I had to mow this week. It has probably been six months since we mowed. The sheep take care of the pasture, and it has been so dry that the lawn around the house hasn’t grown too much. But grown it has, and with my father-in-law coming for a three week visit this week, we’re trying to buff the place up.
Do you think the riding mower, after sitting for six months, started up? No, of course it didn’t. Nor did it occur to me that I could put it on my lead-acid charger/reconditioner the day before. So I tried the little lithium-battery jumpstarter that I keep in the car, but the mower engine will only run if you have the brake depressed or you’re sitting in the seat. To get to the battery, you have to fold the seat up. I managed to start it by folding the seat up, attaching the jumpstarter, pressing the brake pedal with my foot, starting it, disconnecting the jumpstarter while holding down the brake, folding the seat down, and sliding onto the seat without releasing the brake pedal until I was firmly seated. But there was no way to leave it running to charge the battery, and it would die every few minutes for various reasons and the battery didn’t yet have enough charge to start it. So I took the battery out (no small feat!) and put it on the charger overnight.
It started the next day, but barely. Clearly the battery needs reconditioning. But I was able to get the mower running and putter around the yard. It was scary, though: even on slight hills I felt like I was going to rock right out of the seat. Eventually, I stopped the mower and saw the bolt, above, on the deck. No nut or anything else. It took some looking for me to discover that it was one of two bolts that held the seat on. Ooops! Further, the other bolt was about 1½ turns from falling off, too. It’s truly a wonder I didn’t end up on the ground.
Of course, since I only have about a quarter million nuts in my collection, I didn’t have any that fit the bolt. I did have a big carriage bolt (about 4” long) with matching nuts, and since there was room for an insanely long bolt, I just put that one in and locked it with two nuts.
One of these bolts (on the right near the bottom) is not like the others:
It’s makeshift, but the lawns got mowed. I’m not ready to apply for that job as a greenskeeper at the local country club, but… mowed.
—2p