Adventures in mowing
Trying to take care of mechanical issues is not my strong suit. I recently rediscovered this when the deck belt on my dad’s lawn tractor popped off. I was mowing in the middle of the woods and suddenly the blades weren’t spinning. After sitting and stewing for a few minutes, I grabbed tools and went to go look at it. It’s a big serpentine belt that feeds through a system of six pulleys and idlers to make the blades spin.
I fiddled with it a while, and then went to a neighbor’s house because they have a very similar tractor. I took pictures of what the belt should look like when properly installed and also drew a sketch of the direction that the belt is to flow. Armed with this information, I attempted again and was successful. Said neighbor could probably hear me squealing with pride and joy at my accomplishment.
Unfortunately, I think the belt became stretched when it popped off the first time because it will not stay on now despite how much tension I placed on the tension rod. So, I parked it.
I opted instead for the push mower that also resides in my father’s shed. I primed the bulb and pulled the cord to no avail. I removed the cover from the fuel filter and discovered that the filter was fairly gross, so I cleaned it as best as I could and tried again. It helped enough, and it fired up on the second pull.
I mowed for a few minutes and then saw smoke beginning to wisp off the lawn mower. I let go of the handle, but the mower stayed running. By this time, the little wisps of smoke were tendrils, and small orange flames could be seen as well. Knowing I had just filled the gas tank, and not sure how to shut the power off since the kill switch had obviously malfunctioned, I walked away from the machine, certain it was going to explode.
While debating whether I should throw water on the machine, the fire went out. I presume there must have been some dry grass somewhere on the deck left from last year. Once that fuel was gone, the fire went out on its own.
That didn’t stop the engine from running however, so I quickly googled alternate ways to kill a lawnmower. The first site suggested I take a stick and remove the spark plug wire from the spark plug, thereby eliminating combustion. Tentatively I followed the instructions but did not have a successful result. I called my brother and asked him what his thoughts were, and he suggested I push the mower into tall grass and choke it out.
That worked!
The next day I loaded the lawnmower into my car and took it to a local repair man. It seems the lawnmower is running fine now. Unfortunately, I still have the lawn tractor belt to replace, and I’m told the deck must come off for that. While I work on that problem I’ll be push-mowing the grass. Several acres’ worth, in fact.
I’m pretty sure it’ll be my tail end that catches on fire, and that it’ll be my behind that drops in the meantime.
Laura Zoeller can be reached at zoeller5@verizon.net.