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had a close one last night!

Yesterday's Tractor Forums
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souNdguy

Well-known Member
Got home from work early yesterday and it was raining a bit, but needed to mow the pasture as weeds were knee high and outgrowing the grass. Ate dinner while waiting for the rain to stop.. went to fire up the NH 7610s and the batwing when i forgot i had pulle dthe battery out to charge it. not feeling like working on it, I instead fierd up the old ford 5000 w/ 10' mower and proceded down the road to the pasture. ( It's about a 4 mile trip each way. ) I get about hald way there and notice the steering a little sluggish.. when i suddenly figure out that there is NO steering! I was on a 4 lane, and had a good panic there for a second.. looked over both shoulders, thankfully no traffic around me as i was sneaking over intot he other lane.. I dumpe dthe throttle, and then reached down real quick and groped for the R/L brake pedal couple, try to get it free before I went intot he median and the ditch.. got it free, and used the left brake to get me back into my lane... a turnoff road was coming up real quick.. and i needed to get off theat road, but had to wait till the turn because there was a large curb ( but non onthe median side.. go figure! ) .. it was a small residential community.. low traffic i figured..... I kept the throttle low, and again.. use dthe left brake to swing me into the turn, and onto a grassy area near a power pole.

Found my problem.. a fitting on the pow steer pump was loos and running fluid out. I had checked all my oil and coolant before i had left.. but this sucker musta started bleeding when i uppe dthe rpms and got out onthe 4-lane.

Tried calling the wife.. but phone was busy.. i later learned the line was out from the storm!.. Called everybody I knew that lived inthe area.. no go. finally had to abandon the tractor there and walk to a jiffy store to buy some pow steer fluid.. Took me over an hour between the walk, and tightening the line... luckilly i keep an adjustable wrench and pair of pliers in the tool box. Got er oiled up and then ran the wheels lock to lock till it quit squealing, and then topped the pump off again, and then i went to mowing.

Had 2 more little surprises that evening.. 1, the neighbor was burning apile of weed debri and it musta had ivy or something else in it.. My eyes stung and itched and i broke out in a good hive all over my neck.. on the way home, I guy passed me on the 4 lane, I was in the right lane.. fully occupying it like I should be.. rear blinker, headlamps, and 3 smv plaques.. one high up on the tractor, and one at each edge of the mower.. was still light out.. but starting to head toward dark... guy passed between me and the car next to me.. literally ran us both near off the road... What gives?!?!

Mowing was fine.. but I got drenched onthe way home.. rain started back up good again...

Happy ending to the story.. but there for a second ont he 4-lane i almost had a brown alert type moment! Thank goodness there was no traffic around me.

soundguy
 
Looks like the tractor gods were watching over you SouNdguy. That and your good common sense minimized the adrenalin rush.

Anything can happen with these old machines. That"s why I put a ROP, new seat and seat belt on the 671.

Jack
 
I'm looking for a rops for my 5000.. it has none. though my 7610s does. I DO feel better witht he rops / seatbelt int he 7610s.. plus it is a tad larger machine, and with the batwing in tow.. i have a little more mass in my defense if i am ever rear ended..

But yeah.. it was a real 'cheek' clencher when I started drifting left over the center line, and steering right had no effect!

soundguy
 
soundguy,
Amazing how small the difference is between an "aw s**t moment followed by a sigh of relief" and a headline in the local newspaper. :shock:

Was pulling stumps this past weekend with the backhoe and loading them into the pickup to dump elsewhere on my property. Wife was helping. Like most people, I'm extremely cautious when I'm on a machine, watching where everybody is, moving very slow or taking hands off the controls when people are close by.

She pulled up the truck, I swung the bucket and dumped one stump into the bed. I couldn't see the driver's door because it was inline with the boom. I swung the bucket fairly quickly back away from the truck and then saw that she had got out of the truck (not sure why) instead of driving off. The bucket had already swung in front of her with about 4 ft between them. From her perspective it probably didn't seem dangerous (when I worked construction years ago, we worked all around excavating machines) but from my viewpoint, it was too close considering that I didn't realize she was there. Another reminder that safety is paramount, because you never know when a component will fail.
 
My solid 8x2 tranny had no problems.. just a lil' low on power steering oil.

