Summer13 Tracy

 Interesting find while greasing last night.  S-cam bushing coming off the slack adjuster was loose.  Not a crazy sexy fix but one more thing to look for as I'm inspecting.

 This picture speaks loudly about false confidence in our good buddy thread goop.  Solution?  More goop.

 Until I noticed the machined surfaces around each port.  That machined surface told me that there is a possibility that the ports are not pipe thread sealed.  Interesting to note that the pump has the same machined surfaces around the ports with o-ring boss to pipe thread adapters.  Probably why more goop didn't help.

 The 3rd member ended up having to come out of the 9280 Case after I poked around with a magnet.  The shavings on the blue was the condemning evidence.

   I'm hoping to take a good look at the bearings and race. Should be entertaining.

 Lots and lots and lots of metal coming out of the rear end of the Case tractor.  I probably could have spent all day digging stuff out with the magnet.  Most was magnetized so it looked solid, but there were enough solid considerably sized metal chunks to justify pulling the 3rd member and having a closer look.

 Pulled this valve out of a water truck.  The valve is actuated by mechanical rotation, was leaking out both ends of the body.  Blown rings were the cause.
  Still getting a tough time for being so clean around this kind of stuff, but it won't leak because of it.

Another find that could have resulted in a service call.  Post off the alternator digging into coolant hose.

















Yesterday I was very happy to find and diagnose my first real electrical problem.  The 7-wire bundle that goes through the reach, to the pogo, and then to the trailer kept getting ass-holed up whenever the truck and trailer came together and finally wore through the insulation.  Caused all the functions to the trailer to fail.  I was convinced already that the wires had shorted to ground, but two of the guys checked the fuses and they all checked out ok.  Went straight to the loads and found no voltage.  Next spot was right before the exposed electrical - no voltage.  Just to be thorough in working back I checked the trailer plug really quick and the switch for the pup trailer gate, which were real easy to get to.  No voltage.  Scratched my head trying to see if I could remember any more about the circuit boards.  Go to load, no voltage so move back to positive.  Only thing that made sense was a blown fuse, since I knew the problem was caused way down the line where I was getting no voltage at the reach.  Looked down in the fuse box and got birded out quickly by a relay with a see through case.  RAD!  The side said something like "Hot line must be in-line fuse".  Something like that.  Hmmmmmmm.  Pulled the hot line out from its hiding spot and Voila!  A blown fuse :)  Super stoked about being able to prove to the guys there that light testers blow and multimeters rock.
Important lessons to be learned here are:  Everything is one big light board-simple and don't be afraid to bird out.  The answers might just be in it's beak.

Hours:
Total: 124
Weeks: 40

Summer13 Tracy

 Preventative maintenance is the name of the game right now for me.  Every day at 4.30, as soon as lunch is over, trucks roll in and I don my tote, equipped with grease gun and tools for checking diffs, trans, and brakes.  I seem to continuously find bracing and frame bolts loose, like this one here.  Not bad yet, but I could see it stressing the bolts enough to break them over time, especially with how much these trucks are moving.

   Always keep a close eye on brackets, or zip-ties even, that hold air and hydraulic hoses in place.  I pulled this one back for the picture, but it was at the angle shown, which helped me see something might be up.

  Down to the wire, but not frayed... yet.  It bothers me to do so, but I was told to just sleeve it up and move on.

   Meh, just some pesky lighting issues.  The guys thought the reach flashers were fixed.  After I checked the truck and trailer lights, they were very intermittent.  Apparently shaking the wires fixes the problem.
  Take a look at that ground washer I got holding there too.  It's ginormous compared to the ground stud it is fastened to, so I went ahead and changed that out too.  Easy fix for a problem that wont bother us.

   Today I started to tear into a rear end axle on a Case tractor with the goals of rebuilding it using parts from another one sitting in the yard. Trying to have it ready to sell by tomorrow morning.  Unfortunately I wont be there until after it gets finished by another guy, but it was great to get into something.

 Grenade damage of the planetary gears in the hub.

 Lots of wear on the hub.  In a perfect world, we would have the money and time to fix it all completely.  That aint happening.

  Extremely dirty work area for stuff like this.  It can be very frustrating and discouraging at times to not have a clean spot in a big shop like this, but making due is all I can do.








  I think that the most valuable things that I've learned so far from my experience here is what NOT to do.  Cleanliness is vital, pay attention to the small things before they grow into something huge, and patching stuff up only works so long.  Short week this week with the holidays, but showed up nonetheless.

Hours:
Total: 82
This week: 24

SUMMER13 Tracy

Broken I-beam frame that runs the entire length of a side dumper.
Found while greasing, after lead had his walkaround and
approved it.
(flexhard)

   First week at Boss has been busy.  Dealing mostly with their trucks performing PM work, but also getting a fair share of time in on their equipment.  Since I don't start until noon everyday, when 4:30 rolls around the trucks start coming in and I am able to get intimately familiar with each of them.  There's only 6 or 7 so it isn't that difficult.  One thing that sucks is that a majority of the equipment I'm inspecting seems to me to be in need of lots of little repairs that have piled up so tall that each truck would be out days to take care of them all.  One of the most frustrating things, but also a skill I'm learning to develop, is being able to distinguish the difference between what can be sent back out for another run the next day and what needs to be fixed right now.

Truck cost them $1400/day to have sit

   Spent two days early in the week helping Gary with an in-frame.  No service manuals and no desire for online resource caused this truck to be in the shop for 3 more days after just trying to get the timing right for the fuel pump.  Didn't learn any more than I already did.  Threw random bolts at it, no clean work spaces, and no torque specs made for a frustrating experience.

 Here's a quickie resource for me for my brake servicing.  Should come in handy.

   Friday was spent in the field past Sedro Wooley replacing hydraulic hoses on a scraper that Boss sold a farmer as-is.  Lots of the hoses were in need of serious repair.

The setup that Boss has on their scrapers allows the tractor to pull two in series.  The one that Boss sold the farmer did not have this setup but wanted it, so we also put new fittings on the back end so the 14 yarder can now pull a 17 yarder.








  While in Sedro, was able to see Jordan pull out a busted off bolt by welding a slightly oversized nut onto it and simply turning it out.  Thought that was pretty slick.  Ray, the shop manager, has been very diligent about teaching me something new that I want to know more about as often as he can.  I've become a bit more familiar with the torch and much more exposed to welding.  However, everything is go go go, so there's no time for the noob to jump on the stick and bugger everything up.  Hopefully soon I'll get more fab time in.  One thing that I need to remember that Ray told me is when welding on a piece of equipment try to get the ground close as possible to where your welding, for the simple reason that the current to ground can really mess up bearings and such.  Makes sense, just not something I'd thought about.

Hours
Total: 58
Week: 58

Tracy

Sleep tonight


Blog tomorrow

Hours
Week: 58
Total: 58