Posts Tagged ‘Craftsman mower’
Declutter Day
It was quick. It was easy. So quick and easy, in fact, that I almost forgot it was part of my day yesterday. There is another likely reason it slipped my mind: it happened at the crack of dawn. A recent acquaintance volunteered to come first thing in the morning to take my collection of accumulated metal scrap. As a thank you to him for doing so, I offered him my old Craftsman riding mower as well.
That became a 2-for-1 decluttering success for me. That mower has been sitting untouched in the shop garage for at least two years. The battery was dead, so I couldn’t start it for him, but we pushed it out of the garage and onto his trailer in a wonderful exclamation point of decluttering.
Taking advantage of finding myself in the decluttering mode, I also finally took action on an inconvenient piece of trash that has been sitting around for years, collecting pigeon shit in the hay shed.
This plastic bucket had a broken bottom but was too big to fit easily in our trash bin. It needed to be busted up into smaller pieces. That’s something that I never found myself wanting to do, so it just got moved around in the shed each time it was in the way of whatever we were doing.
After the scrap metal was easily dispatched, I used that momentum to snap 
that bucket into little pieces that fit into a garbage bag.
There is no valid reason why that couldn’t have happened the very day the bottom of that bucket broke in the first place.
The sun had just barely come up, and I had accomplished a day’s worth of rewarding feats. Then I completed manure management chores and headed to the house for breakfast. I watched the thrilling finish of Stage 16 of the Tour de France on Mont Ventoux, followed by raking, mowing, trimming, and more mowing.
Add in a little jaunt to Minneapolis for dinner with Rich and Gary, where we plotted a September bike adventure in South Dakota, and I found my mind had lost track of how my day had started.
The only thing missing was a nap that I would have enjoyed having somewhere in the middle of the afternoon.
Maybe I can make up for that today…
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Reluctant Success
Beyond green energy, there is a significant reason that I was so fervently interested in getting an electric lawn tractor. I have a difficult relationship with gas engines. They are fine when they work, but when they don’t, I am at a loss as to figuring out what is wrong and fixing it.
When an engine doesn’t start, is it because it is flooded? Is it too cold? Bad fuel? Air filter? Fuel filter? Spark plugs? Have I neglected recommended maintenance?
Changing oil on schedule is a hard one for me. I put it off because I don’t like to do it. Then, when I finally do the job, it seems too easy to be something to dread. I don’t like adding oil because of the warning about not overfilling. I think I overfilled the first push mower we ever owned when living in the suburbs. It coughed blue smoke ever after. That’s when I switched to a non-motorized push reel mower.
Now, when I need to, I add oil very slowly and check the level multiple times. It never seems to change. That drives me nuts. I think the range from not enough to too much is way too narrow. The dipstick on the Yamaha Grizzly is very short and the whole thing always looks wet when I pull it out. It’s threaded and after I dry it off, it needs to be turned fully in to check. Then I need to turn it out to discover the whole length looks wet again.
Yesterday, I changed the oil in the Grizzly. Without looking at the existing filter, I went to an auto parts store to buy a replacement. They gave me this tiny canister that I was sure must be too small. He cross-checked twice and confirmed that is what is listed. When I got home and removed the panels on the ATV to see the filter, it was exactly the same as what I bought. Success!
The manual says it takes 2.11 liters of oil. I put in 2.0 and the dipstick is totally wet. I’ll keep checking.
I’ve made it through the summer using my new Greenworks lawn tractor for mowing and am ready to find the old gas-powered Craftsman a new home. It hasn’t run for a year (and really needs an oil change) and I haven’t been able to start it. First, the battery was dead. I got that charged and the engine turned over but it never fired once.
I finally resorted to searching online and stumbled onto a video that precisely addressed my problem. The guy said it is a simple fix with a Torx screwdriver. Sure it is. After watching the video (which didn’t contain any non-related distractions!), I went outside and discovered that was exactly the problem.
Adjusted the choke cable and the engine started instantly.
Two annoying fossil fuel successes in one day. I need to remember this next time I start getting all angsty about gas/diesel engines. (By the way, the New Holland diesel needs an oil change, too.)
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Relative Something 