Lawnmower wars

I really thought I had the lawnmower thing figured out. I had gotten my old push mower back to running pretty well, thanks to repairs, using ethanol free gas, and clearing out the gunk using Sea Foam. Most importantly, I purchased my Cub Cadet riding mower which shrank a 2+ hour job down to about a half hour. But then, fate in the form of a tree root, interfered with my lawn mowing bliss, and turned a half hour job into a two day ordeal. I knew the root was there. I had mowed over it before, carefully raising my mower deck as I rode over it, as I did last week. Something was different this day, however, because as I rode over the root with the deck raised, there was a horrific bang, followed by a struggling mower, and finally a stall. I had just triggered a series of unfortunate events.

The tools are out. Game on. 

I turned off the PTO and restarted the mower and drove back to the garage. As I hit the driveway I heard something dragging against the pavement. Uh oh. I shut off the mower. climbed off and looked under the deck. One of the mower blades no longer looked like an airplane wing, it looked like a question mark. Wonderful.Well, replacing a blade is nothing you want to do on a brand new mower, but it's not all that difficult of a task. Right? Heh heh. A lawnmower blade is attached to the "drive" shaft by a single large nut. My first issue is that I did not have a socket or wrench large enough for the 1 inch nut. No problem, I do have a large adjustable wrench that is big enough for the job. Ha ha. Problem is that the thing that makes an adjustable wrench work is the same thing that makes it so maddening, especially when the thing you are trying to loosen is difficult to access and is very tight. You see, the wrench tends to loosen each time you try to use it, causing it to slip on the bolt.

Fine. I never need an excuse to buy more tools. My current set of wrenches date back to my teenage years and were a Christmas gift from my parents. A few have been lost over the years so I'll head to Sears and get a new set of Craftsman wrenches, including some larger sizes. That should do it. LOL. Nope. The largest wrench in my new set was STILL too small. Dummy. Time for plan C. Off to Home Depot for a larger socket and a breaker bar. Ta DA! The socket fits and I can put some serious torque on the nut now! Tee Hee. Uhmm...when you torque on that stuck nut, the blade simply spins. To overcome this, you need to jam the blade by using blocks of wood against the mower deck. Problem with that is with so much torque supplied by the breaker bar, the blocks slip and move. Time to re-think this. The shaft passes through the mower deck into a pulley and is secured by yet another nut, which is not easily accessible either due to protective shielding designed to keep some idiot like me from getting their pant leg caught in the machinery. Talk about initiating a series of unfortunate events! Anyway, at this point, I considered removing the mower deck from the tractor but found that I was able to get the nut on the bolt and loosen it. The shaft dropped out of the bottom of the deck and I had my first good look at what I had done.

Yeah, it;'s bent. Note the attached shaft and
nut. My new breaker bar is lying forlornly
nearby. 

Well, I destroyed the blade, that's what I and that maple tree root had done. Now, with the blade and nut easily accessible, my new socket and breaker bar, it will be a simple matter to remove the nut and install the new blade. BWAAA....HAHAHA. Wrong again lawnmower breath. I stood on the blade and tugged with the breaker bar. No luck. The neighbor stood on the blade while I put my considerable weight and strength on the nut. No luck. This damn nut job had me questioning I ever thought I knew about mechanics, physics, basic engine maintenance, and the origin of the universe. Researching the matter only made it worse because it turns out some blade nuts are reverse threaded to keep them from loosening as the blade spins. Careful inspection of the nut, and thoughtful consideration of the direction of rotation had me convinced that this was still a lefty-loosey situation but the damn thing still wouldn't come off.  Fine. That evening was monthly meeting night at the firehouse so I brought the blade and shaft there and let the men have at it. Well, this turned out to be the best decision I made. I locked the blade in the heavy duty bench vise and we hit the nut with Blaster, a penetrating lubricant made to release stuck parts. One of my fellow firefighters torqued on the breaker bar and the damn thing finally came off. WHEW!

The next morning the reassembly went well and I carefully tightened all the important parts. I then started the mower and drove to the center of the north forty. Sitting motionless I tentatively engaged the PTO to get the blades spinning, half expecting a tremendous bang and further destruction. Nope, perfect. Hardly believing my skill and luck I went on to finish the job that had ended so abruptly days before, carefully avoiding the root near the sidewalk.

I need to decide what to do about that root. It's a big one, about 4 inches in diameter and (obviously) close to and above the surface. My short term plan is simply to avoid it and cut that area with the push mower. My long term plan may be to attack it with the ax and chainsaw, but we'll see.

In other news, home improvement has slowed. I have finished the other window and screen to be installed in the attic window, I just have to get up there and do so. We are on the verge of out first "heat wave" so I need to do this soon. I also purchased some flowers and placed them in planters in the front of the house. They look really nice. The look of the house and area was further enhanced by trimming I did after resurrecting by old line trimmer. It had been is storage ever since the move and after finally finding the batteries and charger I was surprised to see them hold a charge.