Farmyard technology, Mc Gyvering, and bodging

owlite700

Last week while speaking to a farmer about machinery in general, I told him about the wiring being wrecked in my digger. with no temprature gauge,it was going to catch me out at some point and ruin my engine.
I dont have the time or money to start re wiring ,
The advice i was given was.

1) Fit pipe stat to cooling pipe on engine.( available in any plumbing store , imit are a good make) 5 euro

2) Take a wire from the +24 volt (fused of course) into and out of the stat. 5 euro

3) Take said wire to a 24volt siren ( fire alarm siren ) 10 euro

4) Set stat to 70 or so and if the engine starts to overheat the siren sounds allowing me to shut down and check problem.

I WAS IMPRESSED :eek: Fitted it today ,super job.
Has anyone got any other Mc Gyvering stories?

Johro

owlite700 wrote: »

Last week while speaking to a farmer about machinery in general, I told him about the wiring being wrecked in my digger. with no temprature gauge,it was going to catch me out at some point and ruin my engine.
I dont have the time or money to start re wiring ,
The advice i was given was.

1) Fit pipe stat to cooling pipe on engine.( available in any plumbing store , imit are a good make) 5 euro

2) Take a wire from the +24 volt (fused of course) into and out of the stat. 5 euro

3) Take said wire to a 24volt siren ( fire alarm siren ) 10 euro

4) Set stat to 70 or so and if the engine starts to overheat the siren sounds allowing me to shut down and check problem.

I WAS IMPRESSED :eek: Fitted it today ,super job.
Has anyone got any other Mc Gyvering stories?

Have you checked to see it works okay? I'd advise turning the thermostat knob right down and see if it sounds the siren when she warms up a little. I got a pipe stat for my solid fuel stove once, wired it to the circulation pump, but as it turned out the gauge was faulty, I came home and found the water boiling in the wraparound boiler and the pump hadn't kicked in, pipe stat was set to seventy degrees, I had to turn it down to between thirty and forty degrees before the pump kicked in, and the pipe was too hot to hold. Should have set the pump going way before then. Worth checking out just to make sure your stat's okay.

101sean

I'm all for this sort of thing (done safely of course!), being a Land Rover owner it's the sort of thing we restort to a lot :rolleyes:

Just bodged a later engine in to a 1970s Land Rover and put right someone else's abortion of an install which takes a bit of lateral thinking

Anyone else done stuff that would qualify them for A Team membership?

owlite700

I hear you, some people fit two on boilers just in case.
I tested it straight away ,turned it right down and beeep , away she went.
simple and effective,

Eric Cartman

the speedo broke in a mates fourtrak so we used a bicycle computer and attached the magnet to the driveshaft and the reed switch to a bit of wood on the underside then played with the calibration until it was mostly right , bicycle computer didnt go above 50mph though....

maidhc

Eric Cartman wrote: »

bicycle computer didnt go above 50mph though....

neither did the Fourtrak.

quietsailor

i used to drive a bale silage wrapper for a contractor back in the '90s. The tractor he first used was a Ford 4600 but its hydraulics simply weren't fast enough/powerful enough to let me keep up to 3 balers.

Most people would have bought a bigger tractor - not my lad, he mounted a hedgecutter pump directly onto the front main pulley (crankshaft pulley) and set up the hydraulics so it drove tank>pump>tank idling (road work) or tank>pump>valve chest>tank for wrapping.
Now that was a pump designed to run at 540rpm, mounted on the c/shaft it ran from 1600rpm to 2500rpm so it was usually runnig 3-4 times faster than its normal speed
It worked, possibly too well from my point of view, as it span the wrapper so fast the bales used to get fired off so he'd only let me drive it and no-one else

That particular contractor was gifted mechanically, he designed and built a 26foot self loading & unloading large square bale trailer, his own bale handlers, his own attachments for the digger quick attach etc. I'm just sorry I didn't take pictures of all that equip when I worked there

JohnBoy

owlite700 wrote: »

Last week while speaking to a farmer about machinery in general, I told him about the wiring being wrecked in my digger. with no temprature gauge,it was going to catch me out at some point and ruin my engine.
I dont have the time or money to start re wiring ,
The advice i was given was.

