Last week I was mowing grass. I've got a little 22" push mower that I use for trim work, mowing ditches, that sort of thing. When I finished mowing, I turned off the mower and it went CLUNK! Not a good clunk, so I bent down and grabbed the engine, and the deck is rotted. The motor is held on with three bolts. Two of them are holding, but barely so. I put out a call for a mower deck and second son responded with one he's kept in the grass behind his shop.
So far, so good.
Today, I went out to try to take the engine off the bad deck and put it on the good deck. I got the blade off, easy-peasy, then hosed the two bolts holding the engine with penetrating oil. Got out the wrenches. No joy. Sprayed everything down with penetrating oil. Poured myself a drink. Got out the impact wrench. Sprayed some more penetrating oil, talked to Milady about my day and hers, then went back out to the garage to remove those bolts. The first one came out just like it was supposed to. The second one was a bit more reticent.
Sprayed some more penetrating oil, gave everything a rest. Poured myself another bourbon. Then went back to it after a half-hour or so. Rounded that sonofabitch off. Damn, damn, double-damn. I put everything away before I lost my religion. Sprayed some more penetrating oil, maybe that bolt will be loose enough to remove tomorrow. Poured my self another drink, then pushed the mower into the front yard. Said the hell with it.
Maybe somebody will steal the sonofabitch. It'll serve them right.
2 comments:
Laughing: not at you but with you, PawPaw. Last year I was installing a new magneto on my 30-year-old Honda HR214 and I busted off a #20 bolt in the aluminum cylinder head. My fault: I'd never heard of one-use bolts before and this one was stretched.
That $pendy machine-shop repair would have put the mower over my fleet maintenance budget, so it's gone.
Heh, trust me you won't be that lucky!
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