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I have a 1992 3230 with a leaking steering cylinder, which I've already removed from the tractor. The cylinder is e7nn3A540CB and it looks like the seal kit is fp526. I've never replaced seals in a hydraulic cylinder before, but am considering giving it a go. This cylinder appears 'backwards'...

What are the two cooling fans located beside the battery?

Appreciate the replies. We have a cub cadet dealer nearby where I was eyeing a ZT3, but they sold it. Offered me a discount on a ztx5 60 and it was delivered to me today. Not sure if this is true, or someone just trying to justify buying bigger, but I read someone saying the larger deck...

I'm looking at ZTs for the first time. Mowing consists of 6-7 acres. For wide open areas, I currently use a Ford 3230 utility tractor pulling a 6' caroni finish mower, unless grass is too thick/tall, then it pulls a 5' woods rotary cutter. This is not very maneuverable and normally goes in...

I've seen a few things recently that got me thinking about getting a carry all frame which I can use to move a pallet around. Mounting my standby generator on the pallet would make it much easier to move it around as needed. I thought, why stop there? I can mount a small air compressor on...

I was able to get a closer look today. About 12" below ground level, there's some sort of concrete. I probed the ground and the concrete seems to extend about 7-8" from the post. The post and the metal bracket extend down to this concrete. I'm thinking the bracket is set in the concrete and...

We have a pole building thats roughly 21'x24' with two garage doors on the south end and leanto's attached around the east (enclosed) and north side (open). The main portion has a slab, as does the leanto on the east, but it looks like an inch or two elevation difference between the slabs. I...

We just got an electric bill and the usage is the highest it's been in the 9 years we've been in this house. I need to figure out if something is malfunctioning or if this is a combination of the cold weather and my wife fiddling with the thermostat. Our heat pump is about 7 years old and...

My property is a "flagpole" lot, where I have a 50' wide strip of land that extends out to the main road, between other properties. There's a paved road on this 50' wide strip that belongs to me. I understand there's an easement that allows the other two lots to use the easement to get to...

We have one of the big name pest control companies come out once a quarter. Each time, they spray something around the perimeter of the house and knock down any webs. We're starting to wonder if this is a necessary expense. Is this a reasonable DIY sort of thing or not worth it do DIY? If...

"Leaves of three, let it be" appears to be overly broad. There seem to be plenty of plants with leaves in groups of three that are not poison ivy. We have three leafed plants growing along the tree line that I'm fairly sure are not poison ivy, but we also have poison ivy. I'd rather not kill...

This is our first year trying the mammoth sunflowers. We have about 125 plants. With the other sunflower varieties, I looked at the back of the flower to tell when to harvest. These flowers are ten feet or so off the ground with the back of the flower facing the sky, so I can't do that unless...

I'm thinking of putting a number of sunflowers in the garden this year, maybe 100 or so. Our 2 year old son will have a blast with a forest of huge flowers he can see from his window and go play in. And my wife has been eating sunflower seeds in salads, soups, etc. I'd like to be ready to...

I was pulling the mower back to the shop to put it away and just about stepped on these, about 200' from the back door of our house. The picture with the mower is exactly as I found them. Keith

Other than a couple youtube videos, I've never seen plowing done up close. Here are some pictures of an attempt at plowing today and the tools. Any pointers on what I should do differently? The wire grass is terrible and was bunching up, especially on the first beam. I had the tractor...

We have an elderly relative living next door. She has been complaining of very loud rushing air noise coming from the ceiling vents at different times, even while the thermostat heat/off/cool switch is set to off. It's causing significant amounts of stress, anxiety, lack of sleep, etc, so I'd...

Long story short, years ago there were cats in this house that liked to pee on/around registers. I just finished removing 20 or so year old carpet from a bedroom. The subfloor is stained with cat urine around the two floor registers. Hasn't been a cat in the house for a decade but the room...

This time last year, I'd been picking blueberries for two weeks, but I haven't seen a ripe one yet this year. It does look like we're going to have more berries than last year. How are your blueberries doing? btw, this is in southeast virginia. Keith

They were out in number again today, and I was able to get a picture, which, if I did it right, should be attached to this post. I'm trying to id them to see if they're beneficial/safe to have out in the front yard or if I should go get the spray. Keith

I was mowing with a pushmower yesterday and realized I was going into a large group of what looked like yellow jackets. Probably a hundred of them flying close to the ground in one area. I stopped and watched for a while, trying to see if I could locate their nest. They were hardly landing...

