Diesel powered scrubber

I never ever bid on anything with gas engines in them.

I suspect that the engine in this scrubber is actually a Kubota.

I am certain that I do not need it for anything... I can cut metal with plasma much quicker.

Actually, the engine cranks. I did not have a key, but it turns out that the key from my wife's old car works the ignition enough to make the engine crank for a second. Then it physically slips inside and ignition stops working. This is very encouraging. I guess getting a replacement key should be possible.

On Wed, 29 Jul 2009 18:49:01 -0400, the infamous jeff scrawled the following:

How about using the diesel as a really heavy duty portable sawmill power source?

-- A great preservative against angry and mutinous thoughts, and all impatience and quarreling, is to have some great business and interest in your mind, which, like a sponge shall suck up your attention and keep you from brooding over what displeases you. -- Joseph Rickaby

You have most of a water well drill rig. It'd make a pretty good Battlebot, too.

Heh.

--Winston

Have you found the control for the glow plugs? I think all Kubotas use a glow plug requiring a minimum of 20 second warm up time. The tractors I have owned use a two-way starting switch. Counter clockwise for glow plug, Then clockwise for starter. Spring loaded return to center for running. The key was only to connect the charging system to the battery, My current Kubota has a heat sensor that opens the starting circuit if I crank the engine too long. Like in winter! When it cools off, will work again.

Also the Kubota does not have a fuel pump, Uses gravity to feed fuel through filters to the injection pump.

I can look up the bleeding instructions if it is a Kubota.

Paul

Don't sell yourself short, Iggy - And don't get the torch out yet.

It may just have a few stupid things wrong (like a bad ignition switch or a blown fuse in the electricals) and the previous owner was mechanically clueless. We know you aren't.

If you get the engine running and most of the floor scrubbing running gear works, you can fix the rest and get a Lot More selling it as a running and working floor scrubber than as scrap metal.

The only thing that would scotch it is any serious body rot, or a leaking holding tank that has rusted through (steel) or gotten brittle (Polyethylene) and needs replacing - and it's made of Unobtanium.

That's the time you find someone who already has three of these in service and wants one for spare parts. Then (and only then) you yank the engine and sell the rest.

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On Wed, 29 Jul 2009 21:03:08 -0700, the infamous Winston scrawled the following:

I can see the headlines now: "3,167 Pound KUBOTABOT Dices Hexidecimator, Vlad, Overkill, And 19 Others _Simultaneously_ In

-- A great preservative against angry and mutinous thoughts, and all impatience and quarreling, is to have some great business and interest in your mind, which, like a sponge shall suck up your attention and keep you from brooding over what displeases you. -- Joseph Rickaby

(...)

(Snort!)

UNTIL: Fuel < 0.001 or Arena_Smooth THEN Input: Arena_Bumpy > 0.001 THEN Output: Keep_Moving = 1 THEN RETURN:

--Winston

Not yet.

cool. In case the key definitely causes cranking.

The key and such, is not really a part of the engine. The engine has a couple of inputs, such as glow plug, starter signal, and fuel shutoff solenoid. What causes these lines to be energized, is up to the OEM. They have to provide safety interlocks, such as not allowing the machine to be in gear when started, etc.

Yep, I did not see a fuel pump either. (unlike on Cumminses)

Well, let's see how it works... I will call a dealer today to see about key replacement.

It may also be nothing wrong with it.

I agree for the most part.

Well, there is a fair amount of rot on the bottom.

I will see about all of this. This looks like a fun machine, even if parts only, there are some good parts.

What do your neighbors think of all this?

Paul

I have made a final and, at this point, irreversible decision. This rusted POS will be scrapped, with only the diesel engine taken out and maybe some bigger pieces of that useful 3/16" sheet metal.

Iggy perhaps you were a fan (as I was) of the TV series "Junkyard Wars" ("Scrapheap Challenge" in the U.K.). Almost without fail, the contestants would find a random machine, gut the motor out of it and install the motor untested in their creation.

Almost without fail, that motor ran sufficiently well after a few fiddly *seconds*.

That always struck me as an unqualified miracle. (Somebody call James Randi!)

Should I suspect that the producers arranged to have the 'scrap' machines tested beforehand?

Say it isn't so.

:)

--Winston

Such as been my experience with diesel engines, not so good with gas engines.

As I already know that the diesel cranks, this is already clearing a lot of hurdles.

It probably is so - because if the contestants could never find a workable engine in the yard to use for their build, the series wouldn't live past the third episode. If that.

When they went to the real junkyards to buy "supplies" for the TV show, the yard operators know what cars and equipment were towed in, and the ones that were driven in under their own power.

So it isn't farfetched at ALL to find out that the old cars and junk equipment that is "randomly" in the supply pile has had all the known bad bits already removed. So they don't use try to use that beautiful Ford 9-Inch rear-end as the base of a big turntable, and then find out the bearings are toast.

Or find out that the Lister diesel in the floor scrubber has a burned valve and a horked-up injection pump, and will take two episodes (retitled Small Engine Repair Wars) and cost more than it's worth to fix...

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I see your point.

That would be wasting time, wouldn't it?

:)

--Winston

Look at the junker. If it is crunched the motor is probably good. Old car and not bent, then the motor is suspect. Unless the vehicle is a real POS the engine will run. Maybe not good, but will run.

No, they have to know it at least ran recently, and fairly well. Some things on an unscripted TV Show you leave to chance, that they can get a complete and usable episode out of the footage isn't one of them.

There are lots of beaters cars on the road where the owners don't care what it looks like, as long as it runs, turns, and stops. When it can't even do the basics without major repairs, _then_ the car gets scrapped.

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I totally loved these pictures.