On Thursday afternoon Missionary Flights International brought my needed oil seal to reassemble our John Deere lawn mower. Also my Haitian mechanic partner picked up the re-wound field coil from the re-builder for a medium sized generator that we are repairing.
On Friday morning my partner had to fly to Port-Au-Prince to take care of some business so after our morning men's bible study I asked a young man that helps around with odd jobs to be my assistant for the day as it would entail some heavy lifting.
We started with the assembly of the mower engine, it having been dis-assembled by a visiting team mechanic, we had to back up a few times in the order of re-assembly. By noon we had the engine back in the mower, new drive belt, greased and ready to mow, none too soon as the grass had been growing for a few weeks with it being out of commission.
After lunch we started the tedious job of generator re-assembly. Three of us (Dave Shafferly included) had dis-assembled it 10 days ago. We carefully installed the exciter coils, bolted up the end plates, and guided in the armature. Now we had to connect up the twenty some odd wires from a diagram scribbled on a piece of cardboard, so far so good. What makes this more exciting is the literal dozens of hungry mosquitoes that hang out in the confines of the shop and shaded areas.
Once assembled we carted the 200 lb generator outside to start the attachment to the diesel engine. By 4:00 we had all together, new battery in place and was ready to start testing.
After a few starts we had determined the output leads of the generator and connected up the wiring to the control panel. Now the computer would allow the engine to keep running, seeing that there is power being produced.
It had been a very productive day for both of us, my young partner now wants to learn to be a mechanic, and he helped me all day with teaching me the missing creole words in my sentences. I only wish that I could speak creole as well as he speaks English!
After putting the tools away and a good shower, I noticed that the water pressure was low.
Could it be the transformer fuse that I had replaced two days ago that powers the old seminary and one our water pumps? After a walk across campus I find that there was power at the pole but not to the pump. I saw a wisp of smoke and could hear crackling sounds coming from the conduit that leads from the pole to the well. It is 6:00 PM and dusk so a quick pull of the transformer fuse will save this problem for another day.
Bud
No comments:
Post a Comment