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MercuryMac

Builder Junky!
Joined
Jan 18, 2013
Messages
4,919
Location
Northern Alberta, Canada.
Compounding bad luck struck me the other day.
My new motor runs too rich sometimes, so I snuck the middle [primary] carb out of its spot, [pic one] and took it apart to figure out what went wrong and fix it. I blew it all out and checked the power valve, [it seemed OK], and put the carb back on. [Quite a job] It still weeped gas around the base, so I finagled it back out of there and took it into the shop. I was blowing up a front tire on the tractor right beside the truck so I could take the tractor away and remove the snow blade and put on the bucket again. While I was setting the carb on the bench I heard a 'poof'. That had to be a tire blowing up. Sure enough, a hole had blown in the face of the tire right at the ground. There's a hole in the packed gravelly ground a little bigger than a five gallon pail, and quite a bit of that dirt went onto my much loved truck. Very seldom would anyone have an open intake manifold five feet from a dirt explosion, [pic two]. Anyhow, I changed out the power valve and set the float level down a bit and that seemed to work.
 

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I don't like where this story is going, hopefully it doesn't end with a rock or something in your intake. That would be my luck
 
dang, hee haw comes to mind, if it wern't for bad luck ectectect:eek:

did you vacuum out the intake for dirt and stuff?

sending good thoughts it is all done with the bad and onto the good:D

Later:cool:
 
Wow Mac! I'm glad that you weren't beside the exploding tire. Hopefully you vacuumed any potential junk out of the intake before putting it back together, and probably after cleaning your shorts...
 
It turns out that the tube on the vacuum cleaner is exactly the right size to fit down the intake holes, so I'm confident that I cleaned it out.
What are the chances of having a tire blow right when you have an open intake right beside it.
The tractor in the background is not the culprit, it's the one behind the camera that's about five feet from the truck that caused the grief. I had been standing between the truck and the bad tractor only seconds before.
 
Gives new meaning to the derogatory/slang term, "Suck Rocks!" :eek:

I hope your brand new engine survives the dirty disaster with no ill effects, mac.

I can't imagine a tractor tire blowing out explosively. I'd expect big volume and an instant "pressure wave" you can't avoid, no matter how quick or slow you might be.

I had a tire explode on my lift once... a four post lift like yours... I did a simple oil change on my wife's SUV and before I dropped it back to the floor, I checked tire pressure all around. I added a few pounds where needed, finished with the passenger front and walked around to the lift controls at driver side front... just as I laid my hands on the controls, the passenger front tire burst with a bang and noise I can only relate to a shotgun's muzzle next to your ear. (Thanks to my buddy Charlie, I know exactly how that feels and sounds.) I was completely deaf for a minute and the ringing lasted a little longer... regardless, I'm glad the tire didn't fail 10 or 15 seconds before, when my face was fully and completely in the blast zone... it could have killed me.

My point is, I'm glad you weren't injured or killed when the tire let go. When you're dead, it doesn't matter how many toys you have!

.
 
Gives new meaning to the derogatory/slang term, "Suck Rocks!" :eek:

I hope your brand new engine survives the dirty disaster with no ill effects, mac.

I can't imagine a tractor tire blowing out explosively. I'd expect big volume and an instant "pressure wave" you can't avoid, no matter how quick or slow you might be.

I had a tire explode on my lift once... a four post lift like yours... I did a simple oil change on my wife's SUV and before I dropped it back to the floor, I checked tire pressure all around. I added a few pounds where needed, finished with the passenger front and walked around to the lift controls at driver side front... just as I laid my hands on the controls, the passenger front tire burst with a bang and noise I can only relate to a shotgun's muzzle next to your ear. (Thanks to my buddy Charlie, I know exactly how that feels and sounds.) I was completely deaf for a minute and the ringing lasted a little longer... regardless, I'm glad the tire didn't fail 10 or 15 seconds before, when my face was fully and completely in the blast zone... it could have killed me.

My point is, I'm glad you weren't injured or killed when the tire let go. When you're dead, it doesn't matter how many toys you have!

.

Doc, when I was in my last year of University they took us on a field trip to local companies that produced products of various materials. We were at a plastic pipe producer in Edmonton and they showed us how they burst test plastic pipe. They do it with water in a steel cage, and since water doesn't compress it's much less violent than you'd expect although there is a big splash of water and you're glad the pipe pieces are contained in a cage. Then they showed us a video to demonstrate why you don't do it with air. Same type of cage, same size of pipe in a controlled outdoor environment, the pipe exploded violently and blew the cage apart.

After seeing that and having watched videos of tires exploding in a tire cage, I am always very cautious when inflating tires now. I always try to position myself so I'm off to the side of the tire, or something is between me and direct contact of the tire (body panel, my legs, etc). That's a really scary experience you had too, could have been very bad!
 
snopro, I worked for a tanker/trailer manufacturer for 15 years... we did hydrostatic testing and air testing every day on the shop floor. I could tell you some stories... anyhow, PSI to me, is an acronym for Pee Shorts Instantly. :eek:

.
 
I had a 40 or so year old bias ply blow out at my foot. I had a 38 Chrysler at one time that had been sitting for years. Had the front clip off and was rolling it out of my old wooden shop building, using that front tire to roll it by hand. All of the sudden, BOOM! It blew right by my right foot. Tubeless bias ply, had great tread and didn’t look a bit rotten, but had to be over 40 years old. Happened so quick I didn’t even have time to be scared! Since I always wear boots, it didn’t hurt a thing.
 
I found another tractor tire and got a guy to come out and change it. He left the wheel on the tractor. When I looked inside the tire it seemed to me that the break was straight across the face in a line, as if that was the connecting point. It was a good looking tire.
Anyway, you know that old saying 'pictures or it didn't happen', well I tried to take pictures of the hole in the ground about the size of a five gallon pail. After the pictures ------ you still might not believe me.
 

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Those tractor tires have a lot of volume to get rid of when they blow.
Had a tire on my 47 ton and a half blow and it threw gravel from 50 feet away into my shop.
 

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