Model 10E Lathe/Tablesaw/Horizontal Borer/Drill Press/Disc Sander 5-in-1 Multi-tool

I purchased this Shopsmith (abbreviated SS) in January of 2020 but I am just now getting around to putting it on my blog. It is in very nice condition and appears to still be wearing its original paint. The motor is a different color but these early machines didn't come standard with a motor. It is an AO Smith motor, which seems to be what most of these older Shopsmiths are outfitted with. The base is a heavy, home-made wood affair with small steel casters. The SS didn't come with a base from the factory, so the new owner would have to make their own.

Pulsar Inverter Generator Hard Starting When Cold

Here's a quick little entry. I picked up this 2kw inverter generator a year ago for a screaming good deal, $279 plus tax and free shipping, from Home Depot. It's a great running generator once I get it started when cold. If it's a cold start though, look out. Get ready for 15 to 30 pulls of the cord before it springs to life. I thought that maybe there's some simple thing that is amiss, and I wondered if the twist knob that actuates the off/run/choke settings is maybe not fully closing the choke. So, off to the great YouTube to see if anyone else might be suffering this same malady. Lo and behold, there was.

More 1966 Barracuda Post-Paint Reassembly

No, I still haven't gotten around to repairing and painting the trunk lid. Maybe soon... This blog post is to document a few things I did at the end of 2022 and up to now.

First up is a repair of a door armrest. The metal where a sheet metal screw threaded into had rusted away, so I very carefully welded in a piece of metal, being careful to not burn up the 56-year-old foam rubber.

2007 Kubota BX24 Little Surprise and Fuel Filter Replacement

A neighbor needed my help with my tractor a couple of weeks ago so I started it up and began the drive. I got 20 feet and the tractor basically died. Hmm, that's never happened before. It was about 30 degrees outside so I wondered if water was in the fuel lines. I first climbed under the tractor to see if the electric fuel pump was working ok. It seemed a little sluggish, so I popped a fuel line off the outlet of the pump and fuel pumped out fine. Next step was to check the fuel filter on the engine. That was an ordeal. In order to get pliers onto the spring clamps on the hoses, the front cowling had to come off. In order to remove the cowling, the hood had to come off. Why, Kubota? Just why? Anyway, after excavating the fuel filter, I pulled the inlet line off and turned the key on to start the pump. Here's what came out:

2007 Kubota BX24 Plastic Hood And Cowling Crack Repair Using Hot Staple Welding

My Kubota hood was cracked when I bought the tractor in 2017. I finally decided to do something about it and bought a $24 kit on Amazon to do hot staple welding. Below is a photo of the cracked area. It is at the hood latch. Maybe something dropped on the hood and cracked it, who knows.