Saved a wad today

The PTO clutch on my old JD 317 died recently , and today I got around to figuring out why . The rivets that hold the clutch disk to the pulley assembly had vanished ! Wore plumb off down to nubbins is more like it . So I jumped on the interwebs to see what it would cost to replace ... and there ain't no way in hell I'm going to drop 250 bucks for this part . So I got to inspecting and figured out that I could machine some rivets from a piece of hot rolled 1/2 inch mild steel . And it worked . ... Snag

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I think my machine tools and welders have saved several times their purchase price on things I could repair or build from scratch instead of buying. It's hard to add up because the sawmill to salvage straight oak trunks and bucket loader to clear snow were helpful but not essential and I could have limited myself to electronics at work instead of adding machining. Some of the shop-made parts that salvaged free/cheap old outdoor equipment might have been found at the cost of time and gasoline. The rebuilt garden tractor and log splitter enabled free wood heat, a big but unknown savings. MIG welding has kept the vehicles registered, I machined custom tools for them but not automotive parts which are often heat treated and plated. Antenna instead of cable TV saved a big bundle, the machined repair parts for antenna storm damage should count against antenna replacement rather than the whole system. The elements aren't tubing, they were rolled from flat stock which I have copied with hand tools. When they hit the roof they break without damaging the shingles.

Nice job!

I noted the price these electric clutches go for many years ago when shopping for a "new" riding mower. Some have decreased since then but I question the quality nowadays...

I pop mine on once starting out, once more where I have to pass over a rough gravely spot and then off when done (~2.5 hours). I cringe listening to other people mowing with that clutch engaging/disengaging every few minutes and knowing how much they cost😬

Nice job!

I noted the price these electric clutches go for many years ago when shopping for a "new" riding mower. Some have decreased since then but I question the quality nowadays...

I pop mine on once starting out, once more where I have to pass over a rough gravely spot and then off when done (~2.5 hours). I cringe listening to other people mowing with that clutch engaging/disengaging every few minutes and knowing how much they cost😬 Leon Fisk

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The electric PTO mowing clutch on my heavily used ~1987 Sears GT18 garden tractor needed adjustment (like everything else) when I inherited it but otherwise still works.

Many of the adjustments are much easier on a lift unless you are a teen or contortionist. The owner lived on an island off the Maine coast, far from Sears service or most other tokens of modern civilization as we know it.

I saved on the clutch only to find the new in March fuel pump has died . The original had replaceable check valves - if you could figure out which ones you needed - these are molded into the plastic top section . The outlet valve isn't closing and it's fuel starved . And that little bastard wasn't cheap , 35 bucks plus and it fails in like 3 months . I briefly considered mounting an "IV bottle" to gravity feed but that's a bit too "country" even for me .

Mine would stumble at times and catch again. Usually on HOT days and after running the gas tank maybe to half or less (filled before mowing). It has a Kohler Command 25hp 2-cyl on it with a Crankcase Pulse Fuel Pump. Just put up with it for awhile but it kinda bugged me. I ordered a cheap replacement pump and a new air filter on a hunch. The Air Filter looked okay but had oil from the rocker cover (vapor recovery) contaminating it. Replacing the Air Filter got rid of the stumble, didn't need the new pump. Has been a couple years now and hasn't happened since. The vapor recovery is a direct shot into the intake, bypasses the Air Filter. Think it was sucking so hard on the vapor recovery that it was messing up the amount of "pulse" available for the fuel pump...

Like a lot of things, rivets (not pop rivets) used to intimidate me until one day I peened a piece of steel rod into a rivet to hold together some tongs. I've applied the "skill" to a few things since then. A hammer is an even more useful tool than I thought.

Anyway, good job.

This is actually a mower deck that the PTO

Sorry to hear that. I grew up hearing first hand recountings and tall tales from Vietnam vets. Regardless of the reason for the war, thank you for going.

My Uncle Paul was a radio man with a recon unit. He used to tell about a recurring dream he had about coming up over a hill and seeing a blinding flash, and then the dream ending. Then one day on patrol they came up over a hill and everything looked exactly as it did in his dream. They topped the hill, nothing happened, and they went down the other side. He's not around to tell that story any more.

He told another one to explain some scars on his chest. He was dog tired and crashed in his tent. He didn't even wake up when a rat was chewing on him. His tent mate's M16 woke him when he blew the rat right off of him. I imagine some of those scars could have been from muzzle flash too. I wasn't there of course.

I saved on the clutch only to find the new in March fuel pump has died . The original had replaceable check valves - if you could figure out which ones you needed - these are molded into the plastic top section . The outlet valve isn't closing and it's fuel starved . And that little bastard wasn't cheap , 35 bucks plus and it fails in like 3 months . I briefly considered mounting an "IV bottle" to gravity feed but that's a bit too "country" even for me .

-- Snag

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The fuel pump was one of my GT18's many mortal ailments. After cleaning out the crud possibly caused by wet gasoline from a shoreline station and installing a rebuild kit it mostly worked well enough. I added a marine rubber bulb primer before the pump that flushes it strongly while refilling the carb bowl and it's been fine since.

I also was pushed to adopt the GT18's replacement, a 22HP GT5000 from ~2005. I'm glad I kept the 1991 Ranger with its 7' bed. The vacuum pulse connection is a short molded hose from the pump top up to the valve cover, which cracked on my neighbor's similar vintage engine. Mouth pressure/vacuum on a clean spare hose to the port was enough to prove it pumps gasoline.

Mine would stumble at times and catch again. Usually on HOT days and after running the gas tank maybe to half or less (filled before mowing). It has a Kohler Command 25hp 2-cyl on it with a Crankcase Pulse Fuel Pump. Just put up with it for awhile but it kinda bugged me. I ordered a cheap replacement pump and a new air filter on a hunch. The Air Filter looked okay but had oil from the rocker cover (vapor recovery) contaminating it. Replacing the Air Filter got rid of the stumble, didn't need the new pump. Has been a couple years now and hasn't happened since. The vapor recovery is a direct shot into the intake, bypasses the Air Filter. Think it was sucking so hard on the vapor recovery that it was messing up the amount of "pulse" available for the fuel pump... Leon Fisk

----------------------------------------- Maybe the cause was the pressure drop through the clogged filter. The quick test would be running without it.

I picked up a couple of these second-hand to measure wood stove draft and heatsink pressure drop, an indication of air flow rate. This would be a good use for them.

Like a lot of things, rivets (not pop rivets) used to intimidate me until one day I peened a piece of steel rod into a rivet to hold together some tongs. I've applied the "skill" to a few things since then. A hammer is an even more useful tool than I thought.

Anyway, good job.

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In the blacksmithing class I learned some of the remarkable range of things a smith can make with only a hammer and anvil, such as the lap-joint tongs they use, and square cornered angle braces. Alexander Weyger's book goes further to forging chisels with tapered sockets for their handles.

The most remarkable hammer and anvil achievement is knights' armor. The curves can be formed by hammering over a depression in end grain wood or a leather sandbag, as can repair panels for car fenders. The most difficult panel I've made was for a rust-through where a rear inner wheel well transitioned to a tapered shock mount tower, the thickest was 14 gauge steel formed into trumpet bells as the pivoting socket for acorn cap feet on hoist legs.

I straightened out a badly dented motor housing end cap from learning about some of that armor work in this very group. I walked outside, tossed the motor housing cover in the sand, and knelt down to beat it out with a hammer. It looks like it was beat out with a hammer, but it looks better than you might think. Best part is the motor's separate cooling fan now clears. That would have been between 15 and 19 years ago.