My round baler won't start a bale now. I took the belts off and shortened them to get out all the slack. Now they are nice and tight, but since then I have a hard time starting a bale. Doesn't making the belts tight make a tighter bale?
Round baler belt tension is very important when starting a bale. You have made the same mistake many hay producers have made: Your belts are too tight, making it difficult for the bale to start.
The bale-starting area needs a little room for the core to begin its rotation to start a bale. You need to take the belts off and get them sized and spliced to the proper length. A dealer or your owner's manual can tell you the proper belt length.
I had my 601 Ford tractor overhauled. Prior to this, it held about 45 pounds of oil pressure when I was mowing. Since the overhaul, it runs about 15 pounds after I mow for a while. The person who did the work told me he installed a new oil pump when he overhauled the engine. Should I just keep driving it?
You need to stop using the tractor until you get the oil pressure back where it was. The engine in that tractor should carry about 45 pounds of oil pressure. If the new oil pump is good, you are losing oil pressure somewhere in the engine—maybe from the oil pressure regulator valve.
If the mechanic turned the crank and/or installed new engine bearings, he will need to revisit that area. The main loss of gradual oil pressure can be in the clearance between the main bearings and the crankshaft.
I took a welding class at the local community college so I could build a pipe corral. I bought a new welder, hood and torch. But when I tried to weld the pipe for my new corral, I couldn't get it to weld. I tried several different rods, heat ranges and techniques. The pipe was rusty because I got a deal on it several years ago, and it has been on the ground where I hope to build the corral ever since. However, I've seen guys weld rusty pipe before. I took the welder back and was told it works perfectly. Why can't I weld the pipe?
When you said the pipe had been on the ground for several years, you answered your own question. Your problem is unique, but fully understood by professional welders (not me). Since pipe is round, it has the ability to pick up the earth's magnetism, which makes it nearly impossible to weld—it's that repel and attract thing.
Square tubing cannot pick up this magnetism, only something round—like pipe. You may want to get some new pipe.
The pipe you purchase needs to be on a rack off the ground. If you want to check the pipe before you buy it to see if it has been magnetized, take along a hacksaw blade. If the pipe attracts the hacksaw blade, take your business elsewhere.
My tractor has two 12-volt batteries, and it is a 12-volt system. The battery cables are good and the terminals are clean. The other day—another warm one, by the way—the tractor wouldn't start. I thought the batteries were low so I took one of them out to get it checked. My son didn't know I had taken the battery out. As I was leaving to get the battery checked, I saw him start the tractor and head to the field. I caught up with him, and we couldn't believe the tractor started with only one battery. So we put the other battery in the tractor, and the tractor would not start—until we took the battery back out. How in the world can two batteries together be weaker than one?
Voltage in batteries hooked up in a parallel circuit will be what the average of the voltage of the two batteries is in the circuit. Like water, these batteries will seek the same level.
So the battery you took out was low. The battery left in the tractor was "hot." It started the tractor by itself, especially since you say the weather was warm.
When you tried to start the tractor with both batteries in, it would not start because the low battery was bringing down the voltage and amps available to the starter.
Write Steve Thompson at Ask the Mechanic, 2204 Lakeshore Dr., Suite 415, Birmingham, AL 35209 or mechanic@progressivefarmer.com.