The mower is “cursed”
The other day, probably Friday, June 15, it seemed like my entire world was crashing in flames.
Except it wasn’t. My freezer still worked, as does my washing-machine, my refrigerator, my cars, and the giant poplar-tree hasn’t fallen and taken out my fence.
“Knock on wood,” said my mower-man, as he delivered my giant zero-turn lawnmower Saturday afternoon which he had just repaired.
I’m exaggerating of course.
I get extremely depressed when things go awry since my wife died. It seems a lot has gone wrong.
A lot has been my lawnmower.
I lost its only key, but later found it misplaced in a pants-pocket I don’t normally use.
It wouldn’t crank — it has electric-start — I had to jump it with my car.
It also destroyed the long belt that drives the cutting-blades.
I had to replace that belt; 80 smackaroos.
I also replaced the battery; 60 smackaroos.
It still wouldn’t crank.
My mower-man took it and replaced a compression-release.
In the middle of this my landline telephone also tanked. It wouldn’t deliver a dial-tone.
And my digital camera went dark 270 miles from home.
Repair might cost over $300, enough to make me consider a more up-to-date camera-body. My camera is a Nikon D100, the second 6-megapixel digital-single-lens-reflex camera to break the $2,000 barrier, after the Canon EOS D60.
It’s about 10 years old.
Compression-release repaired last week, my mower-man delivered my mower that Friday afternoon, and I set about mowing.
It died after about 300 yards.
This was when I really got depressed.
My mower-man came out and fiddled it, determining it didn’t “sound right.”
Back to his shop it went!
The mower’s engine, a giant 540 cubic-centimeter 20-horsepower single-cylinder Briggs & Stratton commercial, is overhead-valve.
Its valves operate via pushrod-and-rocker just like a ‘60s Detroit V8.
The studs the rockers are on are threaded, not pressed-in-place like a Detroit V8.
A rocker-stud had backed out, something my mower-man had never seen before.
With that repaired my mower was returned Saturday, June 16.
Now we’ll see what it throws at me next.
It sat all night in the garden-shed with my battery-charger on it, to give it a better chance at cranking.
• I mowed quite a bit the following two days without problem.
• My wife died of cancer April 17, 2012.
• My “zero-turn” is our 48-inch riding-mower; called a “zero-turn” because it’s a special design with separate drives to each drive-wheel, so it can be spun on a dime. “Zero-turns” are becoming the norm, because they cut mowing time in half compared to a lawn-tractor, which has to be set up for each mowing-pass.
Except it wasn’t. My freezer still worked, as does my washing-machine, my refrigerator, my cars, and the giant poplar-tree hasn’t fallen and taken out my fence.
“Knock on wood,” said my mower-man, as he delivered my giant zero-turn lawnmower Saturday afternoon which he had just repaired.
I’m exaggerating of course.
I get extremely depressed when things go awry since my wife died. It seems a lot has gone wrong.
 |
| Photo by BobbaLew. |
| My zero-turn. |
I lost its only key, but later found it misplaced in a pants-pocket I don’t normally use.
It wouldn’t crank — it has electric-start — I had to jump it with my car.
It also destroyed the long belt that drives the cutting-blades.
I had to replace that belt; 80 smackaroos.
I also replaced the battery; 60 smackaroos.
It still wouldn’t crank.
My mower-man took it and replaced a compression-release.
In the middle of this my landline telephone also tanked. It wouldn’t deliver a dial-tone.
And my digital camera went dark 270 miles from home.
Repair might cost over $300, enough to make me consider a more up-to-date camera-body. My camera is a Nikon D100, the second 6-megapixel digital-single-lens-reflex camera to break the $2,000 barrier, after the Canon EOS D60.
It’s about 10 years old.
Compression-release repaired last week, my mower-man delivered my mower that Friday afternoon, and I set about mowing.
It died after about 300 yards.
This was when I really got depressed.
My mower-man came out and fiddled it, determining it didn’t “sound right.”
Back to his shop it went!
The mower’s engine, a giant 540 cubic-centimeter 20-horsepower single-cylinder Briggs & Stratton commercial, is overhead-valve.
Its valves operate via pushrod-and-rocker just like a ‘60s Detroit V8.
The studs the rockers are on are threaded, not pressed-in-place like a Detroit V8.
A rocker-stud had backed out, something my mower-man had never seen before.
With that repaired my mower was returned Saturday, June 16.
Now we’ll see what it throws at me next.
It sat all night in the garden-shed with my battery-charger on it, to give it a better chance at cranking.
• I mowed quite a bit the following two days without problem.
• My wife died of cancer April 17, 2012.
• My “zero-turn” is our 48-inch riding-mower; called a “zero-turn” because it’s a special design with separate drives to each drive-wheel, so it can be spun on a dime. “Zero-turns” are becoming the norm, because they cut mowing time in half compared to a lawn-tractor, which has to be set up for each mowing-pass.
posted by BobbaLew at 11:14 AM
1 Comments:
A lot of Detroit V-8's had screw-in rocker studs. especialy those with solid-lifter cams. I've seen both types fail. Press-in types pulled out and screw-in types loosened.
Hope it reats you better now. Probably with copious amounts of Loc-Tite applied. ;-)
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