Mowing the Lawn

[TCLouis]

Mowing the lawn

When our lawn mower broke and wouldn't run, my wife kept hinting to
me that I should get it fixed. But, somehow I always had something
else to take care of first, the truck, the car, fishing, always something
more important.

Finally she thought of a clever way to make her point When I arrived
home one day, I found her seated in the tall grass, busily snipping
away with a tiny pair of sewing scissors.

I watched silently for a short time and then went into the house.
I was gone only a few minutes.

When I came out again I handed her a toothbrush. "When you finish
cutting the grass," I said, "you might as well sweep the sidewalk."

The doctors say that one day I will be able to walk again, but I will
always have a limp.

[Frank46]

TCLouis, you should be glad she didn't use clipping shears. Hope the recovery is speedy. Thanks for the reminder, gotta get to work on the lawn mower and garden tractor. Grass cutting is a way of life here in loosiana. Frank

[Buckshot]

..................Lawn mower broke!!!????:groner: How in the heck did it break? When I was a kid I made money mowing lawns. All we had at home was a push mower. You know, one of those reel types you got behind and pushed?

Well grandpa to the rescue as he bought me a real live 3hp rotary mower for my new enterprise. I think he paid like $48 for it at White Front. That was in the early 60's. When I got married in 1975, a couple years after getting out of the Navy I still had that mower. The bag was long gone.

In 1979 we moved out to San Timoteo canyon, south of Redlands and I STILL had that mower! When we sold out and moved to town in 2000, you guessed it, I still had that mower. It was pretty disreputable looking by then. The deck had cracked in numerous places and been welded back. The chrome was all gone off the handles and replaced by a nice shade of orange rust.

The engine was pretty much a fuzzy hairly greasy oily lump in the middle of the deck. At some point I'd run over some baling wire and I think that it ate up the bottom main crank seal. It took a good quart of oil to knock the weeds down around the place. In town it took a quart to mow the front and the back!

I had long ago begun to use drain oil from the cars to feed the 3 horse Briggs & Stratten. I'd changed it over from points to solid state ignition. I'd had the carb off a few times and had to buy a few mufflers over the years, and foam rubber air cleaners, but that was it. You did have to use ether to get it started as I don't think it had enough cranking compression to fire gas! It smoked pretty good too and wouldn't idle worth a flip.

Heck, I might STILL have that mower if it wasn't for lack of a bag. I used it until 2002 I think it was, before buying a new one. I got tired of mowing and then having to go back and rake up the grass. That thing was about 36 years old when I chucked it. I should have done an autopsy on that Briggs just to see what it looked like inside.

................Buckshot

[Pystis]

My parents have a mower with one of those white 3hp engines. The body of the mower is replaced once, because the old rusted off. So I took the body from newer mower with broken engine.
Those older B&S engines are of much better quality than the newer ones. The engine casing of those newer ones is aluminium? casting. Imagine the aluminium bearings and cylinder...

[StarMetal]

Jukka,

I wouldn't knock aluminum cylinders and bearings that much...after all all the Jap motorcycles run them and they are brute strong and durable. Once talked to a Kawasaki engine engineer at a motorcyle race in Tulsa, Oklahoma. We were concerned about reving the engine of my friends race bike to high rpm's in neutral. The engineer said they put a similar engine in a test stand and cranked it to full throttle and walked away and didn't come back until 15 minutes later and it was still running fine. He said don't worry about steel parts like the camshaft running in aluminum bearings. He's right...after all the part should be supported by a thin layer of oil...it really doesn't ride the aluminum. As for the aluminum cylinders (that are steel lined of course) they get rid of the heat alot better and are lighter.

Joe

[Bret4207]

4 years ago I bought a new Crapsman 25 hp rider. I also still own my Dads 1964 Wheelhorse "Lawn Ranger". Guess which one ALWAYS starts, ALWAYS cuts, ALWAYS needs real simple and cheap repairs? I one day hope to restore the old Wheelhorse and make it purty again.