There's this unused kayak that's been sitting outside for a while (several years+). And, we have plenty of black widows around. I'd really rather not climb into a kayak with black widows, a wasp nest or anything similar. What's a good way to eradicate critters like this without me having to...

We've had a few discussions on smart meters, so I thought I'd pass this news story along. Don't know anything about it other than what's in the story. Naperville smart meter arrest - chicagotribune.com Keith

We had a heat pump installed about 18 months ago and have a wood stove. We're running into a new issue this year while trying to use the wood stove. We have a 11 month old baby and have to shut the bedroom door while the baby is napping, twice a day for 1-2 hours each, and at night for 3-4...

My father remembers seeing some tobacco harvesting equipment when he was young, in the 50s. He describes it as a wooden frame/platform with a engine (car engine?) on top driving a wheel or axle for making it go. Remembers it being very loud. People would be suspended from this in...

What do you do with pumpkins that were used for decorating, after you take them down to put up the Christmas decorations? We're trying to roast the seeds right now. We burnt the first batch but they seemed promising. What about the rest of the pumpkin? Keith

We're in SE VA, not right on the coast, but pretty close to the mouth of the bay. We started feeling the outer reaches of the storm about 24 hours ago. Since then, we've had about 3" of rain and gusts are consistently up around 30mph. As of now, the center of the storm is still well over 400...

I opened the well house today to check on the tank pressure and saw this spider. It's not *HUGE*, but it is the biggest I've seen in a while. Any ideas what type it is? Location is southeast VA. Keith

Today I strung up a short solar electric fence to hopefully protect our corn from the racoons this year. I squatted down by one of the corner posts and noticed a couple insects flying around me. Initial thought was @#$ biting flies as they'd been bugging me all day long. But they weren't...

I noticed the left rear tire had a slight wrinkle at the bottom after mowing yesterday. I went to check the pressure and a steady stream of fluid came out as soon as I took off the cap. I already had the valve stem at the top, as I knew the tires were filled with some sort of fluid. I tried...

I'm curious about a small turbine for experimenting with alternative energy. I've seen all sorts of solar insolation maps on the Internet to help calculate if solar is worthwhile at a given location. Does anyone know if something similar for small scale (residential) wind turbines? I've seen...

Our county is putting a sewer system in our neighborhood that we have to hook up to. Something about EPA and chesapeake bay pollution. In the family, there are three houses that need to be hooked up (cha-ching). They said a general rule of thumb is $20/ft for a plumber to run the line from...

SE Virginia - we were pretty lucky, the worse that Irene did to us was 48 hours with no Internet. She did knock a bunch of black walnuts out of our tree. The husks are still very firm. Are these worth husking and cracking or are they a loss? Keith

So our corn is looking good one day, and tore up the next. Raccoon(s). I was able to salvage half a dozen ears from the first planting (just had it for supper, yum), but the raccoon(s) claimed the rest. I did plant several sections of corn at different times, so I have an opportunity to save...

We have different sections of garden that we've been tending to, some of it new this year and the oldest started in 2009. I've been tilling before planting, but I think that just makes the wire grass stronger and multiply. I've seen some videos online where people apply a thick layer of straw...

This is the second time I've opened the well house lid to find a black widow. The well house is cinder block, about 3'x3'x3', with most of it below ground level and a wood/metal lid that stays in place unless its being worked on. This time, the black widow ran right under the pressure switch...

I'm rebuilding a small (3'x3'x3') well house for a shallow well to water the garden. Probably hasn't been used in 12 years and the 'roof' caved in, exposing the interior to the weather. The electrical box doesn't look real good, so I'm going to replace it. The existing outlet is not GFCI. On...

Have a few questions about a New Holland 3230. It's about early 1990s, maybe a 1993. The owners manual lists some specs - 2500psi nominal pressure, minimum flow of 0.6-1.3 gpm and max flow of 7.5 gpm. It says the max flow occurs at 2200 rpm. 2200 seems a bit high. Anyone know what the flow...

I've been watching craigslist for a log splitter for a while now, and the pickings are very slim. I'm going to look at a project tonight. The guy bought the parts to build his own splitter, but never got around to the assembly stage. The frame is a used towable lickety splitter brand frame...

