It Was Simply Time To Quit

It was a very eventful weekend at the farm! Doctor Bill my John Deer technician at Kibble Equipment in Owatonna called me with the bad news Friday morning that my combine would not start because of the injector pump. I needed a new or "rebuilt" injector pump and they are quite expensive. What are you going to do, kind of difficult to combine corn when the engine won't run. So I said see how soon you can get an injector pump!

Doctor Bill found a "rebuilt" injector pump in Spencer Iowa. I was going to drive down to get it on Friday afternoon. Shortly later Doctor Bill called me back and said one of the technicians that worked on the injector pumps was coming to Owatonna that afternoon and he would be more than happy to drop it off at Kibble Equipment in Owatonna. How is that for catching a break?

It took Doctor Bill a few hours to take the old pump off and install the "rebuilt" one. It is a very complicated process with all the fuel lines, getting it timed properly and getting all the air bled out of the fuel lines. It was about 2:00 Saturday afternoon when I was back combining corn. Everything went smoothly until about 3:00 this afternoon. After unloading the corn from the combine into the truck I pushed the button in the cab to shut off the unloading auger.

Much to my surprise, the unloading auger would not stop! I shut the engine off, opened the side panel on the combine and saw this very big spring hanging there. One end of the spring broke off. This big heavy spring disengages the unloading auger drive. I guess it was time to quit, I was tired anyway!