Lawnmower killers

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Are any of you a lawnmower killer? This thread reminded me that I am.

When I bought this house, my friend left his fairly-new lawnmower for me. One day I found a 3" or 4" diameter stump where someone had cut down an arbor vitae along the fence line, and bent the crankshaft. I checked some prices, and found that repairing it would cost more than just buying a new Craftsman mower, which was $130 on sale at the time.

Not long after buying the new mower, I found another stump in an unexpected place. Bent the crankshaft. So now I have two broken mowers in the shed. Again, a new mower cost as much as a repair; so I bought a third.

Now, I’ve had a shortage of time for the past few years. It became convenient for me to just hire Felipe to mow the lawns. He and he crew do an excellent job, and they’re cheap. When the SO moved in, she motivated me to mow my own lawns. I took both mowers to a local shop. The newest one had been sitting and needed to be cleaned up and overhauled. New mowers became more expensive since the last time I bought one, and the shop has more reasonable rates than I’d found previously. Woohoo! Two functioning mowers! (I gave him the one that came with the house. He either recycled it, or repaired it and gave it to a needy person.)

About ten minutes into using one of the repaired mowers, I found a root in the yard. :smack: This is a root that I’d mowed over many times with no problem. This time… BANGCLATTERCLATTERCLATTER :rolleyes: After sitting over Winter, the other mower wouldn’t start.

Last month I took both mowers to the shop. I was told that modern gasoline goes bad very quickly, so the one mower just needed new fuel and a tune-up. The other one… Can you believe it? I hadn’t bent the crankshaft! :eek: A double sawbuck got me a new blade, installed.

This sort of thing never happened to me when I was growing up. But then, dad and I spend many days levelling the desert that was the back yard (after I’d spent my time after school pulling the tumbleweeds). Here, the ground isn’t level; and things seem to spring from the ground where you don’t want them or expect them. Why have I become a lawnmower killer? I don’t know. It’s a mystery; like ‘Why do birds insist on crashing into my car when I drive?’

2

I learned small engine repair from my Dad, Grandfather, and BIL, starting at age 10 or so.
Got to where I could tear down and repair anything by 14. That’s been 35 years.

I’ve looked at engine internals recently, and they’re just not the same. Oh, B&S may tell you that thinner connecting rods means less recip mass and therefore less stress, but I call BS. They simply aren’t making small engines as strong any more, IMHO. Tecumseh was great, but of course went out of business a few years ago.

Your memories are correct, I think. I used to hit things all the time and kept on going. Now, not so much. What most non-engine folks -and that’s most folks - don’t know is every lawnmower engine is built ready to hit that stump or rock. There’s a sacrificial part called a Woodruff key that shears off and breaks when the blade hits something immovable. The engine can still run, but the blade won’t spin. As in the old days, it’s damn near a wash to repair it or replace it, but at least it’s possible.
I just purchased a newHusqvarna AWD mower with a Honda engine, my first small Honda besides my generator, so we’ll see how that goes!

3

In each case, I’d hoped that the key (didn’t know it was called Woodruff) had sheared and saved the crankshaft. That’s what it’s there for. It didn’t. It’s a shame that the one part designed to fail is stronger than the part that’s designed not to.

Oh, it would be so nice to have a nice concrete back yard! But the SO won’t have it.

4

The crankshaft protected the shear key by bending first.

5

When I was a kid I ran over some bricks on purpose because I didn’t feel like mowing the lawn. Does that count?

6

I’ve killed a couple while mowing the alley. My place is on three lots, so I have a lot of alley to mow. Since I appear to be the only person on the block who tries to keep the alley mowed, I also end up mowing some of the other side to keep weed seeds beat back. My problem is that idiots pile stuff next to the dumpsters, and I have two dumpsters behind my property. If it gets just a little grown up on the far side of the far dumpster, there’ll be something buried in there that’ll take out a mower.

There’s no shear protection in mowers any more, but I’ve been able to straighten the shafts enough to get me by until I could buy a new mower.

Timely thread, I just paid a guy $10 to haul off the last busted mower and a dryer I replaced over the winter. Spring cleaning, got the blade sharpened on the mower, ready to tackle another summer.

7

When I was a kid my dad’s friend paid me to mow his lawn. I hit a stump and sheared the key. It took me most of the day to fix his mower, and the guy was surprisingly pissed at me. The next week he mowed his own lawn, sheared the key, paid me $100 to fix the mower (it was really easy the second time), and gave me my job back.

