Another shook his head.
“Don’s half retired.”
“Still good.”
“If he answers.”
Ray wrote the name anyway.
Then another farmer mentioned a shop southwest of Newton.
“Correll.”
Ray looked up.
“Dave?”
“Yeah.”
“Where?”
“Pratt County.”
“What’s he work on?”
“What doesn’t he work on?”
The first farmer interrupted.
“Mostly drivetrains. Deere background.”
That mattered.
“How good?”
The man took a drink.
“My 8320 had a powershift problem two years ago. Dealer wanted the tractor three weeks before they could tear into it. Dave had it apart Monday and called me Tuesday.”
“Fix it?”
“Still running.”
Another farmer nodded.
“He did my neighbor’s Case.”
Ray wrote:
DAVE CORRELL — PRATT COUNTY.
Forty minutes later, he had two names.
That was enough.
He walked toward his pickup.
Then stopped.
Across town, on his route to the elevator, he had passed Garrett Farm Equipment.
Massey Ferguson.
Ray had barely looked at the lot.
Red tractors had been background scenery to him for years.
He had no reason to stop there.
He owned John Deere.
His problem was a John Deere transmission.
Then he reconsidered.
A service manager at an agricultural dealership did not only know his own machinery.
He knew mechanics.
Independent shops.
Failure patterns.
Who rebuilt transmissions correctly.
Who returned machines with bolts left over.
And unlike the Deere dealer, the Massey dealership did not have Ray's tractor sitting in a six-week queue.
Ray turned the pickup around.
Garrett Farm Equipment sat on the south end of Newton.
Medium-sized.
Family operation.
Four service bays.
Parts counter.
Equipment lined up outside in red.
Ray parked between a service truck and a Massey tractor he could not immediately identify.
He walked inside.
The service manager’s nameplate said:
PHIL WESTON.
Phil looked to be in his mid-fifties.
Hands marked by old cuts and newer grease.
A slight forward lean from years spent bent over machinery.
Ray recognized the type before either spoke.
A mechanic who had been promoted just far enough from the tools that he still wanted to know what was broken.
Phil looked up.
“What can I do for you?”
“I’ve got a question that probably doesn’t make you any money.”
Phil smiled.
“Those are usually the interesting ones.”
Ray leaned on the counter.
“John Deere 7230R.”
Phil nodded.
“Go ahead.”
Ray described the transmission.
Same description he had given the Deere service manager.
Same sequence.
Same details.
Phil did not interrupt.
When Ray finished, he asked,
“Only upper range?”
“Yes.”
“More pronounced under drawbar load or transport too?”
“Mostly load.”
“Any temperature relationship?”
“Seems slightly quieter cold.”
Phil nodded slowly.
“Could be synchronizer wear.”
“That’s what Deere said.”
“Could be.”
Then Phil tilted his head.
“But if you’re telling me the pitch is changing over three weeks and it gets clearer with load, I’d want the countershaft bearings checked before I worried about anything else.”
Ray watched him.
“That worse?”
“Potentially faster.”
“Exactly what Deere told me.”
“Then you’ve got two people worried about the same thing.”
Ray explained the scheduling problem.
“March fourteenth.”
Phil whistled softly.
“When do you need it?”
“March first would make me comfortable.”
Phil shook his head.
“We can't do Deere-authorized work here.”
“I know.”
“And I don't want to pretend we can.”
“I’m not asking you to.”
Phil looked at him for a moment.
Then said,
“I know a guy.”
The sentence came without hesitation.
Ray straightened.
“Who?”
“Dave Correll.”
Ray smiled.
Phil noticed.
“You know him?”
“Heard his name forty minutes ago.”
“Where?”
“Elevator.”
Phil nodded.
“That’s usually how Dave advertises.”
He reached beneath the counter and pulled out one of Garrett Farm Equipment’s business cards.
On the back, he wrote a phone number.
“Fourteen years at a Deere dealership before he went independent.”
“That what I heard.”
“Eleven years on his own.”
“Good?”
“I’ve sent people there.”
“Massey customers?”
“Couple situations we couldn't handle in-house. One old Deere customer too.”
“And?”
“They came back happy.”
Phil slid the card across the counter.
Ray looked at it.
“You don't mind sending someone to another shop?”
Phil shrugged.
“You came in with a problem I can't fix.”
“That never stops some dealers from trying to sell something.”
Phil smiled.
“You want me to sell you a new tractor because yours has a bearing noise?”
“No.”
“Good, because that would be a stupid way to earn your business.”
Ray slipped the card into his shirt pocket.
“I appreciate this.”
“Hope he has room.”
Ray turned toward the door.
Phil added,
“Ray.”
He looked back.
“If Dave says stop running it, stop running it.”
Ray nodded.
“Was planning to.”
“Good.”