# Been one of those springs.



## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

So started out with a clutch job on the planting tractor, started plenty early on it but the multi disc clutch it uses no longer has the cam style separators available, so the clutch shop had to come up with something else. Took three weeks to get the clutch back. Started to put it back together and was going to install new flywheel bolts as the last Cat I worked on one of the heads pulled right off while torqueing them. Ordered a set for this tractor last year when I did the other clutch/transmission job, turns out the ones I ordered were too short, ordered the right ones a Thursday afternoon, didn't get them till Monday morning so lost the weekend. So what was supposed to be a few day job had already taken almost a month. Run into a few other issues when putting it back together and lost another week waiting on stuff. Finally got it running and moved around in the shop so we could pull the rear wheel and change a leaky wheel seal, started that Thursday afternoon, turned out their was a serial number break not listed in my parts manual or on the internet, took till Monday again to get the right seal, what started out as a week tops job took six.

Finally got started planting corn and the first round Dad forgot to raise the marker arm extension and snagged a tree stump at the end of the fencerow, spent the rest of the day on that. Then not 25 acres into planting the brand new clutch started to drag and the tractor had to be shut off to get it in gear. At fifty acres it gave clear up and started to make a god awful noise, not sure if its all in the clutch or something gave up in the power shift unit or the transmission as the hired man said a few times Father wasn't shutting it off and was jamming it in gear hard enough to make the tractor jump. Pulled the 4 wheel drive off the planter and hooked the FWA Massey to the planter, it pulls it just fine, but for some of the muck I'd much prefer eight big radials compared to a FWA tractor. So with the MF8160 on the corn planter I haven't been able to plant any beans while father has been planting corn.

After a few other mishaps due to the fact that he's never read and refuses to read the planter manual especially on trouble shooting the switches that control the lift height and folding of the planter he was finishing up the last of the heavy ground and called me and said the wings weren't coming all the way together so they could be locked for transport and to bring a come-along. If it was me and all of a sudden something is happening that's never been a problem before I'd be getting my happy ass out of the cab and would be figuring out what's changed.

Turns out the main hinge that allows each half to fold forward was ripping loose from the left half of the planter, if he would have gotten it locked somehow and started transporting it down the road it very well could have torn completely loose and would have been dragging two 8 row planters down the road. Used several chain binders and turnbuckles to cross chain it the best we could and babied it home as couldn't get ahold of anybody that had a portable welder being a Saturday. Got it home around 2, I spent the rest of the day and worked till two in the morning coercing it back into position, getting all the twist out I could, then welding and reinforcing the original weldments with half inch plate. Finished putting the harnesses, hydraulic lines and the airtube back in place around noon Sunday.

Really can't say the torn hinge was anybody's fault as Father was disgusted enough he called Plevna in Kokomo to see what they had sitting on the lot for planters atm. They either had planters set up for no-till or planters set up for liquid fertilizer but not both??? According to the salesman it's not uncommon for the hinge to do that eventually on that particular model and they even have a local guy that will disassemble the hinge, roll the planter halves away from one another and cut the original out and beef the whole assembly up, both Father and I were like thanks for telling us that after we bought it.

Ate lunch then drained the clay seed out and put the sand seed in, filled the tractor, etc. finally left the farm and started planting around 2:30, finished 45 acres in town in two fields, headed down the road to the next county, planted another 45 their then the alternator started acting up so couldn't plant the last 30 in the dark. Went home grabbed a few hundred feet of extension cord and a battery charger, drove back to the other county, got home late. Got up Monday morning and took care of a few things while waiting for places to open, spent awhile on the phone and no alternator was to be had. Went to leave about 9 and seen steers walking on the hilltop. Dirty birds busted an old gate, soon as they seen me coming up the hill with the Ranger they all turned east and blasted thru the wire into the winter pasture with the cows. Had our new bull in with the steers and had to get him out of the winter pasture as we have some young heifers just old enough to get in trouble with a bull around but still a little small for that. Fixed the wire and headed to the field. Blew the alternator out and soaked the insides with electrical cleaner then blew it out again. Worked well enough so that if you threw the jumpers on while refilling seed or fertlizer you could run the fan and AC on low for awhile before placing it back on the jumpers with the next fill up.

