It was the thursday night before the bank holiday weekend and I was looking forward to taking the kids and Susie to the caravan for a holiday that night.Then the phone rang........'Ther'es somthin' up wi' old 8,oil everywhere and we need it on tuesday mornin'.My wife knew what that meant.no holiday for the family.She went anyway without me(cow!)
So,down to the pit at 5am next morning and what a filthy mess I found.I pulled the floor plates out and just about everything else as this problem had been giving me some warnings for a while.I located the pipe and whilst I was removing it spotted a more sinister problem.The keeper plate on the end of the transmission imput shaft had sheared the bolts off and the plate had been rattling around the propshaft for some time by the looks of it.The belly plate needed to come off.This is allways bad news on D8/D9 tractors due to the sheer size and weight of them.I decided to make the job abit easier by digging a hole under it and have a proper look and power wash it all out.The prop came off easy as I could stand underneath it unobstructed and then the next day Kieth the fitter came down to drill the studs out of the shaft and put it all back together.The following day I came back down myself with some timbers and the trolley jack and with abit of help from my dad we had it ready for work by Sunday night.I managed to see my wife and kids for the bank holiday monday at least and the tractor went back to work on the Tuesday.
What a lovely weekend
