Senile Texas Aggie - comic relief for the rest of you

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

All,

Not much going on here. Yesterday morning I decided that it was dry enough in the pastures that I could move some dirt to build up around the bridges and build up the road to the picnic area. Imagine my consternation when as I positioned to remove the grapple prior to putting on the bucket that I noticed hydraulic fluid coming out of the right curl cylinder of the front end loader. It wasn't just an occasional drip but a steady stream. Rats! So I called Alma tractor to see if they were still open -- they were. Then I decided to see if I could remove the hydraulic cylinder and take that to the dealer instead of taking the entire tractor the way I had done in the past. After all, how hard could it be to remove a cylinder?

After I got the hydraulic lines removed, I removed the retaining bolt on the end of the shaft on which the hydraulic cylinder rotates. But then I couldn't figure out how to the remove the shaft itself. After an hour of trying to remove it, I finally came in and watched some YouTube videos about removing hydraulic cylinders. Not a single one seemed to fit what I had on my tractor. So I went back out and tried again. This time I decided to remove the other shaft that was connected by a support to the shaft I was trying to remove, just to see if that would help. It worked. It turned out that the shaft that supported the hydraulic cylinder was welded to the bracket that went to the other shaft. I was able to remove the bracket and both shafts and then remove the hydraulic cylinder. I then took the cylinder to the tractor dealer to be repaired. The removal of the hydraulic cylinder took about 2 hours, and the drive there and back took about 3 hours, so most of the day was wasted doing that. So I didn't get anything accomplished around the homestead.

Senile Texas Aggie

 

[Bruce]

I guess that the seal on the cylinder went? I hope I won't have that problem for a long time, but as Greybeard said, If you have a tractor you will have hydraulic leaks.

Tough job but you got it done! I wonder if there is any way to tell if the cylinder on the other side is likely to have the same problem soon. Kind of like headlights, they work at the same time so when one fails you can bet the other will soon.

 

[High Desert Cowboy]

At least you caught the leak before you got to doing something with it!

 

[Ridgetop]

With this quarantine it was nice you had a way to fill the empty hours!

 

[B&B Happy goats]

Hey STA are you ok from yesterday's tornado's ?

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Hey STA are you ok from yesterday's tornado's ?

We're fine. We had a short period of heavy rain, along with some lightning, but nothing bad. The really bad weather was to the north and northeast of us. I have not read the news reports yet but I hope there wasn't much damage and no injuries or deaths from the tornadoes and strong winds.

Thank you for asking about us.

Senile Texas Aggie

 

[B&B Happy goats]

Happy to hear you didn't have any damage and are fine , I had forgotten what part of the state you located in ......stay safe and healthy

 

[Bruce]

Now you get to go out and check your water diversion work again. Only way to make it work right is get rain running through and reworking any areas that didn't hold up.

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

The water diversion held up and is diverting the water to the other wet weather creek. The pasture where it previously drained is still wet but I hope that will dry up eventually. One the other hand, the pipes that run under the deer stand trail clogged up with leaves and sediment. I may need to either install a larger pipe or perhaps install several more smaller pipes.

 

[Bruce]

Great news on the diverters! Is there any way to put something like a piece of cattle panel a few feet in front of the culvert to snag those sticks? I'm envisioning something where there would be a gap on either side that the water could go around the panel and down the culvert. Of course some sticks would still get around but maybe the ones big enough to get stuck in the culvert would be held back by the panel. If the stream is deep enough, maybe the sticks and leaves will get caught up top and the water could run through the panel under them.