fast brad

Almost a perfect weekend… Doubled up again at Iron Cross Lite, finishing 6th in elite masters and 5th in the elite race—that’s right 5th. It was a good thing there wasn’t one more entry, I would’ve been out of the money. At least I stayed on the same lap as the winner.

Sunday I opted for the derby. I was just going to sit in and spin, at least that was the plan. Once we hit Fleetwood guys were on and off the pace which pissed me off, mucking up the plan. At the bottom of Topton hill the pace was easing up so I pulled out and let my momentum carry me up. I could see five up the road and pissed as I was, burried it and tried to ride across to them. I was pretty surprised, I made it. The rest of the ride I was in the red, but at least it was steady. They dropped me gearing up for the sprint, but I didn’t mind, it was a good ride anyway.

Then it was back to the real world, after riding all weekend I actually had to get some work done around the house. The lawn hadn’t been touched in a while because the tractor has been giving me trouble. The hydrostatic transmission was just barely working and the hydraulic fluid keeps foaming up and overflowing. I was thinking maybe it was so low the pump was pumping air—it seemed a reasonable enough explanation.

So I added some new fluid, started it up and hopped on. Better, but still not right. Okay, maybe a little more fuild… I shut it off, add some more fluid and hear a faint noise. Sort of a drippy, running fluid noise. Looking under the tractor I find the source of the noise in the form of a growing puddle of hydraulic fluid. Great, $5 a quart and it’s pouring right through the trans.

So much for simple fixes. I remove some of the body work to find the hydraulic oil filter coverd in oil. But where is it coming from? I can’t see because there is a drive shaft and flex coupling in the way. In fact, the coupling is right over the filter. In fact, the flex coupling is touching the filter. Grabbing the coupling I find it is loose, really loose. So it’s been wobbling around smacking into the filter until it wore a hole right through.

Crap. That means I spend the afternoon walking the yard with a push mower, not the best recovery. At least it’ll be an easy repair, assuming I can find the part, which I do on Monday, for $100. So, now the lawn is mowed and I have the rest of the week to think about recovery.