Relative Something

Before the sun came up yesterday, I heard rain falling on the roof. By the time we got out of bed, the precipitation had passed, but it looked like it had knocked the stuffing out of one of the trees over the driveway.

As the day progressed, the wind picked up significantly. In the afternoon, all of that debris was rolling together into large fuzz balls. Nature making a big mess.

Lacking tangible support from the manufacturer of my battery-powered riding mower, I ended up making a mess of my own to troubleshoot the recurring error code.

After determining that the left and right blade controllers were identical, I swapped them. The problem didn’t change. That pointed me to the blade motors, which also happen to be identical. I swapped them next. While I had everything apart, I decided to install some new blades I had on hand when putting it all back together.

With everything back together, I set off to do some test mowing to see if the error reappeared. In a classic situation, which technicians are well familiar with, no error code occurred for the rest of the time I mowed. The only reason I quit was that the batteries needed charging.

It appeared as though I fixed it by taking it apart and then putting it back together again. That is not as rewarding as it seems it should be.

When the batteries were fully recharged, I set out to finish mowing the area where I had left off. From there, I figured I would take as much advantage as possible and mow any area overdue for a trim. A short time later, the PTO shut down with the return of the error code.

I had not fixed the problem. Only bought a little time between failures. However, the error code had changed, following the motor that had been moved from the right side to the left. The problem has been narrowed down to the (formerly, right) blade motor.

I’m expecting a call back from a designated service provider in St. Paul this morning with information on ordering a replacement motor (since the manufacturer shows little interest in offering support after the run-time hours have exceeded their warranty period).

The best part of working on the battery-powered riding tractor is that my hands hardly got dirty. No gas smell, engine oil, or grease. Just turning screws, pulling connectors, and attaching wires to clean, dry electronic components.

It was a real treat to be working in my preferred element.

.

.