Life sucks sometimes.

[gbw]

"Most times I find 20 litres in the tank and if the nose is level or up hill the fuel will gravity through the filters. open the bleed screws on the top of the filters"Mark and Des,Many thanks. Great stuff. The Fergy manual is OK but it is not written from experience. Now I know why the pump varies in stroke length. We must have had it for about 30 years and it has never missed a beat, except when it has run dry. Cannot remember the old man servicing it, so pulled out the book and had a go. The oil in the filter was like black tar. Oh yeah, there was one incident. My dad had my bro tow him about 45 km at about 30 plus kph. A foolish exploit I thought. Took it back to the (hobby) farm, and the next day the front wheel fell off.Graham

[Des Garvin]

Yeh Graham, I have to agree it"s a bugger of a job on a massey . Most times I find 20 litres in the tank and if the nose is level or up hill the fuel will gravity through the filters. open the bleed screws on the top of the filters then open the batery box to see when fuel is to the filters. Make sure you bleed the 2 points on the injection pump as well. 1 on the housing near the injector pipe outlets and 1 on the throttle/stop housing at the top of the injection pump. Usally you don"t have to crack the back injector pipe on the 3 cylinder perkins but that helps too sometimes. :See if that helps. Then if you can blow some pressure in the tank that saves all the pumping on that little lever

[Mark Horan]

Fire trucks is diesel now days so they dont catch fire as easily as petrol would, one still needs air for an internal combustion engine. With the fergie, Only crack one spot at a time, if you cant see the spot, you can still hear the air coming out.When the bubbles/ noise stops, nip off the spot you were bleeding and go to the next one. If the diesel isnt pumping up, the lift pump might be jiggered, or you might just not be used to english engineering.Mark.

[gbw]

"The fire sends a wave of burned air your way and itll kill the grader. "Apparently all fire vehicles are diesel now, as they do not die so easily.Speaking of dead diesels, we have a Fergy 135. It ran dry, so followed the manual, pump and crack the line in about 10 spots. Trouble is the pump is one side, and cracking the line is on the other side. Bugger of a job by yourself. Is there a quick way to do it?Must be a fuel leak, and someone left the fuel tap on... He is 90, so I gotta forgive himGraham

[Mark Horan]

its better than Vertigo!Mark.

[bones]

Theres alot bout fire that alot dont know about.Oxygen starvation is the biggest killer. You black out from asphixiation, the fire only finishes you off.Iv been in me grader several times rounding up fires wen it will suddenly die.The fire sends a wave of burned air your way and itll kill the grader. :PEven had the same thing happen in me gyro as i flew over the frunt. yeah but if you were more than 5" off the ground it might not have happened

[birdy]

Theres alot bout fire that alot dont know about.Oxygen starvation is the biggest killer. You black out from asphixiation, the fire only finishes you off.Iv been in me grader several times rounding up fires wen it will suddenly die.The fire sends a wave of burned air your way and itll kill the grader. :PEven had the same thing happen in me gyro as i flew over the frunt.

[gbw]

"They was interviewn survivers of the ash wednesdy fires, and ALL of the ones they interviewed showed where they were and where the fire went, and the destruction left behind............ and ALL rebuilt zactly the same place, with zactly the same hazard at their doorstep."Mate built a house near Packenham. Not good country, stony and trees not big. Built in a hollow on a concrete slab, brick house. About 20meters of lawn all around sloped towards the house. Brigades would take people to look at his setup as so good. Ash Wednesday he had his petrol pumps working with sprays over the roof and about 2 inches of water over the lawn. Watched the fire approach when the first fire ball appeared. Seemed to bounce off the fence and into the stables which instantly went up. As they got to the front door a fire ball hit the back wall, blowing them all off their feet. They got away to tell the story. A week later he was allowed to return, and only had a concrete slab left. The fire rated safe was melted to it. He had built a cellar to store paintings and stuff. Anything within a meter of the steel door was charred. And he rebuilt the same house on the slab...We have had 10 years of drought. We had a little rain before Xmas, which promoted nice growth of grasses etc which dried out nicely before that Saturday. It was 115 old degrees and a strong northerly running. It was frightening without the fire. Days before Saturday there were warnings that it would be very very bad. Until you see those fire balls in action, you cannot believe the speed and ferocity with which they move. Regular burns are essential, but having seen my mates house, and the sparse country it was in, I believe we would still have had a disaster. Interesting that after the fires went through Lorne a few years back, the houses that remained standing were the white weather boards, not the brown brick houses.As a kid I lived in a road that seemed to attract fires (in the foothills of the Dandenongs) One time I was putting out spot fires when the front came over the hill. Our house was on the floor of the valley and I took off. Thats when I found out about the oxygen being sucked from the air. I knew I was passing out, but still running and found good air and my senses returned. Interesting that the ladies house I was protecting and our house did not burn, where all around us houses burned. Both were white weatherboard houses.Farmer brotherinlaw near Gembrook has just dug a hole in the ground, dirt over the top. Put his compressor in there, so he can breath its air if needed.Patient told me of 3 of his cows that had not even moved. Standing there, charred. Oxygen deprivation works very quickly. Seems this is what happened to Brian Naylor. He was found out the front of the house, round the back was his 4 wheel drive, untouched.Graham

