21 Nov Sherry: Process of elimination

Rosharan, Texas — We started this week with what we thought was a big breakdown. Wyatt’s cotton picker was making an extremely loud vibrating sound. We shut him down to diagnose his machine. Now begins the process of elimination. We replaced a belt. That wasn’t the issue. We stuck with it and continued to pinpoint the problem. It took a few hours, but we decided it was the fan drive. There was not a fan drive at any dealerships around us, so I had to take a 3 1/2 hour south (around home, yes, I wanted to stay. HA!) to pick one up. While I was heading south, Brian and Wyatt tore the machine apart, so that when I got back, they would be able to put it back together. Well, I got back late, so they didn’t get to fix it.

The next day, it was back to work on Wyatt’s picker. We needed to get him up and running. Brian and Wyatt replaced the component of the fan drive that we thought was vibrating. Well, guess what? That was not the problem. When they started the machine up after replacing the fan drive, it was still making that vibrating sound. The process of elimination continued. Then, Brian checked the other component, and it was good. Wyatt started up the machine again, and we heard a new sound. It was similar to blowing air out of your lips and making your lips vibrate. Brian opened up the radiator door, removed some shields and removed the air filter in take. What do you know? We found the problem! It wasn’t the fan drive, and it wasn’t all the belts we replaced. It was a clamp that busted!! Wyatt replaced the clamp and got back on his way to picking cotton. After two days of his machine not running, he was happy to be back in his cab and picking again.