Wednesday, September 16, 2015

The "two-minute" repair

The internet is surely a boon to do-it-yourselfers.  You can find a video of how to do most anything.  I will get to that in a minute.  First, the backstory....
A month or so ago, when I had the mower blues, it turned out to be an easy fix (even for us and we don't know much about engines).   Ds reattached the governor spring that had come loose and got me back in business with my mower.  It wasn't long at all before I had the mower blues again.  The drive cable had broken.  I think it's probably best to spare you the details of the miscommunication between my menfolk and me about where to get the replacement part.  In the interim, ds and I kind of jerry-rigged the mower by wrapping a piece of wire so that the drive stayed engaged all the time.  I just had to lift the front wheels when I wanted to stop going forward.  (I also tried to kind of start moving forward before I let the wheels back down so as not to stress the jerry-rigging.  It was a fairly arduous process, all in all, but it enabled me to get the yard, which was starting to look like a pasture, mowed.)
Yesterday, with new cable in hand, I decided to fix my mower.  There are videos showing the process.  One video was just over two minutes.  Of course, it assumes you know what on earth you are doing.  It assumes you know where the needle-nose pliers are.  It assumes you don't have to call your son (only to get a message saying his voice mailbox is full) to ask where the pliers are.  It assumes you don't wander around till you find another nice pair of needle-nose pliers that are in the glove compartment.  It assumes you don't manage to do something stupid and pinch a blood blister on your ring finger.  It assumes you will attach the cable in the order they say.  Now I'm picturing the dog caught in the ruined blinds, "It's cool, it's cool, I got the fly." 
It took me more than two minutes, but... "It's cool, it's cool, I got the cable attached!"
 

1 comment:

  1. I'm laughing, but not at you. The blood blister! yep. Some videos are as clear as mud. But searching you can usually find a fix. Good you got it done, that is the 'mainest' thing, as a friend says.
    Good account of a dedicated do-it-yourselfer.
    There are times I forget the wealth of knowledge that is on the net.

    But a final Atta girl!

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