[Ken Watson]

I live in a serious bushfire area. We were the only house on our road 20 yrs ago. We would burn everything then. We are now surrounded by 22 houses all ex city people. Its now impossible to burn anything. They dont even like my bulldozer. I"ll take some pictures next time I fly, you wont believe it. They have no machinery, but do have broadband and all the city crap you would expect. Their gardens are lovely. Their chance of survival nil. They all expect my help in an emergency but one spreads pretty thinly over 22. I"ll be too busy with my own property . my cattle are my livelyhood and more important to me than the neighbours. Cows will be saved 1st. They need to recognise and accept the danger. KenForgot to mention that their fire fighting capabilities are a garden hose and an electric pump.Real smart.Some of them are really nice people, they cant help that they"re stupid.Sometimes I think our breeding program is letting us down!

[birdy]

As you are all aware I find people inherently dumb. Thats good t hear, coz i thought i was alone."Green things dont burn"If these "green people" knew anythn bout anythn green, theyd know that anythn green in this country burns hotter than anythn dry. All you need isa bit o dry stuff under it to heat it up[ or even a hot sun] and it starts gassn, and that gas is like LPG.But they should not look down on the local knowledge.Dont wurry captn, i dout the smarter ones will be lookn down on you now mate. Couldnt believe wot i was hearn the other nite in the TV. >They was interviewn survivers of the ash wednesdy fires, and ALL of the ones they interviewed showed where they were and where the fire went, and the destruction left behind............ and ALL rebuilt zactly the same place, with zactly the same hazard at their doorstep. :-I thought the most obvious sighn of inteligence was to learn from experiance. Hell, even a cow is smarter than that.One idiot said, "it cant happen again". Wot a f%$*n moron.And no dout blokes like Narn will consider me a tightass coz i havent given a cent to these appeals. Id cringe if my money went to the dichead so he could rebuild zactly the same place.Wouldnt be do"n him any favours would i Narn? Specialy if in ten years he died in the burning reck of his rebuilt house.If i had control over where my money went, i wouldnt hesitate, but i wouldnt, so im not subsidisen anyones stupidity.

[Mark Horan]

Well said capt"n (how the bloody hell did you get captian?)Up here its the same dog, different leg action!Mark.

[Ken Watson]

As you are all aware I find people inherently dumb. I live in high risk mountainous country that has been subdivided into small 5ac city folk blocks. All blocks when presented for sale were clear and relatively safe. The council requires a 20m clear space left around the entire house before the final approval is given. Then the people move in and the beautification process starts. Gardens right up to each wall with

[Tim]

You are right Fred. I did later hear an interview with Bob Brown and it seems that he was more interested in how the $42 B handout was to be spent than the plight of the fire victims.

[asra]

Right on the mark, Mark. (no pun or anything else intended)

[Mark Horan]

Looks like joew is from Canberra and knows what he is talking about. During the Canberra fires we had Bark 2 1/2 feet long and burnt leaves raining down on us here in Braidwood (an hours drive away).. Luckily the heat from the fire had sent the burning leaves and bark to the moon and back and the stuff was out before it hit the ground. It was a fairly interesting day.The fuel loadings were bad because of ignorance, got worse from arrogance, the rest is history (the weather didnt help)On a hot day, a crown fire in the mountains is impossible to stop, good back burns at night can get control, but in the really hard tiger country, there are no roads, no fire breaks, no prescribed burning and fire officers (paid ones) that place more creedance on having firefighters who have done courses than those that have experience (because it covers their @rse).The chances of controlling these fires is zeroAs birdy said, some retard with a box of matches is going to jail,or hung. Maybe that is a good thing? but if it was a lightning strike, a meteorite or Tinkerbell the fairy, the result would be the same. Greenies, animal lovers, home owners who dont see a tree in the middle of their house as a wick (and I have seen them) and people who dont like the smoke getting in their washing all complain about prescribed burns.Im really sorry for the poor people down south, the"re not yuppies, they just dont want to live in the city, but the city values they bring with them can put them in peril, as I said before, it is the city disconnect from the country. My house was built in 1836, it doesnt have a view, it doesnt have gum trees all around it , it isnt built on a hill and it is still here, after 173 years of floods, drought and fires. Whoever built the house didnt think he was smarter than nature, the same cant be said for todays society.It appears that many people were worried about fuel loadings in the areas that were burnt out but green policies and political correctness keeps the silent majority in the box....wonder if it will change?It didnt in Canberra.Mark.