Day 45 - A Lawn Lemon

Some people love mowing the lawn. I do not. Some people know how to troubleshoot mechanical issues with their mower in a timely and efficient manner. I do not, but I am getting better. 

The lawn mower we bought from our previous neighbor to help us with our much larger lawn worked fine. At first. It was an older model but it was refurbished and it ran fine for the first few months. But like many older models, things started to go downhill. I was able to diagnose and resolve issues. At first. Then the problems came around more frequently and the methods to fix them became more expensive. Most of the fixes were relatively easy but because the model was older and not as common as others, replacement parts availability was iffy at best.

When the drive belt snapped and I bought a replacement, I realized how much of a pain it was to get back on. When I finally did and a few rides later, the replacement snapped, I chalked it up to user error and had a more mechanically inclined friend assist in the replacement’s replacement installation. When that one snapped, I realized maybe the belt wasn’t the issue.

It wasn’t. I had uneven pulleys producing friction that sheared off a portion of the pulley and made the drive belt staying attached nearly impossible.

I figured I could just replace the pulley and go on my merry way. Wrong. Long story short, but after having a professional analyze the issue, he made a few adjustments and offered the honest and professional advice of “use this for now, but if the belt snaps again, cut your losses and start fresh.”

The belt didn't snap again. But, the head gasket did. I decided not to press my luck anymore. I parted out this lemon of a mower as a way to recoup some of our initial investment. 

Luckily, another friend donated an older but more reliable riding mower to the farm. 

I knew that if I had this much trouble mowing a regular old lawn, I would need to make some farm friends quickly to help mow the much bigger lawn in the back.