Tractor Lawn Mower blades

[Charlie S.]

My sister has a large lawn and uses a 10-20 year old Honda sit down mower to mow her lawn. A couple weeks ago while mowing her lawn a large plastic bag got caught up in the blades and jammed up the blades. I shut off the motor and turned the tractor/mower over. She started tugging the plastic out without regard that the blades might be engaged in any way. I tried to warn her, but she said it's never been a problem. Am I being overly cautious?

[hallerb]

its always best to disconnect the spark plug before messing with any mower

people have lost body parts ignoring this basic safety rule

[dpb]

Depends on the ignition system -- if it has a solid grounding connection when off, I'd feel adequately protected. I personally probably wouldn't think it likely at all that I could/would spin the engine sufficiently working on a plastic bag to cause it to fire, but I'd certainly be cognizant of it being a possibility.

Given the description that sounds like your sister hasn't a clue, I'd say "no" to the question as posed and if similar occurrence would probably pull the plug wire. Of course, you can't stop her doing something really dumb if you're not there, anyway... :(

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[mm]

EVen if it can't fire, one could pull it past top dead center and the unfired gas could make the blade spring forward past that, up to anoher half turn, or if almost to TDC, spring back. I don't know if it could do this with the recently added brakes such engines had, and I don't know what the chance of hurting oneself would be, but I woudln't want to find out.

I had to remove the brake on one of my mowers, so one that's supposed to be there might not be.

Still, I don't take out the plug to fiddle with my mower if it's not a big job, but I make sure I don't turn the blade more than 20 degrees or so.

[Charlie S.]

Thanks for the feedback. I'll pass it on to my sister. But, like dpb mentioned, I can't stop her from doing something really dumb if I'm not there.