As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
OK this is the story of the Firestone rototiller which came factory sealed when Richard Nixon was probably President so there was no any way to put grease into this tiller gear box which would have killed this tiller.
In working with Echo, she confirmed that I could drill a hole carefully, (grease on the drill bit to catch iron filings from the drilling) and with that add grease to this gear box.
Thus began the tale of 2 trips to town as the water heater plug I got for 7 dollars was supposed to be a half inch........the half inch American drill bit was smaller and when I used a 9/16th's drill bit to widen it out, then the plug fell out.
So it was not going to be the easy way, but the way the Holy Ghost Inpsired me orignally and was confirmed by the boys Darryl and Leon, who if you combined their ages you would almost get the 250 year American birthday on 2026 AD in the year of our Lord. I kid you not these boys are working yet and they are oldsters.
So what was the Holy Ghost being really interested in something to plug the hole in this Firestone rototiller was first a rubber stopper. A HALF INCH on the insertion end. I have a picture below to explain in the 1000 words, but here goes for the short version.
So you get a rubber stopper. You get a bolt with a screw head, long enough to go through the stopper which you drill out with the right sized bit.
On the nut end, I put a washer and a wing nut for easy tightening. No washer is needed on the Philips end as it was about as big as the end of the stopper.
I think the grand total for two of these to build was 10 dollars less than 2 plugs for 14 dollars.
I used a vice grip to hold the stopper while drilling. Lot of rubber dust, probably not to breathe in, the first one was a bit off center on the big end (drill on the small end as you want that lined up), but when people do not donate, I can not afford a drill press so it is nigger rigging out in the yard on a 90 degree super drought day.
You can see below the one laying on the side, and the other mounted into the gear box of the tiller.
One more thing, a helpful hint. ALWAYS WHEN YOU ARE BUYING BOLTS AND NUTS, TEST THEM IN THE STORE. This Chinaman shit we have now has burrs on it, and the one wingnut I picked up would not screw onto the bolt after it started.
I live a ways out of town, so running back to town for a Chinaman fuckup is not something I like, so I always test my hardware in the store.
Also, as in the original 1/2 and 9/16, Chinaman rubber stoppers start out a bit over a half inch and by a quarter inch up, you have gone past the 9/16, so that is as far as the bung plug was willing to go. I twisted it in further, not that much and tightened the wing nut and it did not want to move when I tried it. It will ride in with wear and am satisfied as I did not want to utility knife shave or try and grind this thing and end up with gap in it.
I'm thankful to God that this was the worst of the problems on this old Tiller. The heat shield was remedied by the wood block elevating the motor so I did not have to cut that off. the motor bolted down with 2 1/2 inch bolts as you can not get 2 1/4 so I had to tip the motor to start the nuts. Someone will wonder how I got them on, but that is how.
The cheap spray paint kind of stopped working, but God had it working long enough to finish the painting.
Whatever was leaking is fixed in the grease and the hub sealer so this bung plug was just simple engineering and kind of fun now that this is all done and I have a tiller which will never run out of gas and will always start.
Nuff Said
agtG
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