Thursday, July 03, 2014

Lawn Mowers

I've got this push mower that I've had for seven or eight years.  Little green and yellow, hunnert-dollar Wal-Mart special.  You've seen a zillion of them.  I use it for cutting around trees, in the back yard, and in the ditches where the big mower won't go.  It thrives on abuse, and only needs a new spark plug occasionally.  Once a year or so, I change the oil and the air filter.  It runs good, although it has its little quirks.

The starting procedure is easy.  It's got one of those little push-bubble carburetors, and I give it five pushes, then pull the starter cord.  It runs for about five seconds, then dies, so I give it two more pushes and pull the cord again.  It starts and runs as long as there is gas in the tank.  It's been a great little lawn-mower.

Yesterday, I started the derned thing and like always, it ran about five seconds then died.  No, problem, I gave the carb two more squirts and pulled the rope.  It started and ran, but I realized that I was still holding the short end of the  rope in my hand.

Well, shit.

It was running, so I tucked the little rubber handle in my pocket and did the mowing I needed to do.  If I let it die, that was the end of mowing until I put a new starter rope in it, and I've seen that dragon before.  It's a nasty, horrible job that deals with springs and rotating parts and is designed to make me loose my Christianity.  Before I'm through with that job, I'll be cussing like a shipwrecked sailor.

Monday, I;ll take that starter mechanism over to Squyres (our local lawnmower shop) and have him put a new starter cord on it.  I'll even buy a new air filter, just to show my goodwill.

2 comments:

Matt said...

Hey Pawpaw, I'll show you a trick about that if you're interested. All you will need is the new rope!

Anonymous said...

Hey, PawPaw, remove those parts for the recoil starter one last time. On the top of the flywheel there is a nut. If it is a deep one, leave it. If a shallow one, exchange it for a deep one. Then use a cordless drill with a 3/8 mandrel chucked in it and the appropriate SIX-POINT socket to start the mower. I've used this technique on some sizeable one-lungers, including old military Wisconsin-powered 3-inch dewatering pumps.

Rivrdog