Expensive Mistakes

I think we've all had that experience. One of mine was buying and paying to much for a worn out 2TD4 that I could recover but would have way more in it than it would ever be worth. The other was an old horse trailer that I was going to fix up for a swap meet hauler, only to find I would have many hours and dollars invested in what would still be a $600 horse trailer. The horse trailer went to scrap and I still have the 2T including many restored parts that I need to sell off. T'is the nature of the hobby.

This thread reminds me of the first time I got my 5U D2 running back before I restored it. After doing all the necessary prechecks and getting the pony running, then cranking the diesel to bleed the fuel system, I opened the throttle and the diesel rumbled to life. Just as I started to feel that sense of accomplishment I noticed out of the corner of my eye that something was dancing across the top of the radiator. Turns out it was the stamped tin top portion of the radiator cap which I had earlier found had come loose from the bottom portion that engaged the radiator neck. Since I still had the hood off of the machine, it danced its way to the very edge of the radiator and fell straight into the spinning fan before I even had a chance to do anything about it. It hit one of the fan blades and caused it to bend, sending it straight into the radiator. The blade sliced through about a dozen of the little cores before coming to a stop and causing the belt to slip. I shut the engine down as fast as I could but by then water was running all over the place. The worst part is that I had made a mental note earlier in the day to remove that loose cap piece before trying to start the machine, but in my haste I had neglected to follow through. I still have that tin cap piece on a shelf in the shop, and even after it had destroyed that fan blade it still doesn't look to have a single mark on it. :censored: