So yesterday, I decided it was time to fix my lawn tractor. you see, I've had power issues since I left the key in the "on" position for more than a month. Oops. So I bought a new battery, and it wouldn't start right away, so I jumped it and it was fine. Mowed the lawn and put her away. Went to get her out a couple days later to mow again, and dead again. That was all last year. So I put her away for the year, and got her out to try again. Put the battery on the charger for 24 hours, and it barely started the mower. Once it did, I let it run for about 10 minutes or so, and shut her off. Tried to start it again immediately, and it was dead as a doornail. So I thought it may have been the alternator. I bought a new one from a lawn machine shop locally, and installed it. The alternator is located underneath the flywheel, which was a pain to remove. Once I got it off, I replaced the alternator and put the mower back together. I had MORE trouble starting it, and when it did, it was super rough sounding, and would sputter, backfire, and die. Almost like the timing was off. Come to find out, I sheared the shear pin, or flywheel key, and had to get another one. No problem. I replaced the flywheel key and started it again. Fired right up, sounding great, and died, sputtering and backfiring. Sheared another key. WTF??? SO I have to go back tomorrow and see if there's a reason that may be. In the meantime, I got out the walk behind mower, a self-propelled mower to do the yard. Gonna take a bit longer, but no biggie, it was nice and I could use the exercise. However, about 20 minutes in, the electric motor that powers the self-propeller died out and turned it into a big weight. I guess mowing wasn't in the cards for me yesterday!
