Repairing lawn mowers

 This post saw 2 videos on repair of lawn mower:   one was hydraulic,  one was simply a Kohler powered rider type lawn mower.   The hydraulic was more complicated but more robust.  The buyer handyman did to the hydraulic system:

    1.  The hydraulic assembly attached to the wheel was sent to a hydraulic shop for repairs and cost him $600.00.  For the hydraulic pumps, he did it himself.  All that he did was to replace the seals which had worn out over the years.  It looked complicated because it seemed hard to remove the shaft and there were so many parts and it took time to remove disassemble all of them.   As it is common with say bicycle hydraulic brake set repair, there was this snap ring remover.   It took probably weeks to have the lawn mower repaired,   However it gave the new owner months of enjoyable grass cutting.   He had a home made sun shade made for the lawn mower

   2.  The zero turn Kohler unit had these two problems;   wheels that seemed to leak air, and non firing second cylinder, and discharging battery.

      1.  For the tires, he initially tried to find the leak.  His final solution buy a new set of tubeless tires

      2.  For the battery, he bought a new one

For most Americans, it is throw away and buy a new one.   For the tires we will find a way to patch or get a set of interior tires.

For the one cyclinder that did not fire, using testers, after removing the air filter assembly, he found out that the left coil had no connection to the spark plug (there was no spark).  So he bought two new coils, installed and presto the lawn mower had 100% power again.   

So repair can give such helpful machine 3 to 5 years lease of life

Plastic repair tips

 From You tube

Plastic repair tips

Not many are enthusiastic to read this mechanic repair blog

But I enjoy watching the posts on repairs especially the Pakistani, Indian repairs and the Diesel Creek post.   I think the goal of every repair is to save money and make every machinery, even junk to work in perpetuam.  Nothing is ever far from repairs  Everything can be made to run again and some principles must be observed.

1.  Have compelete set of tools, Right tool for the right job.  Now it is a must that you have electric portable hand tools 

2.  The steps are:  clean, remove, inspect, check and replace if totally wrecked.  Buy new spares for those that can be repaired.

3  Those that need repair can be classified as:  

     1  No lubrication; dirty

     2,  Out of spec:   misaligned, loose, tight or rusted

     3.  complete wrecked

    The solutions are:

    1,  No lubrication:    degrease, put penetrating oil,  smoothen out, wipe, and put oil or grease

    2.  Out of spec:

         1.  Straighten -  hammer of use hydraulic press or jack

         2  Heat those that are tight or rusted;   grind

         3.  Complete wreck -  buy  a new spare