1) Fit pipe stat to cooling pipe on engine.( available in any plumbing store , imit are a good make) 5 euro

2) Take a wire from the +24 volt (fused of course) into and out of the stat. 5 euro

3) Take said wire to a 24volt siren ( fire alarm siren ) 10 euro

4) Set stat to 70 or so and if the engine starts to overheat the siren sounds allowing me to shut down and check problem.

I WAS IMPRESSED :eek: Fitted it today ,super job.
Has anyone got any other Mc Gyvering stories?

so about a fiver more than this stylish gauge and sender

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/New-52mm-Car-Gauge-Water-Temp-Temperature-Gauge-/250764690075?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item3a62bd829b#ht_500wt_1156

owlite700

Nice , it looks to be 12volt though, there would be a bit of messing with the wiring, which is what i wanted to avoid. 12v to 24v convertors etc.
I was impressed with the ingenuity of the guy.
Also you may not see the gauge go into the red, but the alarm ringing is an instant warning.
Thats why I had to post it on the board, it may be of use to someone else.
It amazes me how people improvise and adapt, sharing these ideas can only be a good thing.

Johro

101sean wrote: »

I'm all for this sort of thing (done safely of course!), being a Land Rover owner it's the sort of thing we restort to a lot :rolleyes:

Just bodged a later engine in to a 1970s Land Rover and put right someone else's abortion of an install which takes a bit of lateral thinking

Anyone else done stuff that would qualify them for A Team membership?

Not quite A-team stuff, but years ago I had an opel kadett with an overheating problem, it was probably just a faulty thermostat but I knew zero about engines, I just thought, okay, the fan's not cutting in when it should so I ran wires from the contacts on the bottom of the fan housing to a switch on the dash, kept an eye on the temp while I was driving (it really only overheated in slow traffic) and flicked the switch when she got a bit hot, til the temp dropped to normal operating temp on gauge. Hey it worked.

(That Opel, and also a Renault 4 I bought for 50 quid got loads of abuse but never let me down, the Renault especially, very very basic but so easy to repair and at 875 cc she went on the mere promise of fuel, brilliant yoke. I heard they were a big favourite with french farmers, good ground clearance, who needs a jeep ;-) Loved the pull-out and twist gearstick in the dash. Anyone remember the Guards used to drive them?)
http://www.ukemergency.co.uk/ireland/dscd0588.jpg

Johro

maidhc wrote: »

neither did the Fourtrak.

Lol but slightly unfair to the fourtrak, I hear they're pretty indestructible, I saw a few when I was looking for a jeep and they're a good jeep for little money.
Having said that, I ended up buying the Mk 1 pajero, but that had a lot to do with me liking the look of the older boxier shape and the idea of keeping a classic on the road.

TrailerBob

Bit of an unusual one, Uncle of mine cuts turf for a living. Two years ago we #ahem# 'invented' a machine for turning turf out of a 1 tonne hinowa track dumper and a chain conveyor. This joined a fleet of home made high tip trailers and a modified beet elevator for separating sods and turf mould he created. Learned all engineering I know from him. Quality bodging!

101sean

Got any pictures then?

TrailerBob

Will have on Thursday, no pics on new phone!!

Johro

*cough*
Which Thursday?

TrailerBob

Apologies for the delay, lots going on including changing to a macbook, only getting used to it...

Turning machine



Trailers



I don't get to do too much with him these days, more tractor restoration myself

oflynno

I MacGyver'd a yard scraper and a square bale chopper together as the lad i was working for hated having to change from one to another

the chopper was mounted on top of the scraper and the frame was cut away and rewelded to allow the pto shaft to line up with the tractor