I took the 109 for a quick spin to the nearby pistol club yesterday and aside from the chirping tyres it went well.
The day before, I was tasked to look at a senior gentleman’s ride on mower, which has reportedly never performed properly since the day he got it, and has never once fired up under its own steam by turning the key.
It had been stored away in a shed for ages, all the tyres were dead flat and it was covered in a thick layer of dust.
Apparently it was simply rooted and showed no signs of life, turn the key and.... not even a tick.
It’s been a long time since I worked on a ride on, so I went in blind and presumed it had a bad battery, thus I approached it with jumper leads and a truck battery in the hope of jump starting it.
I ran the multi tester probes across the terminals and hmmm, it was reading 12 volts.
Tried the key, nothing.
I placed my hand atop the flywheel cover and tried to turn it over and it turned over freely, so it wasn’t seized.
Oil looked clean, got me buggered, so try jump starting it...nothing, totally dead.
Hmmm, something wasn’t right and my brain was screaming at me that I’d seen this problem before.
I then sat on the seat, thinking the pressure switch might still be functioning and still nothing happened.
Then I saw it, the bloody hand brake wasn’t engaged. I quickly pressed in the brake and reset the little lever and hit the key and...tick. It wouldn’t crank but at least it showed signs of life.
I dragged it out of the shed and force started it by hand winding it up to top dead centre and then hitting the starter and away she went, then idled it around the yard and up to the workshop by putting it in a low gear and walking along beside it. I would have rode it but the tyres were dead flat and so old that I reckon they’d have fallen apart, so care had to be taken.
First things first, inflate the tyres and then take it for a mush...
I did a couple of laps on it and it was performing perfectly and just then the employer’s nephew arrived and was scratching his head over how the supposedly stuffed mower was now working again and he asked me if it was any good as it looked like crap and they’d already decided to sell it and buy the old fellow a new one.
I reversed up to him and said “watch this”, popped it into 5th gear, applied full throttle and popped the clutch.
It launched alright, lifting both front wheels about 10 inches off the ground, and away she went, flying down the driveway at full speed.
I held it flat in top gear and went up and down the long driveway for about 10 minutes and it never missed a beat.
Then shut it down and left it to cool, before giving it a clean and hucked a bit of polish on it before calling it a day.
Overnight I pondered the lack of cranking power and reckoned it was probably a bad earth or connection somewhere, so upon arrival to work yesterday, I set about removing the battery and battery cables. Yep, that’s how pathetic my life has become, I actually think about work matters in my own time.
Attacked it the next day by attaching the fancy new, you beaut, battery charger to it and hmm, after only 1 hour it reported the battery as being good and was fully charged, which of course was partially supported by the multi tester reading the day before, so yeah, lets look for a loss via the battery cables.
Noticed red electrical tape on the positive cable, meaning somebody’s been here before, and meaning they’ve probably been on the same quest as I was now on, yet they’d obviously failed to find the problem and flicked the mower instead.
The positive cable was sound, all the way up to the starter motor, but the moment I tried to undo the nut holding the power cable to the starter, it spun...hmmm
Pull the starter and remove the bottom plate, below the carbon brushes and bingo, I found the lug which spun wasn’t connected to the internal wires, but they were just sitting against the lug under their own weight.
That was the crux of the cranking problem right there I reckoned, and I was going to strip the starter down and solder the wires to the lug when the boss said no, he’s got a mate who does his alternators for him who is set up to do this type of repair, so I happily handed over the starter and off marched his nephew to get it repaired.
Better him than me I thought, I mean, I could have done it, in spades, and quickly but no, their mate was given the task, so that I could do more pressing repairs on other vehicles, fair enough.
So when the bosses nephew returned from delivering the bodgy starter to the repairer, I kidnapped him and we both knocked off work and snuck off to the pistol club in the 109, and that was that, the mower didn’t get finished.
I strongly urged them not to flick his mower as all it really needs is a bit of love.
We sent them images of how it came up once cleaned and they’re suspicious, thinking we sent them images of a different mower entirely, just to do their heads in.
** I’ve been asked a few times why I write these posts, and I mainly do it because it’s easy for me to write/type.
Several people have commented here that they like to read my posts and several people I’ve met in person who visit this site, tell me they love having something to read and that my posts are appreciated and to keep them coming.
I’m bewildered by the number of views on this thread, it blows my mind.