Saturday, October 15, 2011

I'm not Tractor Pulling Today!!

Yesterday, I got the trailer loaded and ready to go. I was anticipating leaving about 7:30 am this morning to go to the tractor pull in St Matthews. This morning I cranked the truck up about 8 am and it ran about 5 minutes and cut off. It would not crank back up!!! It has a N14 Cummins engine in it with a computer on it . I flipped the hood up and started looking and the bulb in the water reservoir was not green so I took the cap off and sure enough it was a little low on fluid so I put 2-1/2 gallons of antifreeze in it and then it cranked just like it normally has before. This was the first time this has happened and I wondered "Where did the water go?" I let the truck run and heat up. The longer it ran, the hotter it got and the water was running out of the left hand side of the radiator. At 170 degrees it looked like a spigot. I decided to stay home. I guess it is good I caught it here instead of somewhere on the road with a to hot engine or worse and a towing bill. The radiator has plastic ends on it. I think the plastic part has split open.

Eric Benton, Southeast Tractor Parts, Tractor Pulling will have to wait to another day!