A Strange Week

 This week was weird 3 ways and it was all about the riding lawn mower.

First was the flat front tire.  OK, that's not all that unusual.  I re-inflated it.  But the next morning it was flat again.  I tried to take it off, but there was no nut to loosen.  So I had to look it up on the internet.  Found a nice youtube video.  

Turns out there is a " Jesus clip".  It is actually called a C-clip, but it can result in bad words trying to get it off.  The video showed 10 ways to do it, most of them a bit complicated with special tools.  Fortunately, the easiest way worked.  A small tack hammer placed across the open part of the C, a tap with another small hammer, and it popped right off!  👍

Then I had to find the leak (hoping I could repair it with a cheap $5 repair kit.  No such luck.  I re-inflated it fine, and put the wheel into a tub of water.  The leak was around the valve stem.  I can't fix that!  

I called a local tire company and they said they could fix it.  I expected them to just replace the valve stem, but they put a tube in the tire.  I did that once and it was a real pain.  😠  So 30 minutes and $30 later I had a good tire again.  Re-installing it was easy.

Second I knew the mower was low on gas.  Fortunately, I had just refilled the car and the portable gas can.  So I drove the mower around front where the can was.  Gas wouldn't come out of the can spout!  I had to hold the inflow hole open manually and tilt the whole can to fill a large glass bottle and fill the mower from that.  Took several bottlefuls...

I took the spout off the can and looked for a blockage.  Couldn't find one and you can't open the top of the can.  And I sure wasn't going to go poking around with some metal tool!  So I will just keep back-pouring the gas into the bottle (and examining the gas carefully) until the can is empty.  Then I will leave to gas can open a few days until all the gas is evaporate.  Then I'll poke around inside and try to find what was blocking the gas flow.

Third So I mowed the lawn.  There is a shallow drainage easement on one side of the front yard.  After 38 years, it looks more like a natural creek with some erosion and plants filling it and the sides.  I misjudged where the edge was!  No, the mower didn't fall into the easement, but one front tire got into a depression on the side.  I could not back the mower out or push it out.  I finally had to drive the car onto the lawn behind the mower, tie the mower to the trailer hitch, and drag it backwards until it was free.  

Certainly not unsolvable problems, but 3 different things regarding the mower in just a couple of days was really weird!