Ups & Downs of Old Technology

[Achto 27,792]

Last night I was plowing snow with my C-145. 25 degrees out, was dressed warm, had my heated gloves on and a smile on my face. Life was pretty good !! Then all of a sudden the engine stalled just like I had turned off the key. . Pushed the old girl in the shop for some diagnostics. Found that I had no spark. Multi meter showed that I was getting "+" power to the coil but no "-".

 

Down side - points were not making a good contact.

 

Up side - No need to buy a new solid state coil, or a new CDI box. Nor did I have to wait for said parts to arrive or wait till morning to take a drive to get new parts. Instead a quick cleaning of the points with some 1200 grit sand paper and I was back in business. $0 repair and only 15min down time. 

 

 

 

Edited 12 hours ago by Achto

[953 nut 55,815]

Old technology is the best if you have a person with an old soul around to make it work.         

[ebinmaine 68,396]

8 minutes ago, Achto said:

Instead a quick cleaning of the points with some 1200 grit sand paper and I was back in business. $0 repair and only 15min down time. 

 

Nicely done man!

 

I'd have been out there doing a sage smudge and creating new words for a few minutes....

 

 

[SylvanLakeWH 25,959]

37 minutes ago, ebinmaine said:

I'd have been out there doing a sage smudge and creating new words for a few minutes....

 

I was gonna say we need pics per the Rules... but then again... do we need this visual on Christmas Eve...?

 

Nah... 

 

[WHX?? 49,171]

1 hour ago, Achto said:

Instead a quick cleaning of the points 

Yep how many times at show with a dollar bill... 

[Pullstart 63,096]

25 minutes ago, WHX?? said:

Yep how many times at show with a dollar bill... 

 

The set in that Green White hilo were so burnt, I had to file them pretty much gone to get rid of the burn spot!  No go with a dollar bill for those ones…

[D_Mac 8,713]

Similar thing happened to me today. Cleared the driveway with my walk behind snowblower. After it was clear I decided to hop on the 875 and clear some more down at the end of the driveway. 2 days ago I cleared the whole driveway with the 875. So I get to the end of the driveway and it dies like I ran out of gas. I checked, nope plenty of gas. Went to try and start it again and nothing, dead battery. Push it all the way back to the garage, put the charger on it and it fires right up. When plowing I use a yellow bubble light that plugs into cigarette style outlet wired to battery. When not in use it's unplugged. So I'm guessing my battery isn't being charged when it's running. Am I correct? How do I check that? I left the battery on the charger and it is now fully charged and it starts fine. I have not run it more then a minute or two yet since.

 

Edited 10 hours ago by D_Mac

[Blasterdad 2,726]

29 minutes ago, D_Mac said:

So I'm guessing my battery isn't being charged when it's running. Am I correct? How do I check that?

Check battery voltage with tractor off. Check again with tractor running. Voltage should be higher with tractor running.