looking the opposite of clever

[sizzami]

I was reading the shop tricks thread and started thinking about this .
what is the simplest thing it it took you the longest to figure out?
for example , being mister bigshot that I am I went to a friends to help get his firewood out, after he asked me to push up the brush fire w/ my loader as I was doing it my loader stopped going up I checked everyting over and over until about an hour later I discovered that the qc on my fel valve had popped out and stayed in place. All the while a crowd of beer drinking monday morning quarterbacks jeering me about my junk tractor.

 

[Baby Grand]

Just the other day I was dragging some slash to the chip pile with my boom pole. I came to a dip and went to lift the FEL a tad ... it was really slow raising. I stoped and tried moving the FEL and it was behaving like I had wimpy hyd pressure. Then I noticed that the TPH was all the way up so the top link was pushing against the ROP crossbar. I lowered the TPH a tad and the FEL resumed normal operation.

I looked around, and nobody was watching. Yes!

-Jim

 

[Taylortractornut]

I was putting new tail lights on dads trailer at work one day and was aboutto rewire the whole trailer when I reallized someone had plugged the pig tail in upside down and offset. One of the worse things ever done was I was taking a bolt out of slide in the ejector rail of a JD scraper. I had my Proto half inch drive rachet and a 15/15 socket when I took the bolt of without checking my clearance. I was in a hurry and backed the balit out about that time the rachet bottomed out agains an ejector cylinder. When it did the bolt poped out of the threaded bore and wouldnd drop out. I had the it all bound up. I couldnt even get the reverser on the rachet to get it restarted. I had to pull the ejecter cylinder out. Could have used a wrench in 5 minutes instead of 3 hours pulling the fuel tank and line to get to the eject cylinder.
Dad got a nice little 970 JD tracto cheap one time the owners had this straight little tractor. had the factory loader and backhoe with a subframe. The only problem was the bucket would raise an lower and float fine but the bucket tilt was slower. When dumping or curling I cant rember if you moved the joystick too fast or too far the bucket would do the reverse action it was supposed to very fast. I had looked at it before dad did and had told the owner that he had his tilt lines crossed that the regenerative circuit was causing that. Id seen it in older large tlb's and track loaders. I was in my work clothes and had been under a dozer at work all day and looked like a complete podunk. He told me that was the most absurd thing he had ever heard of and so on. Dad went and bought the tractor and we came home and he didnt think i knew what was goin on. I changed the lines over on the couplers and its still going today.
The same tractor but after my brother bought it he had a problem with the loader and the steering not wanting to work right it would have to race up to work. and the fluid looked milky and gummy. The folks at Deere tod us it was a fungus in the lines from it setting up. I called BS on that one. It would cause the filter to look like it was clogged up with gunk. I told him it was air in the lines some how. One day he was about to take it to deere and I was out there. I found a pinhole in the rubber suction line near the pump. slid the pipe up a notch and reclamped it and it instantly fixed it.

 

[Mace Canute]

what is the simplest thing it it took you the longest to figure out?

Women........

 

[Big Bri]

Women........

Please tell me the answer. . . i'll pay top dollar

 

[Mace Canute]

Big Bri, I think the answer would best be described as a "work in progress"! I haven't actually got the answer yet....and I'm running out of years!

 

[20 20]

Trying to start a small gas engine water pump. Pulled and pulled, cleaned plug had spark, replaced plug pulled and pulled again still nothing. Sent wife to store to buy new plug. Pulled and pulled again still nothing. decided to check oil level it was down just a little bit, filled it. Pulled once and it took off. oil safety switch wouldn't let the engine start.

 

[have_blue]

When I was young, I used to think I was smart. When I reached 30, I discovered that if you swallow, you won't cut your adam's apple while shaving it. That made me realize I'm no smarter than average. Average means you are capable of occasionally doing some very smart things, and some very dumb things.

 

[6sunset6]

Yesterday building a woods road, little wet, everything going ok , 4 wheel drive , low speed. All of a sudden can't move more than a foot either way.
after the heart attack I realized I was in high speed somehow. Whew.

 

[/pine]

Please tell me the answer. . . i'll pay top dollar

N/C

 

[Gary Fowler]

My tractor has a valve under the seat that is used to adjust the fall speed of the 3 ph. While replacing the factory seat with a new suspension seat which took 2 days and a near tractor disassembly to do, somehow this valve got closed completely. Apparently it not only adjusts the drop speed, but stops the 3 PH from raising when completly closed. Anyway, I finally got the seat installed with help from my welding machine and a custom made bracket and some chop shop to the existing sheet metal (the seat works great by the way but it is just a bit too large for my tractor frame) and was backing out of my shop with an 8 foot disc attached and the 3 ph wouldnt raise. I thought well maybe my pump is bad or filter is stopped up, but FEL worked ok. Finally after discing about 300 yards down thru the pasture with the lever full up, I thought about the valve and loosened it up. The disc came up immediately. I didnt know whether to feel stupid for not checking the valve or grateful that I didnt have a hydraulic problem.

 

[LBrown59]

Please tell me the answer. . . i'll pay top dollar

No body has that much money.

 

[Big Bri]

N/C

View attachment 140115

Love it. . . i think we better hide this thread before our wives read it. . .i don't want to be barred from coming back

 

[brin]

Geeez, all these years...I never figured the adams apple trick out...thanks..I just learned how not to cut myself anymore..LOL

 

[CobyRupert]

Figuring out how to rewind the recoil spring of a 2 cycle weed-wacker. After spending considerable time turning the center, and not being close to getting it all in, then using pliers to turn the center, getting help, etc... it finally dawned on me to start with the outside edge first and work towards the midlle- Voilà!

 

[Incomplete]

N/C

View attachment 140115

I am told that there are only two ways to handle a woman, and nobody knows either of them.

 

[turnkey4099]

Longest time to figure out? How about the furtherest distance?

Several years ago I went out to split wood - splitter wouldn't fire up. Pulled plug and it was bad, bad, bad. Off to town for a new one, put in still no fire...pull, pull, pull, no fire. Have a cuppa coffee thinking aobut it and finally hooked it up and drug it to town to the 'fix it' shop. While unhooking I happned to notice that the plug wire was laying innocently on the head. Connected, one pull running. Quick glance around to see if anyone was watching...only the mechanic!! He knew I was bringing it in and what the problem was.

Of course I am also the guy who had the PU towed to town on a 'no sstart' problem only to be told it was out of gas _on that tank_. the other one was full.

Harry K

 

[murphy1244]

Longest time to figure out? That my glasses were on top of my head..:confused3:

 

[KennyG]

Last weekend I spent about 10 minutes trying to figure out why the welder wouldn't work before I realized the ground clamp was still on the last piece I welded, not the one I was working on.

 

[linuxman51]

no one's called someone on their cell phone to see if you left it over there?
I can't claim that one (I was the call-ee not the caller), but I have looked all over the kitchen for it while I was holding the dang thing.