Intrepidation

GM has been doing this to a slightly-increasing degree for some years now. From the frontal view it looks fine, but I agree it seems counter-intuitive to reduce the front break over angle this severely. It's likely also so GM can foster the 'big truck' image, too. The HD trucks are particularly bad, I shudder to t think how big the refreshed ones will be. What gets me is that the other players in the segment have front lower air dams but theirs are far more subtle and less of an eyesore.

I like it, its more visually interesting. Still looks MANLY MAN but they used more than just SQUARES to design it. Looks like the fenders are the same, so the new headlight design is based entirely on body color trim pieces to make the shape different. No doubt cost effective, although it makes for a lot of cut lines. Bet you could swap those into the current truck. The only thing I really dislike is just how vertically massive the lower bumper is and how far below the lower body line it extends. I'm sure its for aerodynamics, but its very ungainly.

Because a multi-billion dollar corporation cares about you. The home team, bringing you such All-American staples as the Mexican built Sonic and Journey. Worth noting that ZEE GERMANS have factories in the good old US of A. It's not black and white.

More engines that produce ludicrous amounts of horsepower. I see nothing wrong with this. `Merica. By the way, nice sig oldhurst.

Is it really so hard to make a high quality interior for the price point. I mean Ford did it withe the Focus.

Those are all past mowers, let's move on to current events! Today's projects were a Yard Man that, after replacing the recoil I found to be very hard to pull over and a Craftsman I picked up yesterday. Initially I thought the flywheel key was ok on the Yard Man, but I looked at its flywheel again and compared it to a parts Tecumseh with the same key design. The Yard Man: The other engine: Its not a lot, but its definitely off. Perhaps enough to throw the timing off, and this is why its so hard to pull? I'm going to get a new key for it and replace it. Certainly can't hurt to dry. With nothing left to do with the Yard Man for now,I decided to tackle the Craftsman I picked up. Sorry no before pictures, but the rundown is this: recoil spring broken, no gas in tank but I could smell bad gas, covered in leaves. Things got off to a bad start when I replaced the recoil with the one from the silver Craftsman I recently scrapped. The recoil itself went on fine, and this mower has the same handlebar design, so there was a hole in the middle of the handlebar for the bracket. However it quickly went downhill when I pulled the spark plug out and gave it a pull. It burped out a nasty brown liquid that I couldn't tell was gas or water. When I removed the muffler and the carburetor, some of the same liquid came out. I was afraid this was going to be a junk engine, but it spun freely so I decided to proceed anyway. The tank was empty, but the carburetor has...something...still in it. It smelled aweful! this gas was really old. Wanted to quickly see if this would even run, I yanked the carburetor I had just cleaned up yesterday for the Yard Man and put it on the Craftsman. Hooked it all up, replaced the plug, checked the oil, which actually wasn't bad at all, and prepared for the moment of truth. To my surprise, in two pulls it was running and running really well! I had expected smoke or something to come out of the exhaust but not smoke to be seen. Somehow this engine runs perfectly, and the drive system works too! That made my evening. I'll need to sharpen the blade and change the oil, but this one's a runner. Cosmetically, the paint is bubbling around the belt cover and there's some surface rust, but its solid overall. When its all done it'll list for less than the Rally. Here it is washed off an back together. I'll do what I can with the existing paint later, but its not being repainted. With it in good running order, I decided to keep the borrowed carburetor on it, and put its on the Yard Man. While I deemed the bowl and float a loss, I got lucky in that there wasn't much fuel in the bowl, so there was only some green staining on the bottom of carburetor itself. I wire brushed it and the jet off, cleaned it really good, and replaced the missing primer bulb. It could almost pass for new now!

They still are: http://www.amazon.com/Ariens-911194-Classic-LM21SW-179cc/dp/B001HX23A4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1433658949&sr=8-1&keywords=ariens+classic

It's probably just a 5 or 6 hour drive oncblu

I was told it totally runs just needs a pull cord while being able to smell the bad gas from a foot away.

Welcome to C&G!

Welcome!

The second Brute had all the problems the first one had, but took things a step further with the impact not only sheering the flywheel key, but cracking the flywheel as well. Luckily, I had a spare as those things are pretty expensive new. This mower also partially dismantled, and then left outside with the dipstick off and the crankcase exposed to the elements. Despite it all, somehow the engine was undamaged. Both front wheels had seized up too and took some time to free up. It also had two cracked rear wheels (a problem with that style wheel) and missing front hub caps. In the end it I got Briggs to replaced them with a redesigned, much beefier set (which went on my machine), and some new hubcaps. Despite the mess I started with it came back together to look and function like a new machine. Sold it to a guy who I see once in a while. Last I checked it was still performing well.

Speaking of which, I acquired not one, but two identical mowers to my own Brute. These couldn't have been more than a couple years old at the time, but both, owned by the same guy, were thoroughly trashed. The first one had a sheered flywheel key, bad gas, gummed up carburetor, and the blade had been mangled. Apparently he was trying to mow rocks. But it went back together well, touched up the deck (black is the best color, so easy to retouch), and I bought new hub caps for the front wheels.

Don't forget the air filter and spark plug! Also clean the deck regularly. I find the Briggs engines can take more abuse and still run. I think, as with any engine, but especially with Tecumsehs, its just a matter of making sure the oil is changed regularly and is at the proper level.

