It Lives !!! I am starting to believe that I am approaching "not bad" status fixing this bad boy. I managed to get my freshly-rebuilt Stanadyne Pump re-installed in my machine, the fuel system bled, and the machine running. I was just shocked when I saw that first short puff of smoke come out of the stack, followed by a completely successful start on the next turn of the key. A big shout-out to Mike the Pump Guy (thepumpguysc) here on the forum. Mike turned this thing around quickly, and sent it back all nice and painted (and with all the holes plugged-up) in just a couple of days. The entire process from sending it down to him, rebuilding the pump, and return to my door) was like 11 days, with the vast majority of time being transit time. He sent a pair of umbrella seals for me (the shaft stayed in the tractor) that went on quite well. I opted for the gooder Flex Ring option, as I plan on having the machine (or my son plans on having it) for quite some time. Thanks for all the other useful posts on replacement on the forums. Following suggestions, I managed to set the engine to TDC with my makeshift window, setting the lines bang-on before removing the pump. Because I did not touch the crank after that, I simply re-installed the rebuilt one lined-up the exact same. It worked. No major problem at all. I only cracked one injector loose for the bleed, and it fired up rather easily after that (I guess this can be a real pain sometimes; glad I escaped that experience). And it appears to be running quite well. The RPMs certainly are higher now, and the response is much crisper. I am going to go back and run it again to check for fuel leaks, but it looks like the hood will be back on and everything buttoned-up in short order. Not sure what sort of fine-tuning would typically be done, but it is already much better than before. Maybe just beginner's luck. Everything is certainly a lot cleaner in the injector area, the amount of dirt/grease back there was obscene. It was good to be able to support someone who has been so helpful on the forum. I would give him 5 out of 5 stars. Not having to clean mouse turds out of the check valve anymore...Priceless!
What I liked best about dealing with Mike was he takes bad checks. Can't beat that with a stick. Joe H
Dang, I didn't know he took Bad ones. Everything is good. This almost went too easily and worked too well. Something really bad must be getting ready to happen to me to make up for this.
Happy for ya Marc..glad it went on w/o any problems.. It’s nice to have customers that listen.. I gave u a little more “horses” and the rpm’s to pull yourself out of a jam.. but as the saying goes, just cuz u got’m, doesn’t mean u gotta use’m..(all the time) Happy Dig’n..
I just got back in from a short session (it started raining again). Moved a few bucket loads of rocks over to a perimeter "wall" (a line of rocks), moved a few stumps out to the rear area of the property, dug up a few smaller (12-18") stumps. Just driving around with loads is much-much more responsive to the petal. Did manage to get stuck in one area of the yard pretty well. Engaged 4WD for the first time,and that happened to work too! So far, nothing but pleased with the overall performance increase. Mike did a great job! Perhaps racing stripes are in order.
Now comes the Punishment Phase for having such good luck, and a relatively event-free FI replacement operation. I always seem to get punished when something goeswell. Now "forward" has decided not to work so well. I had just gotten done moving a bunch of 10' log sections from my latest lumberjack endeavors, and it (more or less all of a sudden) did not seem to want to move in forward. Reverse is just fine. Time to look at some detailed threads and my manuals on reverser issues. What are the chances that I will be lucky again (like just a sticking solenoid or something)??
Lol.. go back and look at a couple of posts before this one..!! “Something really bad must be getting ready to happen to me”.. lol That’s TO FUNNY.. Chin up buddy.. it might b something simple, like a dirty filter or low fluid.?? SOME PEOPLE HAVE ALL THE LUCK..
So I finally figured out what was going to get me in the Punishment Phase of this whole rebuild process. Between the new Vickers pump and the now what seems "supercharged" Stanadyne pump (thanks to ThePumpGuys), some of the hydraulic seals are starting to leak under heavy loads. I think that it has been a long time since this beast has been in good enough shape to do some real digging/stumping, and now the old seals on the backhoe portion are starting to give-out. Unfortunately, this is not ground-level work, like the stabilizers and swing cylinders were. Time to watch some videos about how to do this.
The good thing about the cylinders is if they leak from old age, then it's usually an easy rebuild. You won't have bent or dinged rods or worn out glands, just seals plain falling apart, put new ones in and good for another couple decades.