the longest day...

...and I have made the most of it!

I have been working on the tractor all evening until about 10pm, where it started getting too dark.

I have completed preparing and priming the whole tractor!

I have finished cleaning the body of the tractor, and I also have put on all the water pump and new cast connection that connects into the radiator, with the new gasket. This was broken on the original tractor, and a part was snapped off. Which now I understand to be part of the decompression system, which is what the loose lever on the dash board is for! The painted water pump looks super-cool!

So I have added a few key parts, prepared and primed the whole tractor! Unfortunately I couldn't take any photo's as it was too dark. I'm also pretty knackered, so am going to keep this short. I will take some photos and give a more detailed description of what I have got up to tomorrow. I did manage to get a photograph of the primed water pump and new section, it can be seen below, before I painted it up:

You can see that I also put back on the front axle section, which is now as previously shown is disconnected from the wheels. I have also got new axle bolts today through the post, so it will look awesome when it is all back together. The outer axles are going to require a lot of jet washing as they are packed with mud.

So... all positive so far.

What I am not telling you is the total disaster that has ocurred. I think I may be in denial about it at the moment though. The softer aluminium metal steering column in vertain parts is badly pitted and degraded. The front section has been eaten away significantly- when I was cleaning it with the wire brush there was a puff of white dust and then a hole appeared and oil started spewing out!! There wa s alot of clean oil running out of the hole, it was dribbling. I stuck a screwdriver in to try to clean up the loose, thin metal and it ran thicker and there was oily dirt in there too.

So I have a dilemma at the moment- do I take the whole top section of the tractor and have a look inside, or try and close up the holw somehow? See the picture below.

The hole can be seen just above the bolt head, in the center of the picture.

I'm tired at the moment, and am hoping I can fill it up with metal filer then sand it back and paint it over. Although I have never done this before- can this be done on aluminium?

I'm also not sure what this oil is, or how it is replenished?? Research is required. I am thinking this type of QuickSteel product like on ebay- it seems like some sort of epoxy resin. If anyone has any thoughts/experiences with this- please message me!

QuikSteel-Instant-Metal-Repair-Weld-filler

I need to go to bed... Photos and updated story to follow in the morning...

Night's will be cutting in now- it's all downhill to winter! :)