Last Sunday I sold the snow blower from Zac. Marius came and we loaded it onto a small trailer. Picking the blower up was interesting as we used three chains to the loader to lift the blower off the ground and drive it to the trailer. Steering seemed sluggish as I finally got the blower onto the trailer but we made it. "Just push it ahead with your forks" Marius said but when I went to do that, I lost all steering. Oh well, something to fix tomorrow.
On Monday I checked the power steering level and yes it was way down. I know, O know, check your fluids often. So Tuesday I got some power steering fluid and filled the resevor up. In a few moments the power steering came back but then it was gone again. I looked under the tractor and I could see a fluid trail from where I had lifted the blower to where I put it on the trailer. The steering wheel was spinning in circles, maybe something had broken? Time to0 pull the cowling off and have a look.
The steering wheel connected into a metal box with two hydraulic hoses leading down into the tractor. I started Zac up and turned the wheel. A spray of hydraulic fluid came up into the cab. I had a leak!
Now how to get those hoses off. The underbelly of the tractor is a maze of hydraulic hoses and the only way to tell which was which was to wrap a piece of wire around one hose and push it down through the floor to see where it came out. They came out alright, onto another junction box between the battery box and the transmission, now way to get a wrench in there.
Off came the battery box and off came the two hoses. Now where to get new hoses. It was friday by now and Princess Auto was the place to go, which I did, but one look and the reply was, "We don't make those here"
but if you go to East End Hydraulics they can do it for you.
So off I went and yes they could make them but only straight or ninety degrees, not the 45 that these were. 90 it is then and a couple of hoses were made up. I got them back, connected the straight ends to the steering box but I just couldn't get the other ends to connect. No problem, I thought, I'll just bend them like we did with the brake line. No way, even in the vise, would these bend.
I called back to see if they could bend them there. A quick discussion in the background and the sheepish reply that in fact they did have 45's in stock. I was back in Saturday morning, got the ends replaced and that afternoon Zac was back up and steering fine. I didn't even get the lines crossed. Sure feels good to be a hydraulic mechanic. Now about that lost week.....
On Monday I checked the power steering level and yes it was way down. I know, O know, check your fluids often. So Tuesday I got some power steering fluid and filled the resevor up. In a few moments the power steering came back but then it was gone again. I looked under the tractor and I could see a fluid trail from where I had lifted the blower to where I put it on the trailer. The steering wheel was spinning in circles, maybe something had broken? Time to0 pull the cowling off and have a look.
The steering wheel connected into a metal box with two hydraulic hoses leading down into the tractor. I started Zac up and turned the wheel. A spray of hydraulic fluid came up into the cab. I had a leak!
Now how to get those hoses off. The underbelly of the tractor is a maze of hydraulic hoses and the only way to tell which was which was to wrap a piece of wire around one hose and push it down through the floor to see where it came out. They came out alright, onto another junction box between the battery box and the transmission, now way to get a wrench in there.
Off came the battery box and off came the two hoses. Now where to get new hoses. It was friday by now and Princess Auto was the place to go, which I did, but one look and the reply was, "We don't make those here"
but if you go to East End Hydraulics they can do it for you.
So off I went and yes they could make them but only straight or ninety degrees, not the 45 that these were. 90 it is then and a couple of hoses were made up. I got them back, connected the straight ends to the steering box but I just couldn't get the other ends to connect. No problem, I thought, I'll just bend them like we did with the brake line. No way, even in the vise, would these bend.
I called back to see if they could bend them there. A quick discussion in the background and the sheepish reply that in fact they did have 45's in stock. I was back in Saturday morning, got the ends replaced and that afternoon Zac was back up and steering fine. I didn't even get the lines crossed. Sure feels good to be a hydraulic mechanic. Now about that lost week.....
RSS Feed
