The second most unpleasant job ever

**RknRusty** Sat Mar 30, 2013 8:00 pm

Last week I had the mower deck on my 42" twin blade lawn tractor turn a bearing and weld itself to the blade drive shaft and destroy the shaft housing, so I jerked the deck out and got parts to repair it, including the blade drive and motion drive belts. Today was the day I was going to fix it and put it all back together. I was thinking; man, it might be kind of fun to be a lawn mower mechanic. Ha! Right.

This was a machine I inherited from a neighbor that moved out and didn't need it any more. He took crap care of it, leaving it out in the weather, rusting bolts and linkages. It was a mess, but I had all new shiny pieces for it. After toiling over the seized bearing and shaft and fixing up the deck, it was time to put the new motion belt on. I am here to tell you, That was one of the most unpleasant jobs I have ever done. Lying under a dirty lawn tractor eating a constant rain of dirt, even after I attacked it with the shop vac, mulched leaves, pollen and god knows what else. I had crap running down the inside of my shirt sleeves piling up in my armpits, in my mouth, around my safety glasses in my eyes, in my nose... pulling the steering column, clutch and shifter linkages, stuck bolts...

If I NEVER have to do that again, it'll be too soon. Replacing the timing belt in my Mazda was easier than this. I was so sore and tired and filthy dirty when I finished I was pitiful. But it fired up right off the first time, and while I was lying on the couch moaning and groaning, my wife was riding it around the yard doing a beauty of a job powdering the oak leaves into invisible mulch. The deck height adjuster is still rusted and needs replacing, but other than that it's in good shape.

I was going to preflight my planes tonight in hopes of flying tomorrow, but' I'll just have to do it at the field. So since I couldn't entertain y'all with airplane stories, I figured I would report on my most unpleasant mechanikin' job. And no, being a lawn mower mechanic is the second to last job I would ever want.