Ever had one of those days?

[Captain Kilowatt]

Ever have "one of those days"? Sure you have. We all have. Mine was today. I have a beat up old ride on mower that is about 25 years old or more. It was my fathers and he was going to throw it out several years ago when he bought a new one. Yeah it was in that bad shape. It's an old 10 Hp 34 inch cut Mastercraft (Canadian Tire brand made by MTD). The crankcase seals are leaking, the blades are pretty much shot and next to impossible to find, the battery is shot and the tires are weather cracked so bad that one won't hold air and needs to be refilled twice while mowing the lawn.. But it was free and it still works. At first I just used it to mow down the area adjacent to the lawn that consisted of weeds and blackberry bushes etc. it worked well and no the entire place looks nice mowed. We I got tired of a few things and I don't really want to spend much money on it as it is not worth it and I don't really have the money for a new one especially since my parents are looking at moving into a seniors complex in the next year or so and I will get Dad's new one.



OK Back to the leaky tires. One of the front tires will not hold air and needs to be refilled a couple times during mowing. Today I went out to start it and it just turned over once and died. The battery would not even hold a charge since yesterday. I had a nice little garden tractor battery I bought a couple years ago at Walmart and had not used except for a couple little things I needed 12 volts for. It was too big to fit in where the motorcycle type battery was mounted so I made a mount for it behind the riders seat and extended the wiring to it. First turn of the key and it leaped to life like it never has before.SUCCESS! Now I turned my thoughts to the flat tire. I pulled it off the axle and inspected it all over. It was really weather cracked and I thought about installing a tube. fat chance of getting one that small but off I went ion search of one anyway. At the hardware store I found one The last one in stock. A 13x5.0x6.0 tube! SUCCESS AGAIN! Boy things were in my favour today. Off I went home to install my newly acquired tube which was the last one in stock. talk about luck. I got home and man for a small tire it was a real pain to get off the rim with just some extra large screwdrivers and a pry bar.Installing the tube was even worse trying not to pinch it while doing so. I eventually got it installed back on the rim and inflated it. IT LEAKED!! I had pinched the frigging tube when installing it. Now I had to tear it apart and patch the hole. Remember i mentioned it was a royal pain to remove from the rim? This was the second time to do it today. I looked for the tire patch kit and all I found was the rubber cement and no patches. Great! The wife announced that she was taking us out for supper somewhere and perhaps I should get cleaned up. Good I thought. I needed a break from the frustration and would pick up a repair kit when we were out. Upon getting back home I decided to patch the tube tonight and get it over with as i had other things to do tomorrow. The patch went on fine. The tube installed inside the tire much easier than the first time. The tire installed onto the rim MUCH easier than the last time. Oh the God's were smiling down on me now!

The valve stem was almost in perfect alignment with the hole in the rim only requiring me to turn the rim about half an inch. I lined the valve stem up with the hole and using a pair of small needle nose pliers grasped the valve stem and pulled it thru the hole. Well at least the threaded part on the end came thru.The rest stayed inside the tire.

The tube is now ruined

. Did I mention it was the last one in stock?

 

[Robb]

All that is left is to remove the tire off of the rim, clean the bead with wire wheel, install a new valve stem, then re-assemble the tire on the rim, put some air in it and find the leak. Take it apart once more, use the inner tube patch kit to seal the tire leak. Put a thin coat of glue on the wound and light it with a match; then blow it out after a few seconds and throw the patch on - works beautiful.

If it fails all that, then take the remaining glue and a small portion of gasoline and douse the tire with it, ignite with a match, and have the last laugh . . .

 

[BJ radionut]

Ever have "one of those days"? Sure you have. We all have. Mine was today. I have a beat up old ride on mower that is about 25 years old or more. It was my fathers and he was going to throw it out several years ago when he bought a new one. Yeah it was in that bad shape. It's an old 10 Hp 34 inch cut Mastercraft (Canadian Tire brand made by MTD). The crankcase seals are leaking, the blades are pretty much shot and next to impossible to find, the battery is shot and the tires are weather cracked so bad that one won't hold air and needs to be refilled twice while mowing the lawn.. But it was free and it still works. At first I just used it to mow down the area adjacent to the lawn that consisted of weeds and blackberry bushes etc. it worked well and no the entire place looks nice mowed. We I got tired of a few things and I don't really want to spend much money on it as it is not worth it and I don't really have the money for a new one especially since my parents are looking at moving into a seniors complex in the next year or so and I will get Dad's new one.



