I knew it wasn't going to be good this year. Took the combine to the field and made one round in the soybeans...brought it back, and looked at the right rear tire...thought, "that looks a little soft". Next morning it was flat. Took it off...looked all over the tube, finally found a pinhole at the end of a tiny "L" or "J" shaped impression on the tube. Looked in the casing...and found a bristle...yes a bristle from the vacuum cleaner brush that I used to suck out the dirt when I put the tire together 4 years ago. It matched up perfectly with the impression on the tube...and had eventually worked it's way through the tube. Patched that and moved on to even more frustrating things. Had a bearing on the straw chopper that went out while harvesting wheat...had a used one on hand, and because I only had 2 hours of combining left...I threw it on. Forgot to put a new bearing on the chopper. You guessed it...it didn't last more than about 4 days...LOL. Had a bushing on the cleaning shoe drive go bad...and before I caught it...it actually split the side of the cleaning shoe top to bottom. Going to have to pull the shoe out and put a new side on it this winter, should get by with the welding job I did this year. Fired the combine up one day...and because it was cold, I didn't throttle it up as I eased out onto the road...had to dodge a couple cars..then went to throttle it up. Nothing happened!...Couldn't figure it out...so I idled up the road to the neighbors driveway and backed it in..and climbed back into the engine...here the cotter pin holding the pin in the clevis for the fuel pump control cable had dropped out. No wire anywhere in the cab...looked around..and spied a marker flag in the neighbors field. (I don't know about you..but I find them more useful than baling wire..LOL) I can't wait to ask the neighbor how much I owe him for combine parts...LOL. It's always a fun time around here when it's time to harvest...I've always said if I didn't have a welder I couldn't farm...LOL
