last mow

Well I may have mowed the lawn for the last time with the old mower.

My grandfather is moving up to moncton and I am happy to accept his lawn tractor and give it a new home.

The other tractor, now in a working state, will likely go up on kijiji for sale. with full disclosure of problems.

The newer tractor, only a few years old, is a really nice, good working (knock on wood) tractor with the funky cool hydrostatic drive!

can't wait.

Although, the old beast has grown a happy spot in my heart. Its been a pain but its managed to do its best and mow the lawn all summer (well I have had it all summer, mowed it for half the summer.)

We are picking up the newer tractor Saturday. likely just drop it off at my dads for now, and bring it up soon after.

Might have to think about painting a tribute flames on the new tractor. haha.

ok, thing seems to be running

heres the thing, the tractor finally seems to be working.. sort of.

It run, but is still a pain in the butt, but it runs, it cuts, and it mows. which is what its suppose to do.

I got the new cable for the deck lift, and new pulleys.. the pulleys didn't work, they didn't fit right and I couldn't get the actual pulleys anymore because they were a discontinued item.

tried replacement pulleys, but that didn't work, they were slightly bigger, and the cable didn't fit after.
so off when the new pulleys, and on went the old.

now the deck lifts both sides, but only in the lowest setting, because any higher and it will bind up the cable and fling it off.

but thats ok.

Motor still runs poorly, but runs.
need work on the carb. the choke is all messed up, you can play with it about an inch without it moving the cable. yes that messed up.

if I don't get my grandfathers tractor in the next couple of months, I will tear it apart and get a new choke thingie for it. then maybe it will work constantly.

right now if I hit a hill or turn or do anything odd, I have to have my hand on the choke ready. cuz it will start to stall, pull the choke till it starts to die again (meaning I am past whatever it didn't like and decided to stall on) and then let the choke out again and continue on till the next thing it doesn't like, or angle, or turn. or whatever. its stubborn.

The motor only works on very slow. meaning I can't crank the revs up any to keep it running strong for any length of time. It overheats. so I have the run setting just above, stall. so it just clanks along at low revs. good thing its 18 hp so that it can handle the long grass it usually has to contend with.. I am talking almost hay here people.

Which brings me to the last thing. It works. starts, runs, drives, mows. cuts grass. thats what I wanted. and now, fall is here, and the jeep clubs fall crawl is ending right here at my house, for a party and camping for out of towners or drunkards. the lawn, will be reasonable in height, thanks to this mower.

Good little cursed mower.

Like almost everything in my life, it was easy to get, hard to get going, and a pain in the ass to keep. haha.

well finally got out and finished

its more of a "d0n't have alot of time thing" but the lawn is finally completely mowed.
and needs to be start over again, but its not 3 feet tall (no exaggeration) anywheres anymore! But its long for a lawn again and needs to be mowed again.

Mower is working, for the most part, I really hope gramp offers up his mower. I am half tempted to sorta ask for it. I need it, this mower is in constant need of supervision to keep working, just driving it on level ground usually intales constant adjustment of the choke... gets annoying, I understand why steeve got tired of using it. If gramp doesn't offer up his mower, I will be taking it somewhere for a good tune up, and to have the choke fixed. so that it runs smooth and long for a while. right now I am pretty sure it overheats and you must keep the revs down as much as you can. still waiting on the pulleys, he has the cable but the pulleys are still no show, will be seeing him next week to see if they came in yet.

But it mowed the lawn. thats what it was suppose to do, and it did it, and with 3 foot grass, I am happy that it could. hopefully now it can just work easy and mow just a clipping off with a heavy tuff here and there.

Maybe.

Lawn is almost mowed

Well last weekend I finally got the mower working well enough to use, and use it I did!!

The lawn is now 85 percent mowed for the first time this summer.

now all the mower needs is a cable and plastic pulleys to lift the front of the mower deck.
Right now I have it tied up to make it work. it was binding the main belt as well. it doesn't like being at that angle.

The pulleys and cable are on back order unfortuneately.

Oh and turning down the revs seems to have helped a lot at keeping the mower running.
I mowed through most of the 2 to 3 foot grass until in the last chunk the mower didn't want to run anymore. I haven't tried it yet since. and I likely won't for a little while.. super super busy!!

In fact I am almost a week late printing this. haha.

till later

Oh and the pulley!

