[sammons]

Mower repair/maintanice, get ready for this ol dudes 27th season. At least no deck repair, did that last summer. After mow season last fall i went to mulch up leafs, she spun over 4 times and broke another starter drive gear. I just replaced it again last spring, noticed then the bushings were getting sloppy at top. Figured thats why its breaking them when it's off when it comes up to fly wheel. For a few bucks more than new drive gear and bushings, i just bought a new starter off Amazon.

I got my garage door unclamped/ insulation removed so i could get it opened back up for summer. Got the mower broke loose from the ground and pulled it with p.u. into garage. Time to put the new starter on the  old big block. This thing reminds me of an old chevy 396, not the most powerfull offered, but plenty of power and torque and very dependable. 😁

Getting the front starter bolt is a real pain, if it didn't have that torques bit in the middle, you couldn't get it out, it's tucked in behind drive gear😡

Tom came over and bent my front spindle arms  around to get my toe set on the front axel and greased everthing for me. Be nice if these had and adjustable drag link. Did find out this mower was built by Huskvarna, did not know that. Got batt charged, engine
degreased, cooling fins all cleaned out. Turned fuel on, give throttle and choke a couple pulls to make sure they weren't froze up. Hit key... i bet it didn't turn over 3 times and fired right up, no slobering just smooth as silk, surprised me. Clean up wax body next.

All engine under the hood😄 Had bad toe out.

[Rattiac]

Been working on small engine stuff as well. 
I had a 4yr old 5hp snowblower but just inherited dad's new 7hp snowblower.  My neighbor has always needed a good snowblower.  I'm always doing his driveway.  So he asked about my old unit. I sold it to him pretty cheap but couldn't let him pick it up just yet.  It needed some new glider feet.  So I welded up some 3/4" solid square on those feet and went through the fuel system.  Gave it a good drain,  removed the bowl,  all seemed well. 
Went to Lowe's and bought some 4 stroke canned fuel.  Let it idle for about 30mins.  The surge went away idled perfect.
Now he has a good snowblower and I have the next few years off.

[sammons]

Glad you kept dads new 7hp, extra power helps. Good on you for getting the older one up and going for neighbor. 5yrs ago i was looking into getting one as i can't shovel anymore. But.. the neighbor comes over with his little John Deere tractor and blades, (or buckets if deep), so i do nothing but thank him.

Had to give up on the clean up, couldn't control my buffer. Just washed and waxed hood, rear fender paint is dead. Forgot to change oil and adjust brakes. Got oil/filter changed but too sore to do anything else right now. Next project after that will be getting my 3.5hp walk behind edger going again. I have to cut drive and sidwalks every couple weeks with this burmuda grass.

[sixball]

Yep. Weed season is here. Ass son as this last batch of snow is gone I'l be spraying & rototilling. Wish I had the means & patients to get some of this in permanent pasture. I just end up repeating the cycle. I didn't have to move much snow this winter but the little battery blower my wife bought for me took care of the steps and a path to her car.  Pretty amazing little tool.

[sammons]

Ya, thats what brothers doing out west.  Getting equipment up and running trying to get ahead of fire season, endless task.

The wind calmed down and rain/mix on the way the rest of the week, so i thought i would mow some high spots. Lol, i must have made it a whole 100' when drive speed slowed. Thought maybe i got some lube on the belt, nope. The idler pulley self destructed. Freind stopped and helped me, or should i say he pushed it back around into the garage. I think i have a spare off a previous scrapped mower, if not i'll steal it off the red one out back and order another later. Pulley is the original, looks like the plastic just wore thin and broke. Two steps forward, three steps back.

[sammons]

Got my parts at noon. Watched youtube videos, all didn't show my model with a bolt going up from bottom. Thought it had a built in nut on top, nope. I went a head and pulled the deck for easier access early this morn. The nut on top, under battery and steering gear. Can't be 2 places at once, had to wait for Tom to get off work to give me a hand. That made it almost easy. Putting the deck back on i noticed something moving at the rear deck locator bracket. It was broke thru rear bracket hole. Something to weld up tomorrow.

While i was waiting this afternoon, i popped the seal out of the new pulley bearing. Yep, just like the last 4 sealed bearings... just 4 small globs of grease. How much could it cost to actually put enough grease in there😡   Got my grease out and paint brush to add grease and work around the bearings and put the seal back in. Check your sealed bearings before you install fellows👍

Ya, got the goodie out of that pulley😁

Pulley, broke bracket
Bottom bolt
Upper nut, hidden in there.

[sammons]

After the transmission  pulley replace i needed brake adjust. I either got it worked once, then bound up, tried readjust same. Yesterday i finally got my transmisson belt and installed. This morn i took rear wheel off to see what was going on. The caliper had something rubbing hard and wearing a groove. It hasn't worked right since i had it all apart last spring, the pins were stuck and wouldn't push against pads.

Well i found it. A freind was helping me cause i kept dropping the assy cause my hands weren't working. Everytime parts would scatter. Last time i handed it to him... i flipped the caliper upside down🙄   the rotor hub was rubbing and throwing the brake arm off into lock up. Geez easy fix and everything working smoothy.
Pads need replaced so got some coming tuesday.

Pics for your amusement😄

[sixball]

Glad you got it fixed!


