Stormy Night...
It's amazing how fast the weather can change. Last night, when we went to bed, the skies were clear and the weather was calm. From what I had heard tell though, Calgary was getting (or had been getting) battered by a feirce storm that even included a tornado watch!
Around 4:15am, a strong storm hit the Shaunavon area as well. I woke up momentarily just as the power blinked out - I was able to see the fluorescent display on our alarm-clock flicker just before it went out completely, followed by a flash of lightning and a peal of thunder! Groggily, I checked for weather-alerts on my iPhone, and found none. The weather report was calling for possible showers, and made no mention of the storm roaring and flashing over our heads! This storm must have been much closer than many of the recent ones, as the thunder was much quicker in response to the lightning, and once or twice the explosive boom was enough to rattle the house on its foundation!
I dozed off again listening to the rain pouring down on the tin roof, and though I'm not sure of the exact rainfall (half an inch?) it was sufficient to leave large puddles everywhere around the farm.
In town, I heard that about 0.8 inches of rain came down, and part of the yard of my shop was once again under water. The shop itself is dry, but there's a small swamp alongside the trailer that the 9-Banger had to go back into, and that made putting the beast back in there that much more difficult. At least now that it's back in the trailer, I have a lot more room in the shop to get actual work done.
On that note, I am finally forcing myself to work on an older John Deere garden tractor that has been here since April of 2012! The owner has been remarkably patient, but I can't expect him to wait much longer. His complaint was that the machine seemed to be leaking oil from the bottom seal (it's a vertical-shaft engine) and that's part of why I had been avoiding this one: Fixing that problem requires pulling the engine out, and that's a huge, unpleasant job. Still, it had to be done, and today I finally got on with it. I've suspected all along that it's not really leaking from the oil-seal, or if it is, it's due to another problem. I was thinking "high crankcase pressure due to a stuck breather valve", but I think I've discovered a different source of the trouble.
Some of the first things that get checked when I work on an engine are the air-cleaner, and the oil-level. When I removed the air-cleaner cover, the air-cleaner itself (a paper-elment type) looked clean at first. A closer look however, revealed that it was saturated with oil! This would certainly add credence to my "Stuck Breather Valve" hypothesis. Upon checking the oil level, it appeared that there was no oil in the machine! Was it possible that it had all leaked out? There were no oil puddles on the floor, so could it have been possible that it all leaked out before the owner brought it in? At this point, I decided that since there was no oil in the machine, I might as well take the opportunity to remove the oil-filter while there was little chance of making a huge mess. When I attempted to remove the filter however, gasoline gushed out!
I had noticed that the fuel-tank was bone-dry earlier, but had (obviously now, mistakenly) assumed that the owner had brought the machine in without any gas in the tank. The float in the carburetor must have stuck, and allowed all of the gas to flood into the machine and dilute the oil, which is why it appeared as if there was no oil in it. This would also certainly make the oil so thin that it would seep past the seals, and I can only hope that the customer didn't run the machine very long in this condition, or there could be irreparable damage to the engine. Unfortunately, the oil-filter was damaged in my unsuccessful attempt to remove it, as it was stuck fast to its mount. I will have to bring a larger wrench from the farm-shop in the morning to try to remove it. I will obviously have to work on the carburetor tomorrow as well, before attempting to put any fresh oil or adding fuel to this machine. Doing so without fixing the stuck float problem would only waste both gas and oil, neither of which are cheap these days. :/
I sincerely hope that this actually solves the problem, as it means I can avoid the unpleasant task of removing the engine to replace the bottom oil-seal. It also means that I can get it back to the owner a lot faster, and that will make everyone happy!
Around 4:15am, a strong storm hit the Shaunavon area as well. I woke up momentarily just as the power blinked out - I was able to see the fluorescent display on our alarm-clock flicker just before it went out completely, followed by a flash of lightning and a peal of thunder! Groggily, I checked for weather-alerts on my iPhone, and found none. The weather report was calling for possible showers, and made no mention of the storm roaring and flashing over our heads! This storm must have been much closer than many of the recent ones, as the thunder was much quicker in response to the lightning, and once or twice the explosive boom was enough to rattle the house on its foundation!
I dozed off again listening to the rain pouring down on the tin roof, and though I'm not sure of the exact rainfall (half an inch?) it was sufficient to leave large puddles everywhere around the farm.
In town, I heard that about 0.8 inches of rain came down, and part of the yard of my shop was once again under water. The shop itself is dry, but there's a small swamp alongside the trailer that the 9-Banger had to go back into, and that made putting the beast back in there that much more difficult. At least now that it's back in the trailer, I have a lot more room in the shop to get actual work done.
On that note, I am finally forcing myself to work on an older John Deere garden tractor that has been here since April of 2012! The owner has been remarkably patient, but I can't expect him to wait much longer. His complaint was that the machine seemed to be leaking oil from the bottom seal (it's a vertical-shaft engine) and that's part of why I had been avoiding this one: Fixing that problem requires pulling the engine out, and that's a huge, unpleasant job. Still, it had to be done, and today I finally got on with it. I've suspected all along that it's not really leaking from the oil-seal, or if it is, it's due to another problem. I was thinking "high crankcase pressure due to a stuck breather valve", but I think I've discovered a different source of the trouble.
Some of the first things that get checked when I work on an engine are the air-cleaner, and the oil-level. When I removed the air-cleaner cover, the air-cleaner itself (a paper-elment type) looked clean at first. A closer look however, revealed that it was saturated with oil! This would certainly add credence to my "Stuck Breather Valve" hypothesis. Upon checking the oil level, it appeared that there was no oil in the machine! Was it possible that it had all leaked out? There were no oil puddles on the floor, so could it have been possible that it all leaked out before the owner brought it in? At this point, I decided that since there was no oil in the machine, I might as well take the opportunity to remove the oil-filter while there was little chance of making a huge mess. When I attempted to remove the filter however, gasoline gushed out!
I had noticed that the fuel-tank was bone-dry earlier, but had (obviously now, mistakenly) assumed that the owner had brought the machine in without any gas in the tank. The float in the carburetor must have stuck, and allowed all of the gas to flood into the machine and dilute the oil, which is why it appeared as if there was no oil in it. This would also certainly make the oil so thin that it would seep past the seals, and I can only hope that the customer didn't run the machine very long in this condition, or there could be irreparable damage to the engine. Unfortunately, the oil-filter was damaged in my unsuccessful attempt to remove it, as it was stuck fast to its mount. I will have to bring a larger wrench from the farm-shop in the morning to try to remove it. I will obviously have to work on the carburetor tomorrow as well, before attempting to put any fresh oil or adding fuel to this machine. Doing so without fixing the stuck float problem would only waste both gas and oil, neither of which are cheap these days. :/
I sincerely hope that this actually solves the problem, as it means I can avoid the unpleasant task of removing the engine to replace the bottom oil-seal. It also means that I can get it back to the owner a lot faster, and that will make everyone happy!