The pulley forgot to mention.
It was falling off, the bolts came loose and only two of the 5 remained, and they were almost off, it was binding because it was falling off. haha. 5 new bolts, a wrench and that was fixed.

On with the Tractor Show

Ok, deck needs a cable to lift the front of it.
and a couple of plastic pulleys for that cable.

No biggy.


How to get around this till the back ordered pieces come in? Hummmm. maybe wire it up.
Got some wire, found a good place on both sides to hook it, raised it, added wire to hold it, (kinda like super strong twist tie. haha) and blam, it works, lets take it for a spin.

Got out in the yard, started the blades! Success! Lets cut some crass...

Ten Minutes later

Humm. the engine isn't running well again, have to pull out choke to keep it running. Oh well.

2 minutes after that.

Hummm. engine is running crappy and has stalled a couple times. Seems really warm.
Mower works, when it works.
Is it overheating??
Maybe. I did adjust it, maybe its reving too high? Has oil? Fun! the oil is steaming. that can't be good.
We are so close to a working mower. Time to get the push mower out and do some more by hand. Trying to wack some of it down, its about 2 feet now, higher in spots, its closer to hay at the moment. haha.

Well I will have to try to adjust it so that it runs better and a lower RPM.
But if you have been following along, I don't know F-All about engines. especially small simple ones appearantly.

On with the Show.

on to the mower deck

ok got the tractor working, fairly well, it runs, moves and all that.

Next was to put on the mower deck, had it working for a while, but then it threw the belt off.

noticed that one of the guards on the pulley was bent down.
so I bent it back up and it was rubbing so after some creative bending it is in place with no rubbing and the pulley is rolling free.

so I took it for a drive, the belt is still incredibly loose, but works, but for some reason the deck seems to be binding or grinding, like the pulley is stuck or something, and because of this is stalls out the mower when I try to run the blades.

So besides getting a smaller belt.. I believe... I think I have to figure out why the deck seems to be stiff or something. its very odd.

seems to be the only thing now. then I will have a fairly good working mower.. fairly.. its got its quirks but it works..

Oh and the alternator is shot. won't charge the batter and no lights.
don't care if the rest works. haha.

IT WORKS

The tractor lives!!!

Ok so one inch smaller belt was the key to its movement.

GREAT!

So I put the mower deck on.. *crossing fingers*

It works!
Belt is quite loose tho.
Hummm.. try it anyways.

20 minutes later and the belt disappears.. where did it go.. oh there it is under the tractor. good thing it needs the belt to turn the blades as the belt is hanging on one of them. haha.

Ok noticed one of the guides is bent on the deck, and the belt is quite loose.
another problem, the engine doesn't like the deck, it wants to shut off every time its going through a little bit of grass or if I turn on the deck too quick. Geez, that some weak 18hp. Weird.

But we finally had a big step forward with the tractor.

Life tho. has jumped backwards.
Property taxes have doubled and that sucks, adds 200 dollars of bills monthly to us. which we didn't have.
Jeep's front driveshaft is cooked. CV Joint is dead. Son-Of-A-B*tch!!!
Oh well I guess it wasn't the front U-Joints afterall.
although they are starting to go too. sigh, but I thought that was were the noise was coming from, but it was my front CV joint in the driveshaft.
I guess I will be 2WD for a while. Unless the boys in the Jeep Club come through for me. *cross fingers*

Were a belt away from hopefully completing this mess

One belt.. thats it, we think.

The belt on it we thought was stretched because when we put it on right, it was too loose, so we got another one.. he didn't have the right size so he let me try that one, it was too small and too thick. so he got me the same one we had the next day, and I put it on, better but still too loose. Today he was closed, so tomorrow i will go in and get a slightly smaller belt of the same thickness.

Crossing my fingers.

Monthly mortgage went up today.. Sigh.. Our property taxes got hiked. this isn't good, I am gonna have to find a second job. The paper isn't paying well enough yet. Sigh.

today was belt day

Well after all thats happened with the tractor, you'd think I would give up.

No, there is a belt to put on but that may be it.

I tried to get one today, but the one he gave me was too, short.
not but much but it was.

took a pulley off to get it on and still couldn't get it on, so its obviously I need a slightly larger belt. I hope after that everything works great and then I can put the mower on and use it.

I think the tractor may be finished if we ca find a belt to fit.

Then we hopefully are done, reassemble, and use. needs minor fixes hopefully after that.

I don't know anything about tractors.

I don't know anything about tractors, I will admit that.
I don't know anything about engines either.
Clutches, belts, pulleys, etc..

