What did you do to your Yanmar today?

[Neat 1500]

I like having gauges over idiot lights but that's me. Both my tractors have gauges for oil, temp and volts fitted.

 

[MesaAZguy]

I'm a gauge guy too. After having many British cars, you just get used to keeping your eyes on them more often than most. Aside from that, Its easy to see if there is a degradation in oil pressure over time.
Same with the volts.

 

[California]

Well if I bought a British tractor I would put gauges on it too. They didn't call Lucas (electrical system supplier) 'Prince of Darkness' for nothing. BTDT with a few British motorcycles back in the pre-Honda era. One (BSA 350) I had to have a transmission bearing made for me one-off, its internals were underdesigned for a far earlier 250 and had no business in a 350.

Basically keeping a British vehicle running before they had competition from Japan, was 'fix it on Saturday before taking it out for a drive on Sunday'. I'll bet from time to time you actually saw something significant on those gauges. I agree they were needed.

Yanmar on the other hand designs stuff so it doesn't need that constant wariness. It just runs, for decades, so long as it has reasonable maintenance and occasional verification that everything is up to spec.

I checked my oil pressure once!

35 psi at 1500 rpm. Just fine for an engine with over a thousand hours and I suspect over 2,000.

And I had my first YM186D dyno-tested when I bought it, only because I had the seller drop it off at the pro shop of a friend. As thrashed as that tractor looked, it tested exceeding the new-tractor hp spec published 30 years prior. Nothing to worry about there.

My point is I think Yanmar got a lot of things right, we don't need to monitor every little thing as a component of operating them. They just run. Warning lights are sufficient to note if anything should ever get out of spec.

 

[jimjumper]

I'm a gauge guy too. After having many British cars, you just get used to keeping your eyes on them more often than most. Aside from that, Its easy to see if there is a degradation in oil pressure over time.
Same with the volts.

I wouldn't know just what most of that stuff was supposed to tell me...On mine, even the operating decals have fallen off!

 

[California]

I wouldn't know just what most of that stuff was supposed to tell me...On mine, even the operating decals have fallen off!

Here ya go. Label them like this.

I had to replace this panel on my YM240 because when I bought the tractor the stuff on the right was dangling by my knee.

Back then my local VN 'refurb' wholesaler had a line of customer-return corpses out back he would sell clean parts off of. I think this assembly was under $10.

Today, I'm sure Hoye can provide it.

 

[jimjumper]

So today I decided to try adjust the throttle linkage to get a few more rpm's but as soon as I started up the tach wasn't working so that became the new job! Unhooked the cable and discovered that about 3" of the internal cable had broken off so ordered a new one. Adjusted the linkage to the limit but won't have an answer about the rpm's till I get a new cable. Sure seems to not have any problems doing what I want without any lugging...Possibly a handheld tachometer in the future...? Anyway, started job 2 which was to find out why I sometimes don't have brakes. Unlatched the brakes and started checking the right brake and discovered that the clevis pin connecting the linkage between the pedal and the brake was missing! Added a pin to the parts order and installed a temporary bolt. The brake worked just fine after that at. Moved to the left and found the previous idiot had adjusted the brake all the way out so that when you had full throttle the brake pedal would hit the throttle pedal linkage and the brake wouldn't engage. Adjusted the brake linkage back to where its supposed to be and evened the both of them so they both engage when latched together and took it for a spin. Both brakes worked great! It's a good day when things are that easy...

 

[Neat 1500]

Sounds like you are flying along with repairs. Anything that has had next to no maintenance is going to play up and things stop but once ironed out will be a fantastic machine for years to come.

 

[jimjumper]

Actually I am having a great time doing this stuff. When I got my 8N I needed a tractor to do work so anytime it wasn't running properly it was a pain. Nothing like a broke tractor when you have time to get something done and it isn't running. With the 240 I have the luxury of doing things without having to rush and if I have to wait for parts or I run into something that takes more time than I have, I still have the 8N ready to use. Also its a diesel and I've never owned or even done anything with a diesel so I am learning quite a bit about how they work.

 

[California]

They're great toys, no?

 

[search4one]

My project is to find a front drive shaft. Installing it if I can find one will be a very small project, the big project is finding one. After spending a couple of weeks trying to find a hydraulic pump, found one and that is all working well now. Moved on to the next problem which is the 4WD is not working. Removed the drive shaft cover to find there was no shaft at all. Wish me luck, I'm going to need it.