Power At Work

Doing the necessary checks and using the right grease are maintenance musts to keep your trailer in good working order

by KEITH BERGLIND

Every time I see a bad set of wheel bearings or a bad wheel bearing set-up, I feel compelled to write a fresh set of instructions. “When will everyone catch on?” I ask myself. Well, one reason is that jobs are changing, cars last longer and there are more trailers on the road.

Spending $100 on replacing a filter at the proper time is a much better investment than forking out $10,000 for a new hydrostatic motor assembly

by RALPH WINFIELD

The opportunities for most farmers to shift their activities to take advantage of time-of-use pricing are limited. In fact, it may encourage greater use of self-contained standby generation systems

by RALPH WINFIELD

Most of you will already have a smart meter installed, or will have one shortly on your electrical service.

With this in your hand, you should be able to do repairs yourself or at least narrow down the potential fault locations for a service rep

by RALPH WINFIELD

Most of us are inundated with operator’s manuals for everything from the bench grinder to the combine. In many cases, these manuals tell us how to start and stop the equipment, when to service it and the importance of operating the equipment safely. That is all good and useful information, but why should it stop there?

Using a special, wider bearing, you should be able to fix a shaft that has become worn. And it’s a job you can do yourself

by KEITH BERGLIND

With certain repair jobs, the “proper” dealer or manufacturer way may take too much time or too many parts. So sometimes a clever guy can cut corners to save time and money.

Here’s a trick we sometimes use to save a worn shaft, where the bearing has turned on the shaft and caused about one millimetre of wear. This shaft is an intermediate, light load in a combine.

An update on bolt grades, prompted by an observant reader

by RALPH WINFIELD

After my first article on bolt grading appeared in the December 2008 issue of Better Farming, the phone rang. An observant and knowledgeable reader assured me – very politely, I might add – that I had shortchanged you.

If you are buying a space heating unit for your house, shop or poultry/livestock building, remember that oversizing can waste energy and cost you big dollars

RALPH WINFIELD

This is not a simple, cheap do-it-yourself repair. But it can be done with the proper kit, or by your local repair shop

by KEITH BERGLIND

Missing parts are always frustrating and there’s nothing more annoying than missing threads. Yes, you try to tighten the bolt into the engine block, but there are no threadsthere – and no way to put a nut on the other side.

Well, back when I was a boy and my dad had this problem with some old tractor, he would just drill the hole out, rethread the hole to the next size larger bolt and move on.

What constitutes a good bearing fit on a shaft? Zero or negative clearance

by KEITH BERGLIND

In our mechanic’s world, thread locker chemicals have a close cousin called retaining compounds. These are similar to the thread lockers. The purpose of the retainer compound is to take up small amounts of space and keep things in place.

For anyone with electronic equipment in their home or farm, these devices provide cheap insurance against power surges caused by lightning strikes

by RALPH WINFIELD

Many of you now have a computer and an internet connection. I’ll bet that most of you also have a surge protector on both the input hydro and telephone lines going to your internet system. The surge protection is often built into the power bar that you have sitting next to your system. In fact, you might not even know that it is there if it has not been “fried” yet.