Hell I am not even confident I can drive anymore!!!

The little bit I thought I did know, appearantly I don't have a clue about anything.

That aside Rick came by again, and imagine this. the tractor is running again.

Maybe the tractor just doesn't like me, but he seems to like Rick.



What did we learn today.

One: Using jumper cables to run from the battery to the power, with all those surges I put it through and all that cranking appearantly makes heat. and well, My jumper cables melted.
This caused the power failure the other day. Nothing wrong with the starter, nothing wrong with the solenoid. Just bad line between the battery and anything (cause we were using the jumpers for everything connecting to the battery). So the engine is fine .. again.

Two: We finally figured out the clutch problem. why did we have only one gear forward and 3 gears reverse. for the longest time we couldn't figure out what was wrong with the belt. why one pulley was slightly off angle (which if you read earlier we tried to redirect, with slight success). Well after discussing it and figuring between me and Rick, we got the belt on a different way, aka, The Right Way. My brother had the belt on wrong. So now the pulley goes the right direction (after bending it back to where it was) and Now I have 3 gears forward and one reverse.

YAY!!

Plus the belt won't fall off again, once we get a new belt.

The belt was stretched a little, and the other day when I burned it, I burned off a bit so that loosened it a bit more. so now its too loose.
So we will go and get another belt tomorrow. Well if Gerry has one.
Hopefully not too expensive. sigh.

We will see.

The only other problem is the choke is loose, we have to take it apart to fix it, but we aren't gonna worry about that until everything else is working well.

lets see how we are doing on our checklist

Next Up on the list of to do:

1: Make tractor to continue to run. -> Done I think
2: Make tractor go forward and backward without losing a belt -> Done I think once we have new belt
3: Figure out gear box -> sorta, needs more playing
4: Make sure gear box works well enough to use. -> I think so, again after the belt change we will see
5: Put mower deck on tractor and test. -> still on the list
6: Mow the now hay field I call a lawn. -> This might get done with a hand mower Rick let us borrow before the tractor is done.

Things looking up again. high low high low. good thing I am an optomist.

This Lawn Tractor is Cursed!

It has to be, It doesn't want to work.

I had it running today, for quite a while to.

then I tried to turn it off, and it wouldn't turn off.

I eventually got it to finally turn off by physically choking it and cutting off all the air.

Now it won't turn over. nothing is wrong with the battery, but nothing happens when I turn the switch, even trying it off the jeep didn't work.

Also burned the main belt today. I had forgotten to hook something up underneath, and with the brake on, it just burned up a bit. probubly why the motor kept going, seems work better under load.

I don't know if we will ever get this thing running properly.

Sigh

Its Alive Again!

Thats right! I have Spark again!

A second new magneto coil, and its up and running.. for about 5 minutes and then stops.

And up and running again. and then stops again.

BUT IT RUNS AGAIN!! :)

Now why it stops after a few minutes of running. I don't know.
We changed the gas filter. the lines appear ok, it will run for a few minutes so its not like its only a little gas that is in the line that is burning.

The gas cap has lost its little clear cover over the E-F symbol. so the gas is exposed to the air. I don't know if that would affect it. we tried covering it to see if it would help.

Yes there is gas in the tank. its a little on the low side but its on level ground. but I will put some more in it and try again tomorrow..

but it runs again.
Happy days.

Now if I can keep it running so that it can drive and then I will put the completed mower deck back on. but we have to make sure it will run ok first.

Oh the fun of it all.

So now I have to get Ricki's Dad to help me trouble shoot why its not continuing to run. Of course he had it running the first time for quite a while. so we will see if his magic touch will fix it again. haha.

NO
MORE
POWER
TO
THE
COIL!!!!!

never again.. haha. I had to buy two because of my ignorance. and it will not happen again. promise.

well that part. I am sure my ignorance with small engines will get me into lots more trouble. haha.

I also got the pulley, so its on and ready to go.

Next Up on the list of to do:

1: Make tractor to continue to run.
2: Make tractor go forward and backward without losing a belt
3: Figure out gear box
4: Make sure gear box works well enough to use.
5: Put mower deck on tractor and test.
6: Mow the now hay field I call a lawn.


should be a good test for it if we get it to work.
haha.

Something New... hey, it no work no more. :(

ok, So I wired up the tractor wrong.
I never said I knew how.

The old magneto was cooked by me.