Yes, That time of year. I was using the box scraper to drag some weeds, because that was what was attached to the tractor. A rear tire went flat and caused me to slide off the trail down a slope toward the chicken yard. I had to maneuver the pickup around it and only knocked over one fence post. Things in the passenger side mirror really bare closer that they appear.  The winch on the pickup was able to pull the tractor out but the tire was ruined. I have 2 new tires coming and should be at the tire shop Nest week. I have to pull the second one off and take it in today. Meanwhile the weeds are growing several inches a day!   

[sammons]

Sixball, glad you didn't slide down into the chicken yard. Those winches are sure handy👍

My buddy Tom bought an old Case tractor at auction last month. Can't remember what type its called, but has shorter wide tires on the rear that are really wide. They look similar to bomber tires with the diamond style tread. He said way to wide track in the rear, so he's shopping for different tires and wheels $$$$.


Brother had to pull out of his weeding to go to town to his kids house. Had a big oak limb fall on the rear fence, took it out and broke a concrete post off. Just never ending maintenence.

[sixball]

Really like old tractors but don't want to restore any. In the 50s we were farming with a Case, an Oliver, & a FarmAll form the teens to the twenties. We mostly had implements that were converted from horse drawn. Our hay baler required two people to operators plus a tractor driver. We bought two new ones a DC Case that ran on butane and a John Deere Model R diesel with a 20' oneway disc plow. That was a time saver when prepping wheat fields!   Lots of uncles and cousins (aunts sometimes) farming the family estate. I don't remember any that escaped injury but luckily none died and we had all of our arms and legs and most of our fingers and toes.  A harvest time the whole world smelled like fresh baked bread.

[sammons]

Got my parts today, my new magneto for the 3.5 Briggs on the edger, my brake pads for the Craftsman and my Aunt said she was sending something that was my grandpas.
Got the mag on the edger, four pulls and i was sore😡, so onto the mower. Took caliper and rotor off to get to inboard pad, man after hauling limbs it was flush with the housing. Not much more left on the outboard pad. Wow, hella brake, like throw you thru the windshield brakes. Went for a spin, drive belt still tight and mower jumps letting clutch out, touch brakes and they lock up. All i could smell was hot brakes as they burnt in. Pulled back in garage and backed them off some.

Opened my Aunts package.... she sent me grandpa's Navy dress blues. Didn't know they existed anymore. He got on the brand new boat, (SS Quinault Victory), in Portland Oregon, stopped for a bit of  fuel then on to Port Chicago, (grandpa called it Treasure island) on the 17th of july 1944 to load ammuntion for its maiden voyage to the pacific. Some of the Navy armed gaurd got an 18hr leave, so grandpa headed for family visit in Oakland. 10pm that night she blew up, sparing the eight navy guys that had leave. Pic of him at Okland at family house on july 18th 1944. These blues are what my aunt sent me. I thought it was cool.

Yep, out of brake pads

Grandpa 7-18-44

[sixball]

We lived in Port Chicago after the War. My brother did 1-3 grades there & Pittsburg. I had family working in shops at the ammunition depot when the big explosion happened. My wife's family ranch was taken by the government for Part of the Ammunition Depot. They were there before the Gold Rush. Your Grandad was lucky.

[sammons]

Did they get most of Port Chicago rebuilt by the time you moved there? I know it was pretty destroyed in places.

Yes, very lucky. They called them "The lucky eight", odd that you never read anything about them, at least what i could find in old newspapers around there.

Pic of the "The lucky eight", grandpa on far right back row.

And Grandpa's telegramn to grandma

[sixball]

I was little 2-3 and only have a memory or two before we moved to Pittsburg a few mile away. My folks were separated and Dad was home in Texas. We moved back there  in 1949 but my mom's folks stayed in Pittsburg. We visited often once or twice a year until we all moved back in 1959. During some of that time my aunt & uncle lived in port Chicago on the last street above town. My uncle's sister & her family lived in a group old quonset buildings that I suppose were former military housing. He husband was one of the guys that was  working in the shops there when the explosion happened. The explosion was still often talked about all through my younger days. When I was in high school my dad worked in an auto shop in Port Chicago and it was still a bit of a town. Not long after they closed it & I think they tore it all down. A couple of years ago a friend who had been that had lived in that area but in here now loaned me a book about the explosion. All of the ammunition loading on there ships was done by crews of black sailors with white officers. There was a lot of competition between crews to load the most ammunition per shift. A lot of corners were cut and safety issues were often ignored. There were a lot legal cases filed and investigations but most of the blame was put on the the black sailors who were killed. It was an interesting book and there was some inside into what life in and around Port Chicago was like. I'll try to get the name of it if you are interested. The Lucky 8 may have been mentioned, I don't remember. One of the locomotives that pulled the ammo trains was never found. There was much speculation back then about if it was an atomic bomb. I'm sure there are things about it we will never know.
Like I said before my wife's family ranch and those of other families related to her were taken to build the Navel Ammunition Depot and the adjoining Camp Stoneman. None of those families got a fair shake and when the land was disposed of a lot of it went to a Mafia family that NO lawyers would bring cases against much less prosecutors or judges. They made Millions from land development. They even built one of the largest casinos in Reno.

Oh, I forgot. I got the new tractor tires yesterday and woke up to 2 inches of snow this morning. I didn't get them on today. Maybe tomorrow but that's not looking real good. It's that time of year!