The lawnmower moves and cuts again. Just in time before the yard needs to be bailed. It feels good to fix it yourself
The riding lawnmower had not been working right.
At the end of last year, it wasn’t cutting the grass well, and during the winter, when I tried to use it to move some firewood, it did not want to move. When it did move, I could walk faster than it could drive.
These needed to be corrected before the mowing season started.
I had someone tell me the drive belt was loose, so that didn’t seem too bad.
But as I worked on getting it off, it was more problematic than I first thought.
After a bit, I finally got the belt off, and managed to find a new belt locally.
By the time I got the old belt off and the new one purchased, it was all I had time for that day.
Once I finally was able to get back to the lawnmower, I was able to get the drive belt back on much easier than I expected.
However, once it was in, it just would move. I had even initially given up for they day, then after a couple of idea, I decided to do some more looking.
Thankfully, I figured out that one of the pulley’s I pulled off off was stuck, and not pulling the tension on the belt as it should. Once I got that fixed, the mower would move again!
I then turned my attention to the mowing deck, and found the cause of the mower not cutting well, the blades were shot!
That’s actually an understatement.
Took the blades off and ordered new ones. But while taking them off, I broke one of the spindles, so I ended up ordering new ones of them as well.
Several days passed. It was the weekend, and the mower still wasn’t together, but I didn’t yet have the parts. So I worked on the garden for a while. Removing weeds and rocks in preparation for getting the beds put in.
After a few hours of work, I got a call, and had to call it quits for the day as they needed me at the church to help with the soundboard.
Thankfully, when I got home from church, the parts for the mower were in.
I got the blades put back on and greased as well as the oil changed
Since I had time, I went ahead and did a bit mowing at the road to make sure the place didn’t look abandoned.
It sure feels good to fix things that are broken!