However.. this is the kind of reply I -did- expect from you.. that is.. devoid of any content.. just a jab to the far right, not having to do with the topic..

thanks

Soundguy
 
yep.. gotta try to be safe.. caus ethe machine won't be safe for ya. Glad yours turned out ok.

soundguy
 
glad you are ok.
what steering setup do you have on your 5000? Even if you have a total hyraulic failure on ours with the integral pump/reservoir you can still steer, as there is always a mechanical linkage.

karl f
 
Why did you lose the steering completely? On my early 5000 the PS is in reality only an "assist" unit. If the pump quits I still have manual steering. The steering box itself is not involved in the PS- there is a cylinder attached to the steering linkage under the radiator.
I know that your 5000 is a later model that uses the steering box as the assist unit but I would think you'd still have manual steering if the pump failed.
 
However.. this is the kind of reply I -did- expect from you.. that is.. devoid of any content.. just a jab to the far right, not having to do with the topic.. (reply to post at 08:38:00 07/08/08)
Click to expand...

Yep . . . and that's the kind of a comment I'd expect from someone who just hits the keys so he can see his own writing. No real content to it!!!
 
souNdguy
Glad to hear it turned out OK for you .
It may take a while for those hives though.
Good thing you were able to use the brakes to keep you safe.
Those close calls are hard on the seat material!
Brian
 
I had somewhat of a scare last night - although not tractor related. I went out to buy a 6 pak of Mobil 1 Sysnthetic 20w 50 VTwin oil for my Harley at the local auto parts shop and the price was $72.00 plus tax! Thats over $10.00/quart!
I left without buying anything.
It was my third stop - the first two places didn't sell 20w50 although Farm and Fleet had 15w 50 synthetic for 6.49/ qt. I'm going back to FF after work to make that purchase.
I almost regret having switched to synthetic when the bike had 18,000 miles. (It now has 42,000 miles)
General question about oils - is it possible to switch from Synthetic back to Mineral based - or is that not recommended?
 
Yep... very nearly bit a chunk out of it. At least it was a vinyl seat.. it's hard to get a good grasp on the metal pan seats when you clinch up!

soundguy
 
Almost left some of my 'whits' on the seat when i went to make a turn and the tractor kept going traight!

soundguy
 
I'm less familiar witht he newer thousand series units.. but I'll give it a check when i get home.

soundguy
 
I'll try it out tonight when i get home, I'm less familiar with the later thousand series vs the hundred or the N. All i know is my steering is usuall spot on.. and tight.. move the wheel just a bit either way and you are stering good. When i notice dthe problem, i gave it a good turn and barely had any effect. Once i pulle dof fthe road, at idle.. i did have -some- steering.

will post back later.

soundguy
 
My message had a purpose.. your message was just drivel.. why don't you go be a good troll and bother somebody else!

soundguy
 
Not my area of experties.. Ya might try another forum though. I've not used synthetic very much. We have a couple vehicles at work that use it.. but I don't use it for my toys or personal vehicles.

good luck

soundguy
 
Just checked.. wow.. I'm so used tot he power steering that I thought I was more or less steering 'lock to lock'.. the manual steering on that 5000 is pretty darn hard. My 7610s has just a steering cyl and no manual connection.. when it looses hyds.. it's dead.. when I lost pow ster on the 5000 and got a good bit of turn either way with no steering my mind clicked thinking it was near the same setup.. IE.. I was hitting the lock on either side.. when in reality I was just starting to get some mechanical advantage on the steering and felt the resistance. Turns out I wasn't as nearly in trouble as I thought I was.. but still.. going 18mph and that hard steering wouldn't have been a good combo!
I wasn't prepaired for the difference...pow steer on that 5000 is great.. 1-finger type stuff.. even better than the 7610s.

thanks for pointing that out.
good to learn something every day.

soundguy
 
Just checked.. wow.. I'm so used tot he power steering that I thought I was more or less steering 'lock to lock'.. the manual steering on that 5000 is pretty darn hard. My 7610s has just a steering cyl and no manual connection.. when it looses hyds.. it's dead.. when I lost pow ster on the 5000 and got a good bit of turn either way with no steering my mind clicked thinking it was near the same setup.. IE.. I was hitting the lock on either side.. when in reality I was just starting to get some mechanical advantage on the steering and felt the resistance. Turns out I wasn't as nearly in trouble as I thought I was.. but still.. going 18mph and that hard steering wouldn't have been a good combo!
I wasn't prepaired for the difference...pow steer on that 5000 is great.. 1-finger type stuff.. even better than the 7610s.

