TheBanyanTree: Redneck Lawnmower Repair 101

[B Drummond]

Last week I was on vacation and also on lawn mower repair duty.  
Because I live in a family that has never thrown anything away, we are 
pround owners of 6 lawnmowers.  Two of them presently reside in Florida 
and the other four are here in Georgia.

I repaired one of the two very quickly when in Florida, got the other 
one diagnosed and partially repaired (all it needs in one carburetor 
gasket/diaphragm that I have ordered) and started work on the 
lawnmowers here in Georgia when we returned.

Two of the four were relatively easy to fix (one needed oil changed, 
filters cleaned, new wheels) and the other just needed a general tuning 
up / cleaning out of the gas tank type f work.  That left the 20 inch 
push mower and the riding mower.  The 20 inch push mower is all but 
fixed (have part ordered for it as well) with about a half a day's work 
expended on it.

That left the real task of tasks:  the riding mower. No ordinary riding 
mower, mind you, but the riding mower that decided to wear me out good 
in the process of trying to fix it.

This is the riding mower that sat under the deck for over five years, 
the tarp it had covering it long ago a tattered shred of its former 
self. It offered no protection for the lawn mower for more than 4 
years.  Its condition could be desribed as dismal with one still being 
optimistic when saying so.  It had four flat tires, a battery deader 
than King Tut,  rust on everything,  cob webs and spiders on it, under 
it, AND beside it.

Weeds had grown up to the axles and it had to be dug out before it 
could be pushed back and air put in the tires.  After extricating it 
from under the deck, no small task at that, and pushing it over near 
the garage where I could work on it out of the weather, I started the 
renovation.

One of the problems with lawn mowers and such is gasoline does not 
store well. It typically will turn to varnish in the gas tank and in 
the carburetor of the mower and in this case, boy howdy, did it ever.  
A carburetor is chock-a-block full of tiny orifices, each one very 
important in the function of the carburetor, and there are passageways, 
moving parts, valves and other assorted items inside that varnish 
wreaks havoc on.  Needless to say the carburetor was fully charged with 
the worst case of varnishing that I had ever seen.  I worked for hours 
using paint and varnish remover, compressed air, stiff pieces of wire 
as cleaning rods and tons of patience to finally get that carburetor 
cleaned.  And to top it off, the bowl ( a small reservoir that holds 
most of the gasoline in the base of the carburetor) was also very rusty 
inside.  The last item I worked on on the carburetor was the bowl.  I 
finally got most of the rust out, reassembled the carburetor and hooked 
everything back up, including the gas line from the gas tank to the 
carb.  Things were starting to look good.  I had hopes of trying to 
start the mower that same day.

And then frustration began to set in.  At the base of the carburetor, 
unbeknownst to me, rust had "eaten" a hole in the bowl -- a hole so 
small that I missed seeing it before. Gasoline dripped steadily from 
the carb as I watched my hopes of getting the riding mower working that 
day start to disappear then.  You see, you just don't need no gasoline 
dripping onto a hot air-cooled engine.  It can make for a dangerous 
situation.  I called around and no parts suppliers within a hundred 
miles had a replacement bowl.  What to do?  I HAD to get this durn 
mower going, especially after expending the amount of effort I had put 
into it at that point.  I didn't want the sun to go down on that mower 
without proving that it could still run!(something my wife was sure 
would never happen)

I took the bowl off and then put my thinking cap on.

What if I could seal the hole up with something? I thought.  But after 
trying several things, from bubble gum to glue to duct tape, nothing 
that I had handy would stop the leak once gasoline was put into carb.

While looking at the bowl mounting screw on the bottom, suddenly it 
dawned on me: the bottom of the bowl was mounted by a screw that went 
through a large hole in the bowl.  The head of the screw had a rubber 
gasket around it to seal around the head of the screw.  That's what I 
need, I thought.  A rubber gasket for the hole and a screw to plug it.  
But that wasn't to be because a screw inserted into the pinhole would 
go into the carburetor too far, foul up internal parts and prevent it 
from working properly.

What to do? I thought again.

Then came the moment of inspriration <insert one of them Eureka! things 
here> and I had a plan that I knew would work.  First I made the 
pinhole larger with an icepick.  Wait a minute, I know what you're 
thinkin'.   Quit snickerin' and just read on.

Then I took an old piece of rubber O-ring I had left over from 
repairing a faucet in the house, cut it into a short "string" of 
rubber, trimmed the end down with my pocket knife into a point smaller 
than the pinhole in the carburetor, stuck the trimmed end into the 
hole, took a pair of needle-nosed pliers and pulled the trimmed end of 
the O-ring until the O-ring was well into the hole.

I reassembled the bowl on the carb, hooked up the gas line and put more 
gas into the tank.  Then I waited, watching diligently at the bottom of 
the carburetor for leaks.  A minute passed and no leaks, two minutes 
and the same results.  After 10 minutes of no leaks I knew that I had 
the cure for the leak in hand.

I pulled the car up next to the mower, hooked up jumper cables to the 
mower, inserted the rusty keys into the mower and turned.

The engine coughed, sputtered, shook and then came to life!  I let it 
run for about 15 minutes and watched the carb during that time for 
leaks. Not a drop was seen.  I hopped on the raggeddy seat, put it in 
gear and took off for the lawn:  no problems.  I engaged the blades, no 
problems. I cut the grass, no problems.  I pulled it back up to the 
garage, shut it down and checked again for leaks at the carburetor.

No leaks!

So, next time you're in the neighborhood and perchance you see me out 
cutting grass on a raggeddy, rusty old riding mower that looks like it 
has been sitting in the weather for 5 years, don't think anything of 
it.  You see its all because we have never thrown anything away in our 
family.

And if you happen to come up close to marvel at how something that 
looks so bad can run so good, for gosh's sake, no matter how tempted 
you are to do it . . .

DON'T PULL THAT LITTLE BLACK "WORM" OUT THAT'S HANGING DOWN OUT OF THE 
BOTTOM OF THE CARBURETOR!

That's right, it's SUPPOSED to be there!

And besides,

I've kinda' gotten attached to it.

( Oh, heck, who am I foolin' anyway? To be perfectly frank, I'm all 
kinds of proud of it, doncha' know! )





    bd
     ------