Went to the next farm, took care of the muck first while everything was practically empty and light, still managed to get 160 acres planted that day even with messing around charging the batteries up for 15 or 20 minutes every fill up and dealing with a flat wing tire. Really like 3/4 mile long rows, even one round gets a lot of seed in the ground when you're planting 16 at a time. Can't remember the exact width of this field but I'm thinking 3/8 of a mile, one round around the outside of the field with a 60' spray boom covers an obscene amount of acres. Ran out of daylight though with a little bit left to plant in the big field with another 28 across the road. Got 3/4" there over night and an inch of rain at home but had sunshine and wind all morning and was able to get back to planting around 3 in the afternoon and ended up planting 38 acres to finish the corn in that county.

I think the alternator was putting out just enough up till yesterday afternoon as the batteries weren't going down very quick but when I planted that 38 acres before I was done even with no fan or AC running I was still having to switch the planter control box off after letting it and the marker arm down or the seed monitor would shut off from low voltage. Get to the end of the row and turn the controls back on long enough to raise the planter and marker arm, turn around get everything down then shut the box off before losing the monitor.

As long as nothing else changes I only have 25 acres of muck left to plant, 22 acres of mine that we are still putting tile in when we get a chance here and there and 16 acres that the cows are still on now. I kept thinking we had too much seed when I started planting but the muck will have corn again which I wasn't planning on and a few other fields went back to back corn so the whole property will be one crop or the other. If it wasn't for the rain and alternator problems I'm pretty sure I could have planted the same amount in four days that it took dad a week and a half to get done.

He's getting worse about this as he gets older but he probably won't even be around Saturday as he told somebody he'd haul a steer to the sale barn for them Saturday morning, then has to pick a few hogs up for his churches hog roast, then told somebody else who knows what. I think this is why he had such a hell of a time keeping the planter moving this spring, just too much on his mind instead of what should be.

When I do stuff I flat out tell people, nope, April and May are out of the question unless it rains for a week, it's planting time. October and November are out of the question it's harvest time while Father is always trying to have a dozen things going on at once which is fine, but usually none of them get done on time but all are in progress. I do the same for my hay, I never have my hay waiting so I can go mow, ted, rake or bale for somebody else, may not seem very neighborly to some, but I couldn't afford this equipment if I wasn't able to sell premium hay and premium hay is made by getting it done on time, every time. When mine is done I'll bend over backwards to help get yours done as well but not before mine.

Now to top it all off the liftarms have quit working from inside the cab on the 8160, not bad atm as they either need to be all the way up for transport or all the way down to plant and the fender buttons still work. But I would like to have it fixed before I plant the last of the muck as if you get in a known trouble spot you can raise the lift arms some and raise the front of the planter a little so it doesn't push any muck ahead of it while transferring weight to the tractor.

Only good to have come of this is after seeing how much seed I got in the ground in a few days Father has accepted his demotion with grace and said he'd rather do the spraying anyways. Even over heard him talking on his mobile to someone and he told them he got demoted and is liking it. So what could have been ugly worked out for the best.

/endrant.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Some of my mediocre welding skills on display. Would have much preferred to cut this all out of a single plate of steel but only had scraps leftover from the wood splitter I built in January. Also had to watch how far the pieces stuck out I placed over the four inch tube as when in planting position the cylinder that operates the latch is on the opposite half of the hinge.


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

To quote one of our past presidents: "I feel your pain!"