8

I’ve been fighting with my riding mower for a month now. Every year I run it dry so as not to leave gas sitting in it. This Spring I put the battery on my charger, changed the oil, pumped up the tires and it started and ran, but kept stalling. Then it wouldn’t start. I tried jumping it with my field tractor battery, and it would crank, but still not start. I took the battery into AutoZone and got a diagnosis of bad battery, so I bought a new one. Cranks like a charm, but still no start. I checked the fuel line through the fuel filter and to the carburetor. Fuel is flowing fine. If I poor a little gas into the carb, it’ll start, but die as soon as that gas is burned. Took the carburetor off and had it cleaned and tested by a small engine guy. Says it’s okay and the solenoid is good. I reinstalled the carb and put gas in it and the engine wouldn’t catch at all. I bought some starter fluid to spray in the carb, and it still won’t catch. I bypassed the starter and took a wire directly from the battery to the solenoid, thinking maybe it was a starter issue - still no love.

Every day I’ve been coming home from work, feeding the horses and working on the mower. I’m tired of it. This weekend I’ll look for another used rider.

StG

9

I haven’t killed any lawn mowers, but I’m a serial sprinkler killer.

10

Have you checked the spark? Tried a new plug? Checked compression?

If you have compression, fuel & fire, it will run. Not running on starting juice = check ignition.

YMMV

11

This. I hate to give up on a project, whether it’s coding, engines, or whatever, but sometimes another set of experienced eyes comes in handy.

Take it to the shop and let them diagnose it. Don’t throw it away and give up!

12

I’m not a lawnmower killer. But I’m complicit with a garden-hose-killing lawn mower.

13

My lawn mower is currently in the shop. I stopped using it a few years ago, on orders from my cardiologist. Now, after surgery, I’m ready to use it again. Problem is, it contains a full tank of 3-year-old gas. Now I have to pay something like $160 to clean it out, plus a few other things. And next fall I have to do the same thing to my snow blower.

14

I’ve worked off the same tank of gas in my snowblower for three seasons now with no issues. We’ve had so little snow…,

15

Totally. Don’t give up now, StGermain, you already know 90% of what the problem isn’t! Pull the spark plug out of the motor, leave it connected to the wire. Have someone you don’t particularly like hold the plug about 1/8 inch away from the engine while you crank the motor. If they scream and start yelling at you then at least you know you’ve got spark. Is your air filter clean?

I grew up near Seattle, we had moles. Now mole tunnels and hills are a pain in the ass all by themselves, but that part of the country has lots of glacial remains in the form of granite rocks ranging in size from marbles to boulders, but usually about the size of a golf ball. As a kid with half an acre to mow I usually felt it a better use of time to mow down the mole hills than to stomp them all down beforeheand. If you hit one just right, a rock will shoot right through the side of the mower. Good times.

16

My springtime mower report: If you find yourself in the market for a self-propelled mower, save your pennies and look no further.

On May 1, I bought a new Husqvarna All-Wheel-Drive mower. This thing is awesome.
Jr., home from college groaned and complained when I asked him to mow the front yard for me last weekend. His main complaint, other than wasting valuable video game time, was that it took so long. Typically it’s an hour out front, almost an hour out back, plus weed-eating and/or edging. That’s about my limit for pushing vs. riding, so I’ve never gotten a riding mower. I told him this thing was fast, but he just rolled his eyes.

As I worked killing Ivy and cutting branches and stuff, he cut the front yard.

In 25 minutes.

He was almost trotting behind this thing, and it never bogged down once.
The little angel left the back for me, but so what. Another 20 minutes or so, and done.

It powers uphill, through thick grass, mulches great, and has a bag you could hide a child in.

Only 2 issues I don’t like:

  1. No electric start. Call me spoiled, but I like it. Doesn’t really matter, though, because an 8yo girl can pull start this thing. No biggie.
  2. 4-point height adjustment. I prefer a single bar/lever/actuator to raise and lower the whole deck, but again, no biggie. Each corner has a hook for your finger. Just pull up, find the numbered hole you want, and drop it in. The only thing easier is a single point system.

With a 3 year warranty, and the features and performance I’ve seen so far, I would recommend this to anyone. I don’t own Husqvarna, or any stock. I’m just satisfied.

Drawback? Price. It’s $500 no matter where you find it.
Good news? This model has a $50 rebate, and I found a 10% coupon for Lowes, so my net is only $400.

It’s well worth it if you are in the market.[/soapbox]

17

Ma likes to lift the front of the mower and drop it on stuff like branches to chop them up. She gets a new mower every 3 to 4 years.

18

And here I had an image of maniacs running around carrying lawnmowers and attacking people with them .

Sigh.

19

Here you go. (Spoilered as NSFW.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RC1d7dw24Gg

20

Just wait until Skynet controls everything…