Here in SE Virginia, things are pretty flat, but we have a creek running beside the house in a valley that's 15-20 feet lower than everything else and 100ft or so across. There's a handful of trees that have fallen over and I'd like to turn them into firewood. I'm trying to figure out the best...

I'm in southeast VA, where we were just smacked with the biggest snowfall in over two decades. Last year we had significantly more snow than normal, and this year we had four snowfalls before the first day of winter (five so far). Once last year, and for this past 12"+ snowfall, I hooked the...

Not mine, I just saw the pic online... Farm Wars - There, I Fixed It - Redneck Repairs Keith

We've discovered that blister beetles have been tearing up our potato plants pretty bad. Most of the leaves have been eaten. It's been terrible hot here so we didn't notice it right away. "Those potato plants look kinda rough - it's probably the heat, hurry up and turn on the sprinkler so we...

I've just tried searching for some software to help with maintenance schedules on different things (house, cars, tractor, lawnmower, generator, etc) but I'm having no luck. Lots of enterprise level and car-only options, but couldn't find anything that looked like a good general purpose...

I ordered a remote grease kit for my Caroni 6ft RFM and it just arrived today. Not a hint about installation, just the parts. I tried googling for some pics, but had no luck. Can anyone post pics showing how the lines/fittings are generally run and mounted? Thanks Keith

There's an access point to a drain for a buried water line running to our garden. The housing for this access is busted and I'd like to replace it, preferably something with a lid. This was probably put in several decades ago. I think it might be a piece of clay flue, but I'm not sure. The...

I want to do some pulling with the tractor, and I understand the safe way to do it is from a drawbar mounted under the rear axle. Thing is, the operator's manual talks about adjustments, and hooking up implements to the drawbar, but not how to hook the drawbar up to the tractor. I'd rather not...

I took this picture this afternoon. That 4x4 post is about six ft tall and about 325 ft from our kitchen window (where I took the picture from). Can someone confirm if this is a coyote? Does it look like she's been nursing? Keith (no experience with coyotes)

I'm trying to get a shallow well working again. It probably hasn't been used in 10-15 years. I just took the cover off the well house and there's nothing obviously broken/leaking. Is there anything I should do before applying power? This is going to be used for watering a garden. Keith

Can anyone recommend a good resource for learning about maintaining driveways and fixing drainage problems around the yard? We have several large low spots that get very soggy after a hard rain. I have to avoid them, when walking, mowing or driving. Keith

I'm going through the tools in the garage that were left to us when my father-in-law passed away about 21 months ago. There's a 220v 2cylinder 22 gallon tank Sears air compressor. When I opened the drain on the bottom, water streamed out for about two minutes. I was glad I rolled it outside...

I was traveling back home from a family reunion today. I stopped at a gas station just off I64, west of Richmond, VA, to get a drink. I had heard a tractor somewhere, and as I was getting ready to leave, it pulled into the gas station. It looks very purpose-specific (no FEL, no 3PH, no PTO...

20 years ago or so, there were 6 or 7 fruit trees in the yard, now there's two. I just yanked the last stump out of the ground and hauled it off. Now, I'm trying to level out the high and low spots that were left behind. The available attachments are a 2 bottom plow, a 5 foot blade, a 6 or 7...

I'm curious what the items in the pictures are. Can anyone identify them? Thanks Keith

I'm looking at the maintenance intervals in the manual for my Ford 3230. The intervals seem to assume that 1200 hours = 1 year of use (that's over three hours every day of the year!). I'm probably looking at 50-75 hours per year. The thought of swapping out fuel injectors and 15+ gallons...

I'm pretty new to tractors. I'm using a Ford/Newholland 3230 that my wife's grandfather bought new, probably in 1993 or so. He preferred his older tractor for most tasks, so this one only has a couple hundred hours on it. He's since passed away and I never learned anything from him about...

I'm looking to purchase a flail mower, but I'm not sure about transporting it to my location and unloading it. I have access to a full size pickup and a utility trailer and I beleive it could be transported in either of those. The problem that I see is unloading it. I've considered a rope...

I plan on starting to use my grandfather-in-laws new holland/ford 3230, mainly for keeping 4 or 5 acres mowed. He passed away 10 years ago and I'm guessing the tractor has only been used 5-10 times a year in the last 5 years. There's a 275 gallon tank behind the shop that has about 100 gallons...