thanks for pointing that out.
good to learn something every day.

soundguy
 
glad to see you came all right souNdguy. I bet the pucker factor was close to 1000 on that one. even when that car came between you was also a close call, people just dont seem to care
 
know what you were thinking i was hit by a drunk driver on my way back in one day totaled the tractor and the pickup that hit me came real close to totaling me drunk driver was doing 60 mph i was doing 18 had it in the wind hit me from behind
 
The 7610 will also steer if you lose pump supply so long as the lines are tight and you still have oil in them. The design of the torque motor is such that it will pump oil to the steering cylinder. It will be HARD, but it will get you there...

Rod
 
I had a mishap yesterday evening with a lawn mower that sent me to the hospital. About ten days ago my wife insisted I mow the lawn. I argued that I ahd just done it 7 days ago and it wasn"t needed yet, but I started up the mower for her and she went to it. Well, she hit a rock by the sidewalk and the mower was vibrating badly. Yesterday I removed the blade but decided that before strightening I should see if engine would start. I gave it a few pulls and nothing but it was rather hard pulling. Then it happened. At the next pull the handle snapped really fast out of my right hand and landed on my left wrist really hard. Within 5 seconds the wrist behind the thumb blew up an inch. Immediately grabbed ice and got my wife"s attention. A couple of minutes later I started getting woozy and continued getting worse and worse till finally my wife called 911. They arrived quickly and I was ready to pass out. I wound up in the hospital emergency room. Turned out OK though, it was mostly my chronic anxiety, panic attack than anything else. Went home 4 hours later with just a splint. Not bad this time.
 
Joe, mower engines depend on the knife as a flwheel.The engine will kick back if the knife loose.It can kick back real hard with no knife on the shaft.Straightening bent knives is risky.You may have a bent crank shaft.No safe fix for that problem,new engines tend to cost more than a new mower.Bent knives do crack at times.
 
I tested both of em out last night.. and yep.. that 7610s is even harder to steer with no pressure to it.. but it does make it around.. I've driven plenty of mechanical steering tractors .. but wonder if the steering gear boxes for the manuals that have built in power steering are geared with less mechanical advantage since the are counting on power assist.. vs a machine built for straight manual steering?

Soundguy
 
I was a tad numb by the time the car happened.. I just moved over as far as I could, as did the guy int he other lane.. while the car and driver with cell phone shot between us.. go figure..

soundguy
 
I was somewhat more lucky.. I had just come thru an intersection that had stopped traffic.. i had gotten up to full steam ( probably 17-18mph according to my gear/tach chart ), and then the light turned green for the traffic aft of me while I was only about 100' from the intersection.. guy came up on the left of me.. and the guyt hat came up behind me is the one that shot the gate between us..

soundguy
 
Glad it wasn't anything too serious!

I thought you were gonna say the rock hit you or something! be carefull!

soundguy
 
It's a strong possibility that the P/A boxes have less advantage. I think if you look at the specs in the op's manual it'll say the number of turns from lock to lock. I'd bet that the P/A is something like 4 and the manual is 4.5 - 5 turns... so that would suggest to me that the P/A has a more abrupt worm than the manual. Wheel size may also be larger on the manual tractors.

Rod
 
Good point. I have mostly non PS machines.. Non ps machines that were meant to be non ps. and they aren't too bad.. except with a loader.. And my 5000 / 7610s was as hard to turn with no ps as my 850 is with a loader! I'm betting you are correct on the more abrupt worm angle. .. Since it is 'expecting' power assist there would be no need for a lot of mechanical advantage in the box itself.. etc.

great when it works.. and a dog when it don't.

soundguy
 
Not sure where you"re coming from. Sounder has helped many, as have you. I realize we probably all harbor ill will toward at least one other person but it"s too bad that this board sometimes gets used as a clothesline to air out that laundry.
 
Here"s one for the books, I loaded a car on my trailer over the trailer axles, apparently not enough weight on the tounge of the trailer because it jacknifed me in less than a mile after entering the interstate highway. no injury but 1200+ damages to the truck. I was lucky to walk away from it. So make sure your trailer is loaded correctly so it will pull straight.
 
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