Cold weather starting tips

[PhilY]

One thing I have begun to notice on my tractor with the temps. dropping is that every now and then it sounds like I have a mouse in my HST tranny. The tractor lives in an unheated garage and always let it sit and run in there until it gets up to temp before I drive it out. About 10 mins or so. I have noticed though that when it first comes to life that I hear a couple of chirps from the tranny that sounds like a mouse. It's not continuous and is just intermittent for the first couple of mins. Once it gets warmer the mouse chirps go away. Is this normal, and should I just chalk it up to cold hydraulic fluid? Specifically the noise seems to be coming from the front of the HST tranny right in the center of it. The valves for the FEL seems to be just a couple inches back and on the side of this section. Thanks for any info you may have.

[Egon]

Ashes? Hardly. the old man would take a 2'x2' pan of blazing hardwood coals from the stove and slide them under the oil pan of a 57 Ford being careful not to pump the accelerator pedal beforehand and risk having gas drip into the pan. When the oil in the oil pan began to snap and pop as the moisture in it began to boil you would take a hoe and pull the pan out, set the choke, pump the gas three times and start her up. Other days when it was above zero he would take a quart of oil in the metal can it came in and set it on the wood stove until it was boiling then pour it into the oil fill port and start her up. Straight 30 weight oil at zero or below poured out of the can like molasses if it poured out at all. We have it soo---oo much better today.

Hardly??

Some places don't have access to Dense Hardwood.

But how about shaking the coal ashes/clinkers into the ash pan and using that!

[Egon]

PhilY: If your tractor has a clutch and or neutral position the hydro may not be turning.

[PhilY]

PhilY: If your tractor has a clutch and or neutral position the hydro may not be turning.

It does have both, but hmm...are you saying that the clutch could be slipping due to the viscosity of the fluid in the tranny, or that something else may not be turning in the tranny? The weep pin on the clutch assembly is almost a 1' forward of the spot in the tranny though where I hear it chirp.

[vtsnowedin]

Hardly??

Some places don't have access to Dense Hardwood.

But how about shaking the coal ashes/clinkers into the ash pan and using that!

I look at ashes both from wood or coal fires as what is left after the fire is done consuming the fuel. They are not producing any more heat so wouldn't be very helpful. Coal clinkers can be pieces that got buried in the ashes and staved for oxygen. These have fuel value left and stirred up to get the air to them will give you a pan of heat producing coals. Other clinkers are metallic and mineral impurities in the coal that get melted together in lumps by the fire and produce no heat but could store whatever temp you took them from the fire at. All a matter of what your talking about and how many clinkers or coals you can shake down. You might need to take some of the burning coal off the top of the grates.
My father would take the ash pan from the kitchen wood stove with whatever ashes were in it into the living room wood stove and shovel four or five ash shovels full of glowing red coals from the hottest part of the fire into the pan to get a two inch layer or so. Then he would take it out to the open shed where the car was parked and slide it under the oil pan with a hoe. As there was no door on the shed the wind was free to come in and fan the coals so you had to monitor it pretty close and be ready to pull the pan back out if needed. The coals and ashes got spread on the driveway for traction after the car got started.
Ive seen a rosebud torch off a propane cylinder carefully applied to crane and bulldozer oil pans to take the chill off but block heaters or coolant transfer hoses are safer options.

[bironacad]

And miles out in the bush

The Manitoba guys are not kidding, we were there for the Grey Cup in 1991 mid November 1.4 F not counting the wind, lol. they don't call it Winterpeg for nothing. They say that they get more sun days then anywhere else in Canada though