 Lonn wrote:
If it's a low hour machine like you say, then why is it's next stop the scrap yard? How many hours do you put on a machine before it's scrap. I can put lots and lots on ours. Maintenance is key. Without it you'll be selling junk to the scrapper in only a few years. What's more profitable, to spend $3,000 every few years on another tractor orkeep the one you have in good repair. My 7050 I bought in 1997 or 98 for $7,850. It was cheap for that day and for it's condition. I never have considered abusing it because it was cheap. I change the engine oil on time, I change the transmission and hydraulic oils on time, I grease the axle and steering and 3 point every day I use it before I use it and I've fixed what ever has needed fixing and it has served me well and it still looks great and functions great.
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I don't consider a 14,000+ hour machine that's been ran hard a low hour barely used unit.
I don't know who owned it before we did but it's obvious far worse things were done to it than anything I could come up with justifications for.
It appears that it was factory equipped with three point being some of the related controls and linkages are still there but i have no idea what justified taking it out but I have suspicions that it may be why the PTO controls would never lock in as they should.
It looks like it originally had a two spool auxiliary hydraulics system but a third one was added and the original three point draft lever controls it now. I'm guessing that was done when the three point systems was taken out.
It also had much of its original wiring and related components butchered well before we got it to add who knows what and to bypass a number to things as well being when we got it had a push button hardwired (14 ga house wire no less) directly from the main battery cable on the the starter solenoid and back to start it being the wiring in the dash and around the engine for the stock key switch, start button and ether injection system and other things had been cut to bits.
The alternator had a 8 ga wire running from it directly to the batteries in order to charge them since the factory line in the wiring harness was burned off where it ties into the two main automatic circuit breakers. In the first good day of running it smoked and locked up so a new 140 amp unit and the proper size and routed cabling got put in.
The air conditioning compressor and hoses were not hooked up and appeared to have been that way for a long time.
The back window was plexiglass held in with a roll or more of very weathered duct tape and bungee straps.
The heater blower was packed full of mice nest and wired to a single on/off toggle switch and not the factory multi speed one even though the factory three speed controls did work once the power was restored to it.
Cab side and single rear lights were busted off.
Since we got it I have replaced the alternator repaired or outrightly replaced all the damaged/non functional wiring and everything related to it so that it works as it should or has been updated to handle higher loads better. From what I can tell the only working system left was the key switch feed to excite the alternator. Everything else had been cut up and ultimately bypassed or just left for dead.
The heating and air conditioning systems have been cleaned out flushed repaired and are in correct and all around nice working order.
The back window is still plexiglass but it's properly mounted and things are cleaned up to where if I do get new glass for it it should be a drop in job.
All the lighting has been updated to 55W halogen bulbs front and back plus two more added up front to cure the big front and center night time blind spot issue these tractors have and one more in the rear to improve night time work.
All the shift linkage and hydraulic control cabling has been either repalced or adjusted to work as it is supposed to.
It's been converted from being a 1000 RPM only PTO to to dual speed.
It's been power washed and cleaned inside and out in detail and gets the dust blown out of the cab whenever I am near an air hos.
All filters fluids have been flushed and replaced with new and are now on a proper service schedule.
And above all as new problems arise they are dealt with in as fair and rational way as can be justified as is this torque limiter issue was. It now works as I understand it to work. My approach of cutting a hole may not be well taken or liked but it got it done without wasting more time and money.
Now as for other things that are still not right, it has a air leak in the fuel system that I have yet to track down so if it sits for a few days I have to pump the primer 5 - 6 times to get it to start.
I don't care for the old either assist systems so as I have done with all our diesel equipment it will be getting a set of glow coil intake air pre heaters installed in the intake manifold just ahead of the head intake ports one of these days that will be activated off the original either button.
All things considered given what had been done to it before we got it and what all I have repaired or updated the hole in the bottom of the bell housing seems like a pretty minor abuse to keep it working as it should for some time longer.
I'm not sure what the in shop equivilant repair bill for everything I have fixed and updated would have cost but I have now put the equivalent of several long days work into it plus close to $1000 in parts so far to get it back up to where it's now a fully functional and properly functioning tractor again.
Maybe you and all the experts who know everything about everything can give me a fair and justified price quote on what that is all worth in your local service shops.
To me I see no less than 30 hours shop time (remanufacturing wiring harnesses alone is a time consuming bitch) which would have a value way beyond what the machine is worth, given its age running hours and overall as bought condition, before having had a single part added to the bill.
The way I see it, we bought a good running low hour AC diesel engine that included what was left of a tractor attached to it.
AC torque limiter adjustment. In tractor.
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