OK Back to the leaky tires. One of the front tires will not hold air and needs to be refilled a couple times during mowing. Today I went out to start it and it just turned over once and died. The battery would not even hold a charge since yesterday. I had a nice little garden tractor battery I bought a couple years ago at Walmart and had not used except for a couple little things I needed 12 volts for. It was too big to fit in where the motorcycle type battery was mounted so I made a mount for it behind the riders seat and extended the wiring to it. First turn of the key and it leaped to life like it never has before.SUCCESS! Now I turned my thoughts to the flat tire. I pulled it off the axle and inspected it all over. It was really weather cracked and I thought about installing a tube. fat chance of getting one that small but off I went ion search of one anyway. At the hardware store I found one The last one in stock. A 13x5.0x6.0 tube! SUCCESS AGAIN! Boy things were in my favour today. Off I went home to install my newly acquired tube which was the last one in stock. talk about luck. I got home and man for a small tire it was a real pain to get off the rim with just some extra large screwdrivers and a pry bar.Installing the tube was even worse trying not to pinch it while doing so. I eventually got it installed back on the rim and inflated it. IT LEAKED!! I had pinched the frigging tube when installing it. Now I had to tear it apart and patch the hole. Remember i mentioned it was a royal pain to remove from the rim? This was the second time to do it today. I looked for the tire patch kit and all I found was the rubber cement and no patches. Great! The wife announced that she was taking us out for supper somewhere and perhaps I should get cleaned up. Good I thought. I needed a break from the frustration and would pick up a repair kit when we were out. Upon getting back home I decided to patch the tube tonight and get it over with as i had other things to do tomorrow. The patch went on fine. The tube installed inside the tire much easier than the first time. The tire installed onto the rim MUCH easier than the last time. Oh the God's were smiling down on me now!

The valve stem was almost in perfect alignment with the hole in the rim only requiring me to turn the rim about half an inch. I lined the valve stem up with the hole and using a pair of small needle nose pliers grasped the valve stem and pulled it thru the hole. Well at least the threaded part on the end came thru.The rest stayed inside the tire.

The tube is now ruined

. Did I mention it was the last one in stock?

Laughing with you CK...been there!
All the Best
Gary

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

All that is left is to remove the tire off of the rim, clean the bead with wire wheel, install a new valve stem, then re-assemble the tire on the rim, put some air in it and find the leak. Take it apart once more, use the inner tube patch kit to seal the tire leak. Put a thin coat of glue on the wound and light it with a match; then blow it out after a few seconds and throw the patch on - works beautiful.

If it fails all that, then take the remaining glue and a small portion of gasoline and douse the tire with it, ignite with a match, and have the last laugh . . .

Trust me Robb. This ain't this cowboy's first rodeo dealing with bad tires.You haven't seen the tire. It has a weather crack forming a complete circle around the sidewall of the tire. There is actually grass straight thru the sidewall. Tires for it are made of pure Unobtanium. If I am going to pour gas on anything and set it afire it will be the entire mower. Just the other week I was adjusting the carburetor as it would backfire every time when going from full throttle to an idle. Flame would shoot out the muffler about two feet and it sounded like a gunshot. The only way I could do it was from the side facing the muffler since that was where the carburetor was. It seemed like I had fixed the problem. I reached over to crank the throttle up and then back down and BANG!! Fire shot out the muffler at mecausing me to jump up and I think I actually hollered as it scared the shit out of me. Looking down at the engine I saw a little wisp of smoke. Then a small glowing ember with more smoke. My frigging shirt was on fire!! It must have had a bit of gas or a lint ball or something on it. I beat it out and gave up for the day. I figured when machines start fighting back it's time for a break. I went into the house and told the wife that if the SOB broke out into flames and burned up the only thing that would upset me was the fact that it had nearly $12 worth of gas in it.

 

[W5LZ]

I have a Riding mower from Sears, a Craftsman. It has a problem with water in the gas. If you spit around the thing the moisture goes straight to the gas tank. I wish I were exaggerating/joking about that, but I'm not. And bugs. How do bugs that size get into the @#$ gas tank? There's a 1/16" vent hole in the cap, but those bugs were never that small! I don't leave the gas cap off so how the hell do they get in there? Bugs like sniffing gasoline? Beats me. Wish I'd never bought it.
- 'Doc

And to top it off, I've developed an allergy to grass. That's not an excuse, it's a fact.

 

[wavrider]

I have an old Poulan 18hp 42 in cut riding lawn mower. It was givebn to me free but needed some TLC.

New battery, new solenoid, tune up and a set of belts and blades it runs and cuts great.