[Pystis]

Joe,

Now that I think of it, I was a bit quick on my judgement on aluminum bearing. As most car engines, with overhead camshafts, have aluminum bearings. But they also have a pressurized oil between bearing surfaces.
The 4,5HP Briggs & Stratton I dissambled didn´t have liner on cylinder, and it looked horrible. It was just worn out. I´m not sure what kind of alloy it is but you could easily scratch it.
The mower was my uncle´s and he ask me too check if I can do something, cause it didn´t start and spark plug was oily.
I had to replace the cylider/crank case.

Jukka

[StarMetal]

Jukka,

Sounds like some of the cheap chainsaws they made over here. The cylinder was aluminum and siliconized in some manner. Didn't last long at all.

Joe

[StarMetal]

I have a Cub Cadet I bought new in 1990 and it's still going strong 16 yrs later. Have had to put some money into it, but not a thing into the mower deck. Still has the original spindles and bearings and believe I've hit alot of rock, pipes, and stumps with it. The main problem had been when they went from sheet metal covering to the ABS plastic. The plastic kept the heat in and they ran way too hot. The transmission has been utterly bulletproof.

Wheelhorse has gone to heck too since Toro bought them. I think now if I bought one it would be the upper line Gravely.

Joe

[Bret4207]

I have 3 or 4 old Gravelys. At one time I had upwards of 15, about half in running condition. The old L model Gravelys are the Mack truck or 1911 Colt/Ruger Blackhawk of garden tractors. Tough, tough, tough.

[StarMetal]

I was at a tractor place for other reasons then looking for a lawn tractor and Gravelys were sold there. I was looking at the heavier duty one in the range of 20 some horsepower. One thing I liked was the mower deck was driven by a driveshaft instead of a troublesome belt. That impressed me. I believe, if I remember correctly, the engine was behind you instead of in front. Everything on it was heavy duty, easy to maintain, and well, better then the Cub I bought.

Joe

[Jumptrap]

I was at a tractor place for other reasons then looking for a lawn tractor and Gravelys were sold there. I was looking at the heavier duty one in the range of 20 some horsepower. One thing I liked was the mower deck was driven by a driveshaft instead of a troublesome belt. That impressed me. I believe, if I remember correctly, the engine was behind you instead of in front. Everything on it was heavy duty, easy to maintain, and well, better then the Cub I bought.

Joe

To qoute you Joe, I 'wouldn't be so quick to knock' the referred to troublesome belt. I have just what you ned to mow with...a 1951 Farmall Super A with a 5 foot Woods belly mower....belt driven of course. Works like a charm. I have no idea what vintage the mower is, doesn't matter. Same set up has been in use for nearly 60 years and is a proven design....belts last forever...no problem getting 15 years of belt service. I have a finish mower that is over 20 years old and it has had 2 sets of belts..the originals and the replacements....and the originals weren't all that bad. Man, if I had had this Super A when I was a kid, I'd have begged to mow the grass! These old tractors have a 123 cube 4 cylinder (OHV) and rated at an amazing.....18 horsepower! Ain't no 25 horse one or two cylinder lawnmower on the market can hold a candle to it.....torque factor way up there. They also work at high rpms....1500-1800! I vividly recall an old man who mowed with a farmall Cub when I was a boy.....1948 model and 9 HP! All from a 60 cube flathead 4 cyl. Things sure have changed...but not for the better.

[StarMetal]

Okay Mark...you tallked me into it. How much you want for it? Does that include delivery?

Yeah some belts will go a long time. I had a Toyota 4x4 for 13 years before my Dodge I have now and it had the original belts on it. Now my Cub belt starts off a front vertical pulley, then goes down to two idler pulleys where it makes a 90, then on to the horizontal pulley on the mower deck. I've replaced it two or three times in 16 yrs.

Joe

[Jumptrap]

Okay Mark...you tallked me into it. How much you want for it? Does that include delivery?

Yeah some belts will go a long time. I had a Toyota 4x4 for 13 years before my Dodge I have now and it had the original belts on it. Now my Cub belt starts off a front vertical pulley, then goes down to two idler pulleys where it makes a 90, then on to the horizontal pulley on the mower deck. I've replaced it two or three times in 16 yrs.

