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I used to work as a boat mechanic and one day, a ski boat came in for an oil change. I asked when it was changed the last time and the customer said "Well, that's the thing....". Three years. Then, when his son tried to remove the Fram filter with a screwdriver, he shredded it. To be fair, the...

Are you saying that tightening an oil filter ISN'T a contest?

I use this type- I have two sizes. If you only want to buy one for all sizes, the yellow one works.

I was watching some videos showing a variety of dethaching attachments, ranging from home-made to commercially available. Any opinions? Doesn't look like rocket surgery. My mower doesn't have any provision for attaching accessories, other than some holes on the back and the small draw bar the...

Anything 'Lithium' has become a buzzword- it's more for extended storage, solar and deep cycle applications and a lawnmower isn't any of those, unless decreased charge level due to sitting is included. Charging is different, the weak electrical systems in mowers doesn't make them compatible and...

A few things come into play for a situation like this- weight & height of the person and track width of the wheels. If the center of gravity is outside of the wheels, it's easy to tip- I found that my Ariens wants to tip on lightly sloped ground because I'm a Clydesdale but siting lower on a ZT...

Was this submerged? If not, why would you make the leap to replacing the wiring? And what kinds of terminals & connectors would you use that wouldn't corrode? Have you done point to point resistance/continuity/voltage tests on all of the wires? My riding mower's headlights didn't work when I...

Absolutely true- I got into my pickup one morning and as usual, the dome light came on but when I turned the key, EVERYTHING went dark. I grabbed a wrench, to check/tighten the cable ends and the positive lug came right out of the battery.

TEST, don't just replace. If you don't have a test light with incandescent bulb, buy one. It shows more or less current by illuminating brightly, or more dim. You should be able to jump from the battery to the starter, as a test- make sure to disconnect everything from the starter and use jumper...

Mine lost the flex plate as I was driving to work and I made the mistake of shutting off the engine because it was 20°F and I would be waiting 45 minutes for the flatbed and without the flex plate, it can't be started. I sold something on FB Marketplace yesterday and the buyer looked familiar...

I was more concerned with getting it together before the next snowfall and it needs an end bushing for the auger, too. Then, the rear brakes on my van decided to go yesterday, so I now have more to do than before, when I already had too much on my plate. Also, money is short and I need to buy...

Well, Rustoleum Ford red ISN'T MTD red and the paint doesn't match the color of the cap, but it looks OK. If it annoys me, I'll buy some paint that's closer- the main goal was to protect the metal. It does look EXACTLY like the paint on a '66 Mustang, though. Crappy nozzle, though.

Rustoleum shows Ace Hardware as a dealer, but the store close to me only has Ford Red. Does this link help? https://www.rustoleum.com/product-catalog/consumer-brands/specialty/farm-and-implement-paint

I was looking for MTD snowblower parts and had forgotten to look for paint since mine has l ost a fair amount- they have several colors available at www.mtdparts.com and if you use the searcg bar, enter 'red paint', 'green paint', etc. Also, Rustoleum has Farm & Implement paints in various colors.

Fuel quality isn't important in these- I ran out of gas with an old push mower and didn't want to leave one strip, nor did I want to go to a gas station, so I mixed some Mineral Spirits and Denatured Alcohol, just to finish- it ran fine. I wouldn't do that with a new engine, though- that mower...

True. Less energy dense than gasoline, too.

I have heard about doing this, but would need to have major, constant problems in order to really have the need. It wouldn't be hard to do, though- find a clear container, add a valve at the bottom and drain the water out or use a fuel water separator for a boat. Either would work.

I don't have a choice unless I want to drive a long way to find gas that doesn't have Ethanol but I never have problems starting any of my engines. I don't run them dry, but I do run them low with stabilizer in the gas can which goes in as soon as I buy it, so anything I put in the tank on a...

It's not like they made those in house- all they would have to do is spec it differently, order, receive and install them. It's not a huge hardship. It does, however, require engineers to think reasonably, rather than using pure logic. I think that an automated machine, they could thread well...

I have a friend in the Immakele area and he's originally from Joliet, IL, but moved to KC in '94, retired to central Missouri and then to FL as a parents' condition declined. All he does is complain about hot & humid this, hurricane that......If I call today, he's say it's cold. Jeez, some...

"MBAs of the world, unite!" We need to invade their annual suare and give everyone of them a giant wedgie and shove their faces in dog doo. I also believe that anyone who designs any mechanical device or vehicle should be forced to service them for a year, so they'll know what SHOULDN'T be...

One problem here is that the bill for my duplex shows two fees that are twice as much as a single family home and when I traded messages with the Mayor (small city), he thought I have two water mains and sewer laterals. It's not a lot per quarter, but over more than 25 years, it adds up. We have...

I'm trying to understand why my water bill is $200/quarter when average use is only 4,000 gallons. I mean, I know why- it's all of the fees for environmental, sewer, etc but it's ridiculous. And I can't have a well because of the water quality in this area.

