Month: August 2008

Why should we cut grass anyway? It’s grows naturally! I say let it go through its full life cycle. After much sweat and many words not appropriate for a Sunday, the nut holding the seat to the frame gave way. Most of it was cut away then after a thorough soaking of WD-40 (as I was too lazy to get my Liquid Wrench), a screw driver and hammer were violently applied until what little piece of aluminum was left began to turn. After that a wrench did quit work of removing the remainder of the nut leaving the bolt in good shape for the replacement nut. The fiberglass body lifted off after unplugging some wires and the fuel line (the tank is attached to the body being removed) but only after puzzling through the proper bizarre twists and turns required to life it off the varies levers. I only almost cracked it once. I am sore, sweaty, and blistered. The starter motor remains attached to the engine and the rusted terminals under the key switch make me think it could be the switch (or the rusted terminals and not the starter itself. However I am done for the day.

As I was inspecting the mower, I thought about putting the belt back on. See, last trip out I was in an area that I had not thoroughly policed and I heard this god awful kerthunking noise and the blades quit spinning. I thought I hit a log and threw the belt. I no longer think I hit a log since I was being pretty careful. The mower had a catastrophic failure. The pulley that drives the blades which is turned by the belt connected in a serpentine fashion to the engine broke. I mean the metal of the pulley ripped from the shaft that spins the blades. I suppose I should still check on the starter. This could make a pretty cool go cart…

Update: Looks like I have a melted fuse or other electrical component. So one mechanical and one electrical repair plus maybe the starter motor before I can get my lawn cut again. Ugh.

The computer tries to suck me in but I AM the Lawnmower Man! I have the body ready to be removed but the seat is in the way. The one bolt holding the seat on is so rusted that I think I need to cut it free.

Update: I opened my cordless Dremel and the battery and charger are missing! As a guy who used to have a very specific spot for everything I owned, you know, periodically I’d reorganize my CD collection either alphabetically or by genre and screwdrivers were sorted by type and size, missing tools and a parts drive me up a wall.

There will be plenty of more opportunity for politics. If you haven’t had your fill, head over to Knoxviews.com. In the meantime, I am going to turn to describing how to get a riding lawn mower working again…the wrong way. The right ways is to roll it up onto a trailer and take it to the shop. But to do that I’d have to either get the Jeep running or install a hitch on the van. Both of those are just as much work as simply fixing the lawn mower myself. After searching the whole house, I found the key was left on the seat of the mower in the shed. So its now been rolled into the yard. To get to the starter, I have to take the entire body off the mower. That involves tools. So the next bit of searching is for the tools. Have I mentioned I really need a workshop/tool shed?