Joe

HAR!
Yanking your chain a little Josepi. I have it on ebay right now if you want to see the pix, it is item number 7601042118. It takes $2500 to get it and i have no way of delivering.

I would suggest you look around locally for one, they are not that uncommon. In the past conversations we had had about your mowing delimna, I never thought about one of these...might be just the trick you need. But, they do not have a 3 point hitch..although a factory made conversion hitch is made...you could fabricate one for cheap. The beauty of these old tractors is the utter simplicity of everything. Those little engines seemingly run forever...probably because the operate at low RPM's and you can imagine how little gas they use. If you watch ebay or just look around locally, you can find all sorts of original equipment made for them and forget the 3 point hitch. The hydraulics are not super powerful, but they will lift several hundred pounds. They are not fast, ultra powerful or the ne plus ultra of small tractors....what they are is affordable when compared to the modern stuff, 10X easier to work on and not one piece of plastic to be found. They made a brush cutter.....wouldn't call it a bush hog...but a belly mower that used one heavy blade. My tractor has a standard 3 bladed Woods brand lawn mower deck on it....which is the most common set up. If you made a 3 pint conversion for it, you could run a 4 ft bushhog easy enough....the PTO has 2 shafts, one straight and one at 90 degrees for a flat pulley or for running the belly mower with a V pulley.

[Bret4207]

Someday before I kick the bucket I'm gonna have me a Cub with a belly mower and all the cultivator attachments. I vividly remember a local guy back home plowing up our garden. He hit a wet spot or a hard spot and got stuck. He called the only help available, 8 or 9 year old me, and had me shove hunk of 2x8 about 2 feet long under the tire while he LIFTED THE TRACTOR UP. Yeah, it was only a Cub and only one side of the tractor, but still... pretty impressive to me. That stuck with me like my first ride in a train, my first out of control self made grass fire, and my first viewing of a drunk slapping his wife around in my parents bar. Some memories are much more pleasant than others. The Cub memory is a good one.

[Jumptrap]

Someday before I kick the bucket I'm gonna have me a Cub with a belly mower and all the cultivator attachments. I vividly remember a local guy back home plowing up our garden. He hit a wet spot or a hard spot and got stuck. He called the only help available, 8 or 9 year old me, and had me shove hunk of 2x8 about 2 feet long under the tire while he LIFTED THE TRACTOR UP. Yeah, it was only a Cub and only one side of the tractor, but still... pretty impressive to me. That stuck with me like my first ride in a train, my first out of control self made grass fire, and my first viewing of a drunk slapping his wife around in my parents bar. Some memories are much more pleasant than others. The Cub memory is a good one.

Bret,
I've watched men cultivating with a Cub and seen them hang the tractor just by socking the cultivators too deep in the ground! Cubs are cute and can do more work than a giant riding lawnmower, but they have more limitations than I really like. I looked at several before deciding on getting a Super A or 140. I call the Super A a Cub on steroids! They weigh nearly twice as much (about 2200) and will drag a Cub backwards....but are still small and handy.

[Blackthorne45]

I have a Cub Cadet I bought about 10 yrs. ago 14 hp. w/hydrostatic drive, hydro lift, rototiller attachment, snow blade, 44" deck wouldn't trade it for anything.
I also have a 1940 Farmall H that I use to plow my garden and to do other chores with.

[Buckshot]

...........Tpr.Brett. "..............my first out of control self made grass fire, "

.................I don't know whether it was the mental image, the kinda 'been there' thing, or the fact that it was included amongst other memorable 1st's but I laughed at that until I abou tfell out of my chair. Donna even hollered from the living room wanting to know what was so funny.

Thanks, pal. It just hit me right I guess!

............Buckshot

[Bret4207]

Glad I could share some humour Buck. FWIW- Nobody bought my lightning, cigarrette or broken glass as a magnifying glass story. At least they got it stopped before any real damage was done by the fire. The real damage was to my backside....