The Mower

For the Friday Challenge

The Sears parts website used to be a treasure trove of information for the domestic tinkerer. Due to its aid, I have fixed a dryer by changing a fuse, accumulated a healthy supply of toothed couplings for my blender (although I've since received a "Magic Bullet" for smoothy-making), and replaced the rack roll kit on the upper drawer of my dishwasher (and then used a rubber band to keep the stopper in place after I broke that).

But the most ambitious and self-satisfying endeavor I have committed to was the repair of a Craftsman 6.75 hp lawn mower.

When we moved to Alabama, we had a little dinky lawn mower and a quater-acre yard filled with #1, Grade-A Alabama weeds. They grew a foot a day and I spent two summers mowing twice a week before I went out after a heavy rainstorm and hand-weeded the blasted place. The mower died everytime the grass was taller than six inches, and I longed for something more. Something that wouldn't jam and cut out when forced to mow a wet lawn. Something with a self-propellor that actually worked. So we ditched ours and I used our neighbor's until we got orders to Hawaii.

Our first house in Hawaii was a beautiful little 1100-sq-footer with rent of $2100/month. The lawn was zoysia--and if you know anything about zoysia you know it's extremely hardy and grows extremely slowly. In addition, the owners hired a yard service.

Ten months later we moved to a four-plex on base with St. Augustine or centipede or some other tropic grass that gave me hives whenever I touched it. I went down to the Hickam BX and checked out their meager selection.

Amidst the Snappers and Briggs & Strattons was an anomaly. A Craftsman, 6.75 hp with no corresponding tag on the shelf and no owner's manual. But the price was good and I couldn't get over the horse power. I could mow a sugar cane field with this baby! So I took it home.

Loaded it with gas and oil and mowed the lawn. Then it leaked all over the shed floor.

I set it out on the walk way that went to the parking area and knocked on my neighbor's back door. "My lawnmower's leaking and I don't know if the gas and the oil will catch the dried grass on fire. I've left our kitchen fire extinguisher next to it. I'm going to get some kitty litter."

In addition, I went back to the BX. Yes, they'd take it back. But, man, it was such a good price. Surely it wouldn't hurt to take a look, right?

Sears parts catalog to the rescue. Using their exploded parts diagram, I was able to take the motor apart and find the oil pan was cracked. I think they called it an "oil pan." What it really was, was the entire cast iron bottom of the engine assembly. Cracked right through.

So I did what any reasonable military wife with no job and a pre-schooler would do. I ordered a new one. Of course, the Sears parts store on the island didn't carry them. And shipping was atrocious. But what can you do? It arrived, all bright and shiny and unpainted a while later.

What didn't arrive was the felt seal between the two pieces. And of course it was attached to the old pan and not the upper assembly and refused to come off save in many small pieces. Fortunately, my best friend's husband is a gear head. He had some gasket felt that he willingly gave me having long-ago figured it's far easier to just buy a new gasket than cut it to order. He did give me the great advice to put oil on the raw edge of the pan and press it down on the felt, thereby creating a pattern to cut.

I don't remember how many times I had to go back in and fiddle around to get all the pieces where they were supposed to be. Or how many bags of kitty litter I went through. But, somehow, by the grace of God, it worked. The mower's sitting in our shed now, five years later, waiting for our Kentucky blue grass-mix to grow just a little higher.

And the blessed thing will cut through anything and not stall.