Time for a new mower...

[hubops]

Yazoo ? .. sorry if I seem daft .. what izzit ? John T.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Mower with large rear wheels. Good on rough terrain.

[clare]

It has a tube frame like a bicycle or an old airplane,with a sheet metal deck and 20 inch bike tires. 24 inch cut - basically an OLD commercial mower - like this one:

but mine is a 24, with a 6.5HP and a stainless replacement deck.

[hubops]

That's a new species to me. I had a neighbour with a high - wheel but it didn't look like that. John T.

[clare]

The one I showed had some "bar stock"in the frame - mine is ALL tube.

[John Albert]

I believe you're right.

I went out looking at Honda mowers today. Local Power Equipment dealer sells the Honda I'm interested in for $30 more than Home Depot.

But I'll reckon that buying from the dealer gets me: a. Mower assembled and tested (HD mower comes in a box, too heavy for me anymore) b. Service during the warranty period. c. Maybe they'll even deliver it.

So when I buy, it will be from the local dealer. I believe I bought the old mower from them, too, but that was a quarter-century ago!

Oddly enough, I tried starting the old mower (which stopped with a BANG the day before), and it started and ran. Makes me wonder if somethin's loose inside (a friend mentioned something called "the Woodruff key"?).

Was going to try it again this evening, but it rained. Maybe tomorrow.

Doesn't matter, I've decided that I want one of the new ones, anyway!

[Ralph Mowery]

On the dirve shaft there is a notch and the fly wheel another notch. There is a piece of metal that is about square and an inch or so long that goes between the pieces in the notches. This keeps them from slipping. Many round shafts that have larger round gears or other things on them will have this key in the slots so they will not slip.

If the flywheel slips, the spark may not get to the engine at the correct time.

[makolber]

also known as a shear key

designed to shear when there is an impact to prevent further damage.

m

[clare]

But in over 50 years I have NEVER seen one where it stops the engine with a "bang" and then it starts and runs again days later.

I HAVE overheated a rotary lawn mower engine to the poiont it seized - and could not even be turned over - and after beeing left to cool down, it restarted like nothing had happened (but it started to smoke a bit, and didn't last long before it let go completely)