Life with old equipment

[Midwesthonky]

I own a small business. I bought an old Bobcat 610 skid steer in 2017 to clear snow. Payback based on paying someone to clear my lot and paying my guys to shovel snow was between 2 & 3 years. So not a bad investment. Ran good last winter except for a hydraulic hose getting loose and it 'bleeding' all over the drive. Fixed it easily by tightening a hose clamp.

First snow fall this winter went fine. Then, it started acting up. Then lucky if I could get it to start at all. Went a couple of weeks like this and nothing seemed to work. Drained all the old gas from summer and added fresh gas. Maybe a 3% improvement at idle. But no RPM above idle. Just dies. Spent Friday night completely going through the carburator. Nothing obvious. No improvement. Spent all day Sunday on it. Removed the head and checked that to make sure the valves all good. Nothing obvious there. Finally happened to accidentally touch the coil. That was too hot to hold even after sitting for an hour and only previously running for 15-20 seconds at a time. Replaced the coil. Nothing. Finally broke down and drove to two NAPA stores to get all the parts to rebuild the entire ignition system (old point system). Finally, at 5 pm on Sunday night it's alive!

Yeah! Rev it up, open the overhead door to clear the snow we got Friday night... AND it eats the alternator and started leaking hydraulic fluid. Said some choice english language words you won't learn in the classroom and proceeded to clear snow. Finally, today I got back in there and fixed the hydraulic leak. Alternator still offline. I may tackle that this spring. I can just keep the battery charged up for now.

Sigh...life with old equipment.

 

[TLS Guy]

I own a small business. I bought an old Bobcat 610 skid steer in 2017 to clear snow. Payback based on paying someone to clear my lot and paying my guys to shovel snow was between 2 & 3 years. So not a bad investment. Ran good last winter except for a hydraulic hose getting loose and it 'bleeding' all over the drive. Fixed it easily by tightening a hose clamp.

First snow fall this winter went fine. Then, it started acting up. Then lucky if I could get it to start at all. Went a couple of weeks like this and nothing seemed to work. Drained all the old gas from summer and added fresh gas. Maybe a 3% improvement at idle. But no RPM above idle. Just dies. Spent Friday night completely going through the carburator. Nothing obvious. No improvement. Spent all day Sunday on it. Removed the head and checked that to make sure the valves all good. Nothing obvious there. Finally happened to accidentally touch the coil. That was too hot to hold even after sitting for an hour and only previously running for 15-20 seconds at a time. Replaced the coil. Nothing. Finally broke down and drove to two NAPA stores to get all the parts to rebuild the entire ignition system (old point system). Finally, at 5 pm on Sunday night it's alive!

Yeah! Rev it up, open the overhead door to clear the snow we got Friday night... AND it eats the alternator and started leaking hydraulic fluid. Said some choice english language words you won't learn in the classroom and proceeded to clear snow. Finally, today I got back in there and fixed the hydraulic leak. Alternator still offline. I may tackle that this spring. I can just keep the battery charged up for now.

Sigh...life with old equipment.

That Bobcat has a Wisconsin V4 does it not? That is the same engine I have on my generator here. If the coil was heating and the points were opening the culprit must have been the capacitor in the distributor. The only way the coil could heat like that is if the points were shorted, which would mean not opening, or the capacitor would have to have developed a short through the dielectric.

My engine would not stay running and soon quit, when I tested it prior to severe summer weather forecast. Anyhow there was next to no spark on my ignition tester. Everything seemed OK, so I replaced the capacitor and it started right away. I have read reports the capacitors that seldom failed years ago now do more often. I suppose that is Far Eastern manufacture again. Standard ignition parts are all made outside the US now.

My engine has a Morse Magneto, even though built in 1995. There is an aftermarket solid state conversion kit for those engines. However an old timer said my old Morse Magneto will give the better spark.

I have to say I have had good luck on the whole with my vintage equipment. I was on my Model A for three hours today clearing snow. I think that tractor pushes as hard as it did when it left the factory in Waterloo 71 years ago.

I guess once you get to know that Bobcat things will be better. Just replace any hydraulic lines that look old and worn. Do yoru maintenance and it will give good service.

Is the alternator a GM one wire, or is there a regulator external to the alternator? Don't forget that alternator failure can also discharge the battery, as a common failure is diode failure which usually slowly drains the battery.

One word of warning about those Wisconsin engines. Don't run it in below zero F weather. Like a lot of air cooled engines, operating at very low temperatures can cause the crank case to freeze. I have seen that happen. The engine is scrap after that.

