In among distractions like tree-shopping and rummaging through boxes in the barn in search of things packed long ago, I was kind of planning to engage in a bit of driveway-scrapery.
Well, this morning I learned something about grease couplers. Well, a couple of things. First, the collet is adjustable... if you're sufficiently determined. Second, sometimes there's no setting that allows connecting and disconnecting it and has enough retention force to allow pumping grease through the dang Zerk fitting, which was the whole point of the exercise in the first place.
Huh. You'd think there'd be some sort of a lever or sleeve or something to open the collet, right? Oh, right: that'd be the LockNLube. Whereof, praise be to some blogger whose identity I've forgotten, I'd ordered along with the grease gun, so it's on hand. What with disconnecting the original coupler from the first Zerk fitting, finding out about the adjustability, fiddling with the adjustment, and giving up and installing the LockNLube... well, that took up a bigger chunk of the morning than planned.
Then, sort of late this afternoon, I figured I'd address the matter of dropping the tiller and mower, swapping the bucket for pallet forks, getting the box blade into some reasonable position and orientation, hooking up the box blade, probably swapping the bucket back on, and generally getting the tractor configured for a bit of ground leveling.
So I look at the tiller. Pulling the pins on the 3-point hitch seems simple enough (I don't actually follow through on that yet, as this is still in the barn, and besides I haven't figured out the tiller's parking stand yet). How about disconnecting the driveline from the PTO? Supposed to be easy, right? I've seen vids. Fumble, fiddle... ah. The vids I'd seen showed a collar that you pull back on; this unit has a pin thingy that you push crosswise. A minute or so of fiddling later, and the driveline / PT shaft is free!
Hm. Except... I don't really want it disconnected now. Reconnecting should be simple, right?
Much fiddling and three vids later, I apply just the right wiggle and it finally seats again.
By that time, it was well past time to start fixing dinner. A rather late dinner now being over, 'tis well and truly dark out there, and with no electric lighting in the garage, I'd better leave it as it stands for now. Tomorrow, perhaps, I can learn to detach the belly mower. (Ah, there are multiple vids for that one. Good. And maybe, if the grass seems dry enough, I can test the mowing capability before I detach it.)
... Oh, and before I use the tiller I'm supposed to slip the slip clutch, which turns out to be a somewhat involved process.
A bonus, though: while fiddling around in the barn, I noted that the pallet I'd saved after the soffit project (on said pallet a few modest-sized boards had been delivered) consisted mainly of two full sheets of heavy plywood. Hm. That's kind of the missing bit for the workbench I've been wanting to build! (I keep not picking up a sheet of one-side-nice 1/2"-or-so ply.) The surface finish is maybe not optimal, but I think we've got a great many square feet of engineered-wood flooring currently being kept around as spare material...?
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