Sometimes your better off to call a pro.

Jeff Horton

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The Heart of Dixie
That or stick a match to it and watch it burn!! That is about the point I was at with this OLD John Deere 420. You may remember I had fits with it last spring. Took me two weeks to find a simple problem. Well this year the same routine except I just got feed up much faster. I could find nothing wrong yet it wouldn't crank.

I knew my starter wasn't working right, it was slow so it needed rebuilding. Found a retired mechanic here on the mountain and got him out. Within 15-20 minutes he had it almost starting. The starter just wouldn't spin it fast enough but it was hitting. The problem? A loose choke cable. When I was pulling out the choke, the cable had come loose and the whole cable was moving instead of pulling the choke lever.

I had spend hours looking at this thing never thought of that. He of course first thing put his hand over the carb. to choke it and when it tried to crank he got to looking and found it. :doh:

Got the stater rebuilt and it just spins like crazy now and fired right up with the choke cable fixed.

Moral of the story. When fed up and sick of tired, it's time to pay a pro no matter how stupid you look afterwards.
 
I agree with your moral. Seems the older I get the shorter the time required for me to realize things will get done quicker and cheaper if I just let a pro do it. I'll save my time and energies (just not my money) for things I enjoy.
 
I.........I'll save my time and energies (just not my money) for things I enjoy.

Thats the ticket!!

I used to love this kind of stuff. Never had an engine I couldn't make run or find out why it didn't. Now, I DO NOT enjoy it after about an hour or so. Many things I would rather be doing in the shop!!

Like what I did yesterday after it cranked. I bush hogged (mowed for those city boys) the pasture. After 3 weeks I got the wife a garden spot turned under. Moved the implements that were in the yard to the barn where they should have been. Just enjoyed having a RUNNING tractor again. :D
 
I understand, Jeff. I went looking for an electrical problem this am. 4 days ago a breaker that controls the lights in the kitchen, utility room and therefore the freezer popped and wouldn't reset. I pulled the cover off the box this am and switched wires on 2 breakers and determined it wasn't the breaker. Started looking at all the outlets that didn't work. One outside by the Pecan tree in the patio wasn't working. Looked like a likely culprit being that it is out in the rain. Pulled the outlet and it was solid rust. Got to be it. Nope. Pulled several others in the house apart, they all seemed fine. I'm thinking rats or squirrels chewed into the wiring up in the attic, and am about to call it quits. I got my old Simpson meter from the shop and sure enough, the hot wire had continuity direct to ground and to the neutral. Then I spotted a blank cover behind the freezer. Pulled it and there was wire coming up out of conduit into the box, joined to another wire going back down into another conduit. Hmmm. Pulled the nuts off and separated them, and the breaker held. Evidently it was the wire going out from the slab to the Pecan tree, and it shorted out. Maybe a root finally grew into the wire and tore it apart, I don't know. Don't care. But I was THAT Close to calling in the big guns.
Good luck with your brakes. How many times do you have to stop that thing when you're using it anyway??:rofl: Jim.
 
I told you once and I'll tell you again Jeff. You had better give that thing to your buddy Chuck before it nickel and dimes you to death:thumb::rofl::rofl:

Just send that 420 up here. I'm used to fixing things before I use them. :rolleyes:

I thought about it but I just couldn't do that to you guys. Wouldn't be right to unload my problems on you. I am going to clear up a out of the way corner in the shop and tear into those brakes. Asked around and sounds like a straight forward fix.
 
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I thought about it but I just couldn't do that to you guys. Wouldn't be right to unload my problems on you. I am going to clear up a out of the way corner in the shop and tear into those breaks. Asked around and sounds like a straight forward fix.

Jeff it's no problem at old buddy. I just wouldn't feel right about you getting all stressed out working on that thing.
 
I thought about it but I just couldn't do that to you guys. Wouldn't be right to unload my problems on you. I am going to clear up a out of the way corner in the shop and tear into those brakes. Asked around and sounds like a straight forward fix.


But those can be the worst kind....

Straight forward...? Is there really such a thing....?

Garry
 
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