When I was a kid I had a few old mowers. Back where I used to live people would just put them out to the curb for trash pickup (doesn't work like that where I live no so between that and the scrappers its harder to get them). Anyway, I knew very little about small engines back them, but I remember fondly a old Rally high wheel push mower that I would use to mow lawns in the neighborhood. Fast frward to a few years ago, and we needed a mower at the new house. I didn't feel like paying an $300+ for a decent one, so I went on Craigslist, found a Brute in nice shape that needed an engine, got a mower with a good engine, and built it. I enjoyed it so much I started doing more and reselling them. Turns out you can make pretty decent side cash, especially when you make them look really nice and can charge a bit more. Of course, now my garage is pretty full of the buggers, and I went from having the Brute two eight or so mowers I don't want to part with! Its a far cry from my basic Rally mower though. My collection today includes a 80's 2-cycle Lawn Boy, a late 70's Simplicity, an 80's Toro with the much sought after 2-cycle Suzuki engine, another Toro with a very rare Briggs and Stratton 2-cycle engine (of which I have 2), an older Craftsman, the Brute, a 90's Poulan Pro, the Wheel Grand Prix, a Honda HRB215, and the Ariens pulling everyday duty. The older ones are quite rare, while the newer ones I like for various reason. I want to find an even older lawn mower eventually, and there's a few engines (older and newer) that I'd like to have. Is it lawn mower overload? Well maybe, but they take up way less space than cars do!

This Ariens 911052 was purchased for $50. It ran but took forever to start, and its cables were all messed up and hodgepodged together. This engine is a Tecumseh Vector Flathead engine. what's interesting about these engines, besides the cool name, is the single piece, extruded aluminum carburetor. The float and bowl are a one piece plastic assembly as well. Very annoying to work on, but eventually it was running well. Paint was in better shape than the other Ariens but it got touched up too. It also got a good drive engagement cable from a parts Ariens and a brand new Zone Control cable. On some models these cables are North of $40! Luckily this one was only $17. It cleaned up very well. On this model the discharge chite/plug was held on with plastic wing nuts instead of regular nuts. This brilliant idea was carried over to the other Ariens, as it no longer requires tools to change out accessories. This was tough to see go as I didn't have the other Ariens back at the time and I really liked the caster wheels. Still, it fetched $250 so you know...

Here we have a small MTD Yard Machines that was literally saved from the junkyard. I picked it up for $220 at a junkyard. A bit steep for a small push mower, but I had run dry on mowers to fix and this one was complete so I went for it. The carburetor was full of water and very corroded. Didn't even bother with it, just chucked it. I have probably 15 spare Tecumseh carburetors assemblies, so I slapped one on, changed the oil and Zone Control cable, cleaned up the deck, and its almost like new!

This freebee is an Ariens 911029. Didn't run and the deck's powder coat finish had begun to peel and rust. Chevrolet Orange engine enamel is petroleum and heat reistant and is as close a match as you'll ever find to Ariens Orange This is quite the machine too. Very heavy steel deck, friction disc, variable speed drive system, electric start, and a Blade Brake Clutch (BBC). I sold it for $300. A funny thing happened though... A year later the Ariens came back. His son was mowing and hit a rock. From that point on it vibrated badly when the BBC was disengaged, but weirdly not while it was engaged. The vibrations had caused some of the shroud bolts to back out and the dipstick to come loose, leaking oil all over the deck. I got it back and he purchased a very clean Cub Cadet push mower with a Honda engine. I got the Ariens back together, but since the BBC was tweaked I have yet to resell it. That said, it functions excellent in every other aspect, so I've been using it as my workhorse mower. This year it needed more paint work, but since the paint is easy to come by, touching up wasn't too difficult. Among small engine mechanics and mower enthusiasts (yes, that's a thing), Tecumseh vertical shaft Flathead engines are pretty unloved. They have a nasty habit of developing rod knocks, eventually leading to blown connecting rods. Their carburetors can also be very finicky. That being said, when they are in proper working order, they're great. This particular one burns no oil, runs excellent, and starts first pull every single time.

Well since it was requested, let's "spam" this thread with some of the fun mowers I've come across since then. This was a Craftsman push mower I got as trade for a small Murray I sold. I didn't get any pictures before I started work on it, which is too bad, but this poor thing was beat to ****. I was prepared to declare this thing a total loss. The brackets that hold the handlebars and wheels on were both so loose that the handlebars couldn't stay upright and the whole assembly would just rotate freely. All of the movement had caused the tabs that help hold the bracket in place to tear into the metal deck, and on one side the metal was so worn around the main bolt it was almost big enough for the nut to come out. The problem seems to be that when it was assembled, he neglected to put the secondary retaining bolts in to keep the bracket secure. I used 1/4 bolts with locking nuts, straightened the deck, replaced an axle bolt after it sheered, and used a big washer to help compensate for the enlarged hole where the axle bolt goes through. I have to say I'm pretty pleased with the results. Once I got it all back together the brackets were nice and tight with no play, and the wheels and handle bars had no play either. Here's a look at the repair. It also had a sheered of muffler. And the engine mounting points were cracked on the deck from the mutilated blade being so off balance. I had the deck welded back together by a friend, then repainted the deck using a automotive metallic gray from the parts store. Some clear coat, wet sanding, rubbing compound, and required parts later, its hard to believe they're the same machine.

Did it not charge the car? I mean really Tesla, get with the program here! That's some customer service though. If it were a another automaker's product she'd have likely gotten this message: "Well m`am, you don't technically own the vehicle, and since we do we've elected to inform you that you're $h! out of luck and that you should have known better than to try and charge your car's battery with lightning. Have a nice day!"

Wow, this was so many lawn mowers ago!

What? I love these things. They don't make Super Soakers like this anymore.

I don't think so Tim.

This is pretty common practice in other industries too. For example, "premium" car battery warranties have got down from 5 year (3 year replacement, 2 year pro-rated) down to 3 year free replacement. Some parts stores started doing this, and other followed sighting "industry practices".