The New Megneto has now been filleted on a nice long slow burn. no fire though, but either way its cooked.

Appearantly I didn't know that I had the wrong wire hooked up to it.
I was trying to follow the many many Wiring diagrams and write ups I had found on the web. all just a little bit confusing, and appearantly none really working the way it should.

So I am out another 50 bucks for another Magneto.

Sigh.

But if its true then it should work after I get the new one this time and not hook any wires to it. Should just spark without anything attached. just the plugs, and thats where step one will be. if that works, then I ground it to a different switch and everything should.. (I repeat SHOULD) be ok with the tractor.

I pick up the missing pulley monday as well as a new magneto.

Then It hopefully will be running again. and I can start exploring other possible problems with the old beast.

Craftsman - Murray Ohio.. Circa.. late eighties. Motor B&S 1995 Twin II 18 hp.

wish me luck. haha.

tractor mayham

Well today I tried to rewire the beast.

I shouldn't have. it worked.

Now it doesn't.

After rewiring it I tried (and thought I figured out how to) hook the wires up to the ignition switch.
First round. lots of smoke from a black wire coming off it, hope I didn't damage the switch.
ok. that didn't work, must be hooked up wrong.
Tried changing the wires around after checking online again.
hooked it up.. no smoke.. good, turned switch, POP. nothing. Blew the fuze. damn, don't have another. get one tomorrow.. for now we will direct wire it. (yes I can be dumb)

Tried it again, lots of noise, pop, smoke. and a little fire under the metal cap of the engine.

Shit.

I guess it was wired wrong still. (wnd with no fuze to protect it, surge went right to something else.)

got mad, gave up. worry about it another day.

Me and Ricki also tried bending the pulley underneath into place, but
its bent all to hell now, and it will just have to do where it is, had
to grind some metal off cuz we had managed to push the pulley into the
support, Oh well, we will see how that works too. haha.

NEXT DAY!

rewired the beast back to the way it was, when it worked, got it to turn over.

and over.

and over.

and over.

and over.

:(

its dead, it will turn from the starter but not fire.

after a full day of figuring it out. My megneto was the victim in the fire. So tomorrow I will go and get a new megneto. its too late now.
After searching the net for a gooooooood long time. I finally found a easy to understand wiring of an ignition for this type of engine with a 4 post ignition switch. I already burned the Megneto, so no fires are gonna start, so why could I hurt. (Got lucky this time)
It Works!!!
Well the ignition switch anyways.
It doesn't burn or fry as it sits, and when I turn to start, it whirrs away like its suppose to, and stop when I let go of the key, if I ever get it to start again, it will hopefully also turn off when I move the key to off. haha.

Also today I put the mower deck back together after its bearing job. Good Job Rick. only problem I had with that was the main pulley was assembled and the pulleys don't fit through the hole assembled, so I had to pound that back apart, and put it in the hole that way, the other pulleys fit nice though. Just gotta sharpen the blades now before I put them back on.
Also put the belts back on the deck, that was a little puzzle, even with a diagram.

I am missing a pulley! dammit. I don't see any lying around so I wonder if steve still has it. Oh well. not a worry, they aren't expensive, I don't think. haha. famous last words, Might as well pick one of them up too while I am getting my Megneto. I keep thinking of the guy from Xmen when I say that. haha.

I have a problem with Megneto, Call the XMEN! heehee.

Checked online, Megnetos seem to be about 30 bucks. lets hope this is true. :D

Wish me luck again.

Oh and I got engaged May 8th

Yup, gave Ricki her special little shiny on May 8th.

shes very happy!

So am I. :)

Got a pool!!

We bought a huge 18' pool off of kijiji the other day, and it was delivered on the 20th. But we started setting it up today.

Why do I say started. we have a well, it will likely take us to the middle of June before we get it filled hahaha.

Hey its raining tonight, thanks for the help weather. heehee.

its one of those blow up ring ones that look kinda like hersheys kisses.
we got it for only 80 bucks. makes us happy.

LAWN TRACTOR

Well my brother gave me a lawn tractor. Thats wonderful. needs some work tho.

Day one, unloaded tractor, noticed more wrong with it than my brother originally told.. no biggie.
My brother said "It needs 2 new bearings and a starter"

Day two, Dug deeper into the fun, looked around it, checked things out a bit more. Theres no air filter, or air filter box.