Sittin' here, waitin' on dry weather/ground to get moving on 80 acres of hay. Have 2 people wanting me to mow/rake/bale their hay. Have had 6 people call this week with problems with their horses wanting to know if I would come out and help them. One ferry open, one still closed, can't get to most of the 6 without driving an extra 100 miles. Picked up 3 new students in the past two weeks. Appointments scheduled Sunday-Monday-Tuesday.

My new motto: Holiday/schmoliday--Work hard when nothing's going on/Work harder when all hell is busting lose.

Ralph


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

I have a 150 acres all headed out and I can't get it cut nor the job I'm on now because I have a intestinal virus. It rains every other day here. T storms today and solid rain Friday.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

We've been lucky and have missed the major rains. When I started planting Sunday I had till Monday afternoon according to the forecasts before major rains hit, ended up with an inch Tuesday morning but it was already so dry from the winds that it soaked right up and have got another 4 tenths from scattered showers over the last two days. Supposed to clear up by Friday morning and clear thru Monday, highs only in the mid sixties though but I'm still gonna mow 25 acres to get ahead of the wild oats. If it gets wet then I have my cow hay.


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## Mike120 (May 4, 2009)

Damn Marty, Sounds like you're having a hell of a start this year....Hope it get's better instead of worse! I got all of my weeds cut and rolled up. I'll fertilize again tomorrow and head back across the pond Saturday night for a couple of weeks. BTW, your welding looks fine....It doesn't have to be pretty, it just has to hold.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Mike120 said:


> Damn Marty, Sounds like you're having a hell of a start this year....Hope it get's better instead of worse! I got all of my weeds cut and rolled up. I'll fertilize again tomorrow and head back across the pond Saturday night for a couple of weeks. BTW, your welding looks fine....It doesn't have to be pretty, it just has to hold.


Not bad considering I don't have a DC welder. Used Lincoln AC7018 with a Lincoln buzz box most likely older than I am.

I'll freely admit i've been spoiled the last few years and haven't had to do any vertical up welds, the first few sticks I wasn't happy with and took the plasma cutter with a gouging tip, washed the first welds out and redid them, the knack came back on the third stick.

I'm pretty confident in saying if it ever lets loose again, it won't be my welds at fault. Most likely will be accumulated metal fatigue and the old stuff itself will tear again before the new welds do.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Well nuts, got the engine in the loader tractor apart as it has developed a knock in it the last few weeks. Mains look fine, rods look fine, didn't find a sloppy wrist pin bushing but will have a machine shop check em on a jig. Might as well roll new bearings in while the pan is off.

One of my customers is a certified diesel mechanic, he thinks its injector or pump related which is fine as I was going to have the pump and injectors checked anyways.

I personally can't think of a worse job than doing rod and main bearings in frame. Oil dripping in your face or eyes the whole time...


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

I swear this run of crappy luck is never going to end. Dad was finishing spraying yesterday, went to shift from Direct to Over, tractor quit moving, Won't move in any gear, still have 6 acres to finish spraying then it's the one that we side dress with....


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Took one of my hay tractors down and dragged the spray tractor around to finish the last several rounds than drug it home. Bought a twin to the first tractor that took a dump this year, making brackets for the rear axle in my spare time to carry the 750 gallon tank so we can start side dressing.

From the local chatter turns out some people still swear by the place I took the clutches to be rebuilt for both four wheel drives, others swear the work they turn out has suffered severely in quality and refuse to take anything there ever again, I'm leaning towards the latter. I'm going to talk to several of the local truck shops and see where they have the multi disc clutches rebuilt.