I have been using it for three years and the fuel pump is steady getting weaker.

If the gas level goes below half a tank of gas the mower will not run. As long as there is more than half a tank of gas in the tank the fuel pump can supply enough fuel to keep that engine running.

I will do as CK does, run till failure. At work we call that RTF.

Run to failure or Ruin the F'ing thing.

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

If there is anything good to say about this mower it's that it is still using the ORIGINAL belts on it. Hard to believe I know but it is true. There....now I have just screwed myself. Tomorrow after getting another tube and getting things running the belt will fly to hell as I pull it out of the shop. Guaranteed.

 

[wavrider]

If there is anything good to say about this mower it's that it is still using the ORIGINAL belts on it. Hard to believe I know but it is true. There....now I have just screwed myself. Tomorrow after getting another tube and getting things running the belt will fly to hell as I pull it out of the shop. Guaranteed.

Naw if your luck is like mine, the darn belts will stay together and every time you want to mow you will have to fix something else.

 

[Shadowman2]

If there is anything good to say about this mower it's that it is still using the ORIGINAL belts on it. Hard to believe I know but it is true. There....now I have just screwed myself. Tomorrow after getting another tube and getting things running the belt will fly to hell as I pull it out of the shop. Guaranteed.

I think you may have missed your calling to date. You should be writing for a living! Very entertaining DIY stories!

 

[Radio Tech]

Now I don't feel so bad about my 25 year old Murray I use to cut my lawn.

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

I think you may have missed your calling to date. You should be writing for a living! Very entertaining DIY stories!

Well I am glad someone found something entertaining about the whole thing. it sure wasn't me however.

 

[Lil'Yeshua]

Forget the inner tube,use this. Just don't run over any tough grass.
Flex Seal | Consumer Reports Claim Check - Consumer Reports

P.S. On my lawn mower,the carb is gummed up from not properly winterizing it. Also the mower died on me last year. It's only 18 years old. I seem to be having one of those days. I purchased Spyder fog lights for my car. Good for me that I read up on some Nissan Versa Spyder fog light forums and how the supplied bezel doesn't fit just right. So,I'm using my pocket knife to cut out holes in my factory Versa w/o fog light bezels and then three coats of factory matching paint to finish the deal.
Also,I'm installing aftermarket upper and lower polished aluminum billet grills on my car. Even though these grills are made for my car,they don't exactly fit so I would have to bend shape them by eyeball for a perfect fit. Oh,the upper grill is the third one I've had delivered as the two previous ones were bend either by the shipping department or/and the American Tourister gorillas(UPS).
Gorilla vs. luggage 1980 - YouTube

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

The funny thing is I managed to seal all the really bad weather cracks up with silicone. Yup regular silicone. I flexed the sidewalls and squeezed it in and rubbed it all around before letting the sidewall do it's normal thing. I ran a thin coat on the inside as well, inserted a new Schraeder valve and put the air to it. No leaks in the sidewalls anymore just one in the tread from a couple hairline cracks. A bit of tire sealant injected into it should cure that.

 

[Lil'Yeshua]

The funny thing is I managed to seal all the really bad weather cracks up with silicone. Yup regular silicone. I flexed the sidewalls and squeezed it in and rubbed it all around before letting the sidewall do it's normal thing. I ran a thin coat on the inside as well, inserted a new Schraeder valve and put the air to it. No leaks in the sidewalls anymore just one in the tread from a couple hairline cracks. A bit of tire sealant injected into it should cure that.

Soooooo, you're trying to make the mower last til when? Hopefully you put some sealant around the valve stem when you installed it.
The best thing I've used at sealing leaks is 3M weather strip sealant(yellow stuff). I used to use it on auto valve covers back in the eighties when I worked at a service station. Remember those? Those customer's valve coves would leak no more but I'd hate to be the one to pull them the next time they needed serviced.

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

Soooooo, you're trying to make the mower last til when?

As stated...since my parents are planning to move into a seniors complex within the next year or so and I will get his new one, until that happens. Also my father in law has one only a couple years old and he is in hospital with stage four cancer with only weeks left. That one may be available this summer. I'm just not spending any money on the old thing for that reason.

Hopefully you put some sealant around the valve stem when you installed it.

Nope. Why? I have never done so. Just used a little silicone grease to make it go into the hole easier. Never had one leak yet.

The best thing I've used at sealing leaks is 3M weather strip sealant(yellow stuff). I used to use it on auto valve covers back in the eighties when I worked at a service station. Remember those? Those customer's valve coves would leak no more but I'd hate to be the one to pull them the next time they needed serviced.