Terry Harper
Cast Iron
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2009
- Location
- Maine USA
What better way to spend a sunny 35 degree February day than by playing with old machinery?
Yesterday morning we headed south down I-95 from "The County" If your from away you probably don't know
the significance of those simple words but if your from Maine when somebody says "the county" you
know instantly that they mean Aroostook County - which, by the way, is the largest county east of the Rockies.
Anyway, after a 2-1/2 hour ride we arrived at the museum, met up with Herb and went to work. First order of business was sorting out the fuel system. Last time we ran it the old girl wasn't running so great. I thought it might be water in the fuel but as it turned out is was sediment from the tank. Cleaning out the bowl and a little filter screen in the carb as well as cutting in a in-line fuel filter took care of that.
We also looked at adjusting the tracks which are very loose. Not wanting to break a bunch of bolts we decided that a little heat would help. However the thought of dragging the torch setup through the snow convinced us that its a job better left for the next trip.
All this work, of course, required us to take the beast out for a test run. Since we have had a nice thaw with a bunch of rain thrown in the snow banks are not what they were but the once at the road was just a solid ice bank. I had visions of 23,000 lbs of Lombard framed and teetering on the top like the Grinch's sleigh on the tip of Mount Crumpet. Not something I wanted to contemplate. As luck would have it they are harvesting trees blown down from a recent storm and it didn't take Herb long to convince the skidder operator to knock a hole for us.
All good fun!
Yesterday morning we headed south down I-95 from "The County" If your from away you probably don't know
the significance of those simple words but if your from Maine when somebody says "the county" you
know instantly that they mean Aroostook County - which, by the way, is the largest county east of the Rockies.
Anyway, after a 2-1/2 hour ride we arrived at the museum, met up with Herb and went to work. First order of business was sorting out the fuel system. Last time we ran it the old girl wasn't running so great. I thought it might be water in the fuel but as it turned out is was sediment from the tank. Cleaning out the bowl and a little filter screen in the carb as well as cutting in a in-line fuel filter took care of that.
We also looked at adjusting the tracks which are very loose. Not wanting to break a bunch of bolts we decided that a little heat would help. However the thought of dragging the torch setup through the snow convinced us that its a job better left for the next trip.
All this work, of course, required us to take the beast out for a test run. Since we have had a nice thaw with a bunch of rain thrown in the snow banks are not what they were but the once at the road was just a solid ice bank. I had visions of 23,000 lbs of Lombard framed and teetering on the top like the Grinch's sleigh on the tip of Mount Crumpet. Not something I wanted to contemplate. As luck would have it they are harvesting trees blown down from a recent storm and it didn't take Herb long to convince the skidder operator to knock a hole for us.
All good fun!