 

[Midwesthonky]

That Bobcat has a Wisconsin V4 does it not? That is the same engine I have on my generator here. If the coil was heating and the points were opening the culprit must have been the capacitor in the distributor. The only way the coil could heat like that is if the points were shorted, which would mean not opening, or the capacitor would have to have developed a short through the dielectric.

My engine would not stay running and soon quit, when I tested it prior to severe summer weather forecast. Anyhow there was next to no spark on my ignition tester. Everything seemed OK, so I replaced the capacitor and it started right away. I have read reports the capacitors that seldom failed years ago now do more often. I suppose that is Far Eastern manufacture again. Standard ignition parts are all made outside the US now.

My engine has a Morse Magneto, even though built in 1995. There is an aftermarket solid state conversion kit for those engines. However an old timer said my old Morse Magneto will give the better spark.

I have to say I have had good luck on the whole with my vintage equipment. I was on my Model A for three hours today clearing snow. I think that tractor pushes as hard as it did when it left the factory in Waterloo 71 years ago.

I guess once you get to know that Bobcat things will be better. Just replace any hydraulic lines that look old and worn. Do yoru maintenance and it will give good service.

Is the alternator a GM one wire, or is there a regulator external to the alternator? Don't forget that alternator failure can also discharge the battery, as a common failure is diode failure which usually slowly drains the battery.

One word of warning about those Wisconsin engines. Don't run it in below zero F weather. Like a lot of air cooled engines, operating at very low temperatures can cause the crank case to freeze. I have seen that happen. The engine is scrap after that.

Thanks for the advice. Sometimes I have to run it in below 0 F weather, but that's very rare since it usually doesn't snow when it's that cold.

I suspect my issue was the capacitor. I replaced that along with new points, rotor and cap. As long as I'm in there, I might as well replace it all for the cost. That did the trick.

The alternator is a long story and needs investigation on my part. Time I don't have right now and it's stupid ass cold outside. Originally, the alternator was mounted to a cross bar under the seat. But that cross-bar broke from the vibration so the alternator hung lower than normal. Along the way, before I bought it, something got into the fan blades that direct air through the alternator. So some were bend, some missing. But since it hung low, it worked, sorta as the bent would loosen and tighten as the vibration and the broken mount bounced it along. Belt came off this summer. I never noticed. I fixed the broken cross bar with a new brace and reinstalled the belt. Oh it was not happy with that and somehow the fan blades started hitting something new. Ate all the fan blades on the alternator, chucked the belt, and loosened a hydraulic line that it hit during it's self-destruct phase. So I am leaving the alternator disconnected for now until I can afford the time to take it apart and carefully go through it to see what is going on. I keep the battery charged up so I'm ok running it without an alternator for now. Only takes 1.5-2 hours to clear the bad snows. Pull it into the shop overnight and plug in a trickle charger. Good to go by morning.

I try to maintain it myself so I know what's going on and wrong. I generally like older equipment because mechanically, it's not complex. Doesn't burn oil. Has good power and pushes snow just fine.

 

[TLS Guy]

Thanks for the advice. Sometimes I have to run it in below 0 F weather, but that's very rare since it usually doesn't snow when it's that cold.

I suspect my issue was the capacitor. I replaced that along with new points, rotor and cap. As long as I'm in there, I might as well replace it all for the cost. That did the trick.

The alternator is a long story and needs investigation on my part. Time I don't have right now and it's stupid ass cold outside. Originally, the alternator was mounted to a cross bar under the seat. But that cross-bar broke from the vibration so the alternator hung lower than normal. Along the way, before I bought it, something got into the fan blades that direct air through the alternator. So some were bend, some missing. But since it hung low, it worked, sorta as the bent would loosen and tighten as the vibration and the broken mount bounced it along. Belt came off this summer. I never noticed. I fixed the broken cross bar with a new brace and reinstalled the belt. Oh it was not happy with that and somehow the fan blades started hitting something new. Ate all the fan blades on the alternator, chucked the belt, and loosened a hydraulic line that it hit during it's self-destruct phase. So I am leaving the alternator disconnected for now until I can afford the time to take it apart and carefully go through it to see what is going on. I keep the battery charged up so I'm ok running it without an alternator for now. Only takes 1.5-2 hours to clear the bad snows. Pull it into the shop overnight and plug in a trickle charger. Good to go by morning.

I try to maintain it myself so I know what's going on and wrong. I generally like older equipment because mechanically, it's not complex. Doesn't burn oil. Has good power and pushes snow just fine.

Probably will need a new alternator after that, mounted so nothing damages it.

They are very good engines those old Wisconsin V4s. They were used in all the old Versatile swathers, and quite a lot of other farm machinery.

Mine charges from coils in the flywheel.