The slab is behind my garage and the only time enough air moves is during high wind. This may be a moot point, though- the cost of living here has become unaffordable- the shiny new property tax and water bills arrived and the increases are insane, so I'm not staying here.

Right- the cloudy water/Ethanol layer and the gas on top- I wrote that mine was just gas on top of liquid water and it was only cloudy after shaking the bottle, but it settled out later. There's no milky layer and in phase separation, the only way to remedy it is to remove the layer with...

I plan to build some kind of structure for the slab with enough height to allow me to put the push mower over the rider's shroud. That way, I can store it lower and prevent me effing up my shoulder, like I did a week ago Sunday. I haven't decided on the exterior, but I think T-111 may be a...

Nope. Phase separation is a milky layer of mixed Ethanol and water. This was just water that settled out of the temporary mixture. For all I know, they may have used gas without Ethanol and it was exactly the same as what I used to see before we had to use that crap.

I removed almost all of the gas and ran it dry, but I do add StaBil for gas with Ethanol. It's really not hard or time consuming to do this stuff and I had lubed everything when I got it. Battery is out, tires are up, engine is fogged. Twice, since I had to start it in order to go over the edge...

I don't have enough space in my garage and the city wanted too much $ for permits and inspection to build a bump-out, so I need to store my mower on the slab behind my garage, covered. I stored my snow blowers there, under a tarp, and they're fine. I have serviced boats for a long time and...

I knocked the chute off of the pivot rod- that's when I found out they used a crappy clip at the end. I'll be drilling the hole over Winter since I removed the chute before I parked it. I'll also thread the end of the rod, so I can use a nylock nut. It would be great if WE didn't need to make...

I cut the grass once, then bought a bagging attachment- too much stuff left on the lawn. I don't cut every week and I tend to leave it a bit longer, so the roots can grow deeper during dry periods and the first time was THE first time on a riding mower, so I didn't know what I needed to know...

Blue StaBil is made for with Ethanol- their site shows that the red is too, but I have read that it's not as good as the blue. I have all three- they also make an amber version and while I don't leave a lot of gas in the tank of anything, my engines all start easily. Draining a tank isn't so...

If the first person on the phone is clueless, I ask for a higher tier of support. I work in Audio/Video/Networking and major brands that once had people who really knew their products, even going back decades, have gone on to some other job, likely thanks to COVID layoffs. They filled seats...

They can't provide T-Shirts with 'Righty-tighty- lefty loosey'?

I managed to do something that required my removing the chute and it has that stupid little retainer- why didn't they use a bolt and nylock nut? I know, I know, "Cost down", but c'mon!

It's great, having specialty shops.

Head bolts are often brittle after they become 'work hardened'- he's not inexperienced in general, just with these engines, which don't require much torque.

The dealer obviously wants NOBODY to go back to them, since they're lying to customers. EVERYTHING is available, if someone knows where to look. For almost any terminals, Del City is one distributor that sells them- I found out about them when I went to MasterCraft boat service training- someone...

I was thinking of the Packard/Weatherpack connectors used by GM- you can spray water directly onto them from any angle but the terminals were definitely not making good contact. The wires are still flexible, so I doubt the strands have broken and the lights still work. The main Molex is...

I looking at/working on the Ariens, I was a bit surprised to see unsealed Molex connectors, thin wire, bad head bolt distribution (the cause of the head gasket failures) and then, there's the headlights being fed AC Voltage because the alternator can't deliver enough to power them with DC. That...

They don't let us have stockades in the city. Oh, we have them, but they're well-hidden. :)

Where did you add the relay- show photos and a diagram. Is it activated by the crank wire and bypassing that wire, with tab 87 connected to the battery and tab 30 connected to the solenoid? Adding a relay strikes me as similar to adding a fuel filter when the original one becomes clogged. Has...

I'm in the Milwaukee area- that's the reason I installed a heater in my garage. Nothing coming out of the solenoid= bad solenoid, possibly from excessive crank times with discharged/old battery, possibly from poor quality if this part is a wide spread problem. When I went through my Ariens...

Did you test the starter after pulling it?

The Nimblewill.

All I can say is, I hope that stuff never makes it into my lawn.

Raccoons eat cat food- maybe put out plenty of it with water between their entry points and the Chickens.

Paint for lawn stripes is available- why does it need to be blue? I have seen lawns removed, tilled, rolled and a layer of looser soil distributed on top for seeding or sod. The new roots will loosen the bottom layer, as long as it can't become too dry. I don't know where you live or the soil...

Small amounts in the atomized fuel/water mix will burn, but not necessarily well. If a lot of water is in the fuel mix, it's going to lose power. Ideally, the fuel filter(s) do the job needed. Boats often have so much water in the tank that a fuel/water separator is needed and when they're...

I would drop it off at a waste disposal site- it's only one gallon. Or, if someone has a burn pile, use it for that.