Started to finally put m loader tractor together, got to the last piston and the idiots sent one wrong rod bearing. Waited 3 days on the rod bearings as nobody had em in stock, so much for having it back together for the next field of hay to be picked up. Had some wear on the wrist pin bushings as well, two were barely in specs and two were just out of specs. Some internal wear on the injection pump, 1 injector was sticking open most of the time, 2 had poor spray patterns and one was usable, bought four new ones. Should solve the knock.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Nice...nobody has the right bearing in stock, have to wait on the factory to drop ship one.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

For some perverse reason that MF8160 ate the first two rebuilt alternators, first didn't last an hour and when it went out, it was clear out, blew a diode right off the board. Second one lasted a day, checked all connections, even checked end to end on all cables looking for a bad connection, nothing. Third one they rebuilt is still working but the tach doesn't. When the first rebuild was installed the liftarms started working right, must have been low voltage to the control panel. But when the rebuilt's went out they completely went out as not only wouldn't the lift arms work (again) the tractor wouldn't even shift gears. Original must have still been putting out just enough to keep the electronics working. Have a new alternator from AGCO sitting on the shelf now. Lost way too much time waiting on alternators to be rebuilt. Must have had problems with the original alternator as this one is different and even has an adapter kit included to make it fit.


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

mlappin said:


> For some perverse reason that MF8160 ate the first two rebuilt alternators, first didn't last an hour and when it went out, it was clear out, blew a diode right off the board. Second one lasted a day, checked all connections, even checked end to end on all cables looking for a bad connection, nothing. Third one they rebuilt is still working but the tach doesn't. When the first rebuild was installed the liftarms started working right, must have been low voltage to the control panel. But when the rebuilt's went out they completely went out as not only wouldn't the lift arms work (again) the tractor wouldn't even shift gears. Original must have still been putting out just enough to keep the electronics working. Have a new alternator from AGCO sitting on the shelf now. Lost way too much time waiting on alternators to be rebuilt. Must have had problems with the original alternator as this one is different and even has an adapter kit included to make it fit.


Sounds like you are being more mechanic then farmer so far this year.


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

mlappin said:


> For some perverse reason that MF8160 ate the first two rebuilt alternators, first didn't last an hour and when it went out, it was clear out, blew a diode right off the board. Second one lasted a day, checked all connections, even checked end to end on all cables looking for a bad connection, nothing. Third one they rebuilt is still working but the tach doesn't. When the first rebuild was installed the liftarms started working right, must have been low voltage to the control panel. But when the rebuilt's went out they completely went out as not only wouldn't the lift arms work (again) the tractor wouldn't even shift gears. Original must have still been putting out just enough to keep the electronics working. Have a new alternator from AGCO sitting on the shelf now. Lost way too much time waiting on alternators to be rebuilt. Must have had problems with the original alternator as this one is different and even has an adapter kit included to make it fit.


Computor issue?Shifting and 3 pt sounds familiar!!


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

swmnhay said:


> Computor issue?Shifting and 3 pt sounds familiar!!


Yup, only thing this tractor has going for it is it's still a mechanical pump, I imagine if it was a newer one with electronic injectors soon as the alternator acted up the engine would shut off as well. My luck it would have done it down on the muck in a wet spot so the tractor and planter could sink a foot by morning.

Strictly a voltage issue though, once the voltage drops so low three point module and transmission module refuse to work in order to protect themselves from over heating from low voltage, had a Dell do the same thing once.


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## Gearclash (Nov 25, 2010)

> Third one they rebuilt is still working but the tach doesn't.


Seems like the first indication on newer tractors that the alternator is begining to take a dump.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Gearclash said:


> Seems like the first indication on newer tractors that the alternator is begining to take a dump.


Now that you mention it, tach didn't work with the first rebuilt either, then once it quit putting out then the tach started working. I'm tempted to put the new one on and see if the tach works, if not then maybe something else is getting ready to take a dump? Just gotta love these new tractors compared to my older Olivers. Could take the battery clear out of those and bump start it and it'd run all day no problem. Mechanical linkages, mechanical gauges, no bullshit.


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

I'm so afraid of my newer tractor that I might get rid of it, and it's not even a tier 4 unit.
In hindsight, I should have bought a 7810, case magnum or similar older tractor and saved some $$.
I do think Kubota is pretty reliable, but I'm only as reliable as the first little electronic part that decides to take a dump.


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