Day three, Ricki's Dad came by to help me see if we could get the beast started. brought a little tiny battery by but it didn't work well so we used the jeep to start it, took some time but we got it alive. First we had a look at the starter, Rick took it apart and checked it and it seemed to be ok, and once on he good battery seemed to start no problem. Had to bypass all the wires to get it going, and choke off the carb completely, but it ran, and we even had it moving. but the belts keep falling off. odd. and I don't think I can get it any gear but forward slow and reverse makes the belt fall off. gotta check that out.

We took the deck apart, there is 2 bearings per blade, and 3 blades and a main pulley. two sets were gone, the other were on there way out, one was very stiff, the other was very squeeky.

Day Four. Finished taking apart the deck, so Rick could press in the new bearing, he ended up breaking the covers trying to remove them, put them on order.

Also noticed that one of the belts is dragging on a cross bar. thats not good. Took it off so that we could trim and strengthen it.

Also took apart the ignition switch, it was completely cooked, it was just a mass of grease rust and mess. maybe why we couldn't get it started without bypassing. Gonna have to rewire the beast to make things work properly. but not today, have more pressing work to do.

Bought the bearings, Battery, and a few odds and ends, and Rick found a old ignition switch in his garage and an old air filter box. so I also got a new filter.

Redrilled the hole for the ignition switch. hope it works. and jigsawed the hole in the filter to fit the carb of the tractor. things are movin along.

Day Five. played with it a bit more, bent some metal so that the pulleys line up better and the belt hopefully won't come off anymore. Also started it by myself today, I hadn't before, Rick did. but she ran off its new battery. must remember to rewire the beast into the new ignition and try that out. Rick finished pressing the bearings for all the blades today. so those can go back in, should have the deck together soon. and the Tractor is coming along.

so is the grass.. very long. haha.

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*shrug*

another month another dollar.

Wow.

Ok, so I have been up to nothing but work and payments.
and not enough of the latter.

but money is on the horizon. hopefully soon.
got a ad company that may send me national ads.
that will hopefully fill this gap in my wallet.

So dreaming of better days.

We want to put a metal roof on the house. one with a lifetime warranty.
We want a new deck.
We want a hot tub for that deck. haha.
Then there is my hobbies. Jeep. t-rex build. other.

Jeep.
well it needs maintenance. badly. not just an oil change. it needs its steering box changed, likely new tie rod ends, new bearings, just to start. I want to get the bumpers made. plus install my louver and redo my offroad lights that keep failing. plus paint the lightbar again and the rocker guards. all that and keep gas in it. haha.

T-rex build.

I want to build a car. from the ground up. build a frame etc. I am thinking taking a honda or toyota. something small, then steel the engine and front suspension, and interior and build a frame around it, ad a single rear wheel, chain drive, and voila. car. just like the T-rex bike. in the begining stages. I will keep you posted here.

anyways. see you in a month! haha.

holy crap I have been busy

....ok.. so I have a house now.

I think I figured out my sickly problem.
I appear to be allergic to sucralose and aspertame.
Great seeing as I am type 2 diabetic.

but it fits the timeline.
it started before I got diabetic.
I was having crystal lite drinks all the time. (mini mixes for bottles aspertame)
and after a few months of that I started getting occasional diarea.
Then after finding out I was diabetic, I started drinking all diet stuff. getting lots and lots of aspertame and succralose. my diarrea went outta control. dehydrated a few times, once even went to the hospital and put on a drip. sugars finally got down to normal, played with my pills alot. some of the pills were making my diarrea even worse. (my guess is that they had a sugar alternative in the pill or some odd reaction)

So I have avoided artificial sugars like the plague.
my sugars are much better now. still a tiny bit high and if I don't watch what I eat I can get a little high (9 or 10) but for the most part I hover around 5-7 after I eat. which is good.
and I am not taking any pills at all at the moment.. but I will keep an eye on it. I had it go up a bit high a week or so ago. (11) but its good again now.

So whats a guy to do. I have to talk to my doc about this. what really really sucks is the only thing I can drink is water. for the most part. pop and other drinks are crazy sugar, and everything else.. artificial sweetener. so.. this sucks.. but works. I occasionally have a flavoured drink.. most likely a juice. I can't even have any gum.. because it instantly makes my gut jump funny (try to find a gum with sugar in it.. likely just bazooka joe)

another thing that added to my artificial sweetener overdose.

Well we will see what the future holds.

as for the house

ITS AWSOME!!! except for the leaks, but we think we fixed those.