Posts Tagged ‘broken spring’
No Mow
I leave for vacation today whether I am ready, or not. I’ve got it covered well enough… I’m sort of ready.
Yesterday was my final day of work before departure, and I tried in vain to get everything completed to my satisfaction. I had hoped to leave early enough to fit in one last cutting of the lawn when I got home. I didn’t hit either target. I didn’t get all the work done before I had to go, and I left work later than I wanted.
As a consolation prize, I was going to get the mowing completed so I wouldn’t have anything that demanded my attention this morning except for finding and packing everything I want to have for the Tour of Minnesota bike trip.
It should come as no surprise that I couldn’t get the mowing done, either.
After a mere 2 or 3 minutes into the job, the power to the mower stopped abruptly. I thought it was possibly the seat interlock, but nothing I did re-enabled the PTO to engage. Then I spotted the belt was completely loose from the engine pulley.
Closer inspection revealed the idler spring had broken.
Really? After 12 hours of operation? This is how new products get a bad review.
I couldn’t find a replacement spring in stock anywhere near us. Everyone was happy to order one for me, but that wouldn’t solve my problem. The grass is long, now. I’m leaving home today for a week of vacation.
I thought maybe I could steal a spring from the old mower, but it didn’t have one matching the size I needed. The mowing did not happen. Unless I get lucky and find one in stock this morning at the one place I couldn’t check last night (because they had already closed for the day), this will be another thing I am leaving behind for others to deal with while I’m gone.
So, I’m sort of ready to leave my responsibilities behind for a week, and I’m sort of packed.
I would venture to say this is the least prepared I’ve been of all of these bike trips I have done over the years. I wish I could say that previous experience allows me to prepare less, but I don’t believe that is the case.
Right now, it feels like previous experience is informing me that I will soon be missing the comforts of home.
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Why don’t I ever take a vacation where I just stay home and relax for a week?
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Scary Sound
Last week, in the middle of the day when I was sitting in the house having lunch, there was a crash in the garage that was so loud that I was hesitant to even look to see what it was. It sounded like something had crashed against the inside wall, just feet away from where I was sitting.
I imagined a critter of some sort. It would have needed to be the size of a bison. I tried to think what hung on that wall that could have come loose and crashed down. If someone, or some animal, was in there, I wasn’t up for the confrontation. I kept eating.
After lunch, as I meandered about, washing my utensils and plate, throwing away trash, walking toward the door to toss recycling… I decided to take a look.
Nothing.
There was nothing amiss. No shelves tipped over. Nothing that had fallen off the wall. As I describe this, it occurs to me that I should have suspected a tree branch out back. That’s what it ended up being last time I went through this experience of trying to identify what caused the crash I heard that sounded like this.
With no evidence apparent, I went about my business and quickly forgot all about it …until much later when Cyndie arrived home. The second that I heard the garage door opener failing to lift the door for her, I realized what had caused that sound. The torsion spring that counter-balances the weight of the door had broken!
It took until yesterday to get a garage door service technician to show up. After two days of delay and rescheduling, I expected him to show in the morning to take measurements that would allow him to get the proper spring on order. When he didn’t show up, or call, I began to struggle with deciding to seek an alternative company.
Why is it so hard to get people to show up here to do work for us? Well, in this case, it is because he is an owner of a 2-person business and they have more work than they can handle expediently. I had left him a message, and was awaiting a reply that would help me decide about calling someone else for assistance.
Hours passed, in which I cleaned the garage, raked leaves, and chased Delilah through the woods after she darted out the door when I was hoping to give her some time off leash, running for tossed discs. She fooled me and took off like a shot, after squirrels in the neighboring woods, instead of for my stupid flying discs. Bad dog!
My faith in humanity was salvaged when Brian finally called in the late afternoon to report he was on his way and had picked up springs he thought would be the correct ones. I got a quick lesson in some very simple steps I could have done to maintain the doors in good working order. He tightened loose nuts. That’s something I could have easily taken care of, had I simply done a close visual inspection. He adjusted one track, and lubricated all the rollers and the spring, itself. I would not have known to do the spring.
Think about it. Every time the door opens and closes, the spring torques and it is rubbing against itself on both sides of each coil. Lubricate it. I can do that!
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Relative Something 