One of those weeks - tool problems but it could be worse

[JML755]

My DR Brush mower had an issue a couple of weeks ago where the differential came apart. Managed to get it fixed w/o spending a lot of money ($5 for bolts) and used it a week ago Sunday at my property. Everything back to normal, right? On Tuesday, I noticed oil all over my garage floor and the engine (B & S 13 hp) was bone dry. Looked underneath and could see oil coming out of the engine driveshaft. Bad oil seal, I figured but why all of a sudden after it'd been sitting for 2 days? Ordered a couple of seals ($5 each), air filter, oil filter just to fill up the order since I needed them anyway. Total $40 spent. Tore it down on Saturday after a few calls to DR to make sure I was doing it right. got the engine off, turned it upside down and.....

Guess what? Found a sliver of wood, maybe 1/2" long, about the size of a toothpick had somehow got wedged between the seal and the spinning shaft, causing the leak. WTF? How a piece of brush could find its way up under the machine through the hole in the machine base that the shaft goes through and somehow impale itself in between the shaft and seal is beyond me. It took all I could do to SEE the area with a flashlight and look past the 2 spinning belts, chain, sprocket, axle, etc.

Pulled the bugger out and filled it with oil to see if the seal was still good. After a couple of hours, no major leak but there was a drip, so I pulled the seal and installed a new one.

Ok, new seal, new oil and air filter, fresh oil. All back together in an hour and fire it up. So far so good and then..... oil spurting out from around the oil filter. Turned the key to shut it off.....kept running. Uh,oh. choked it to stall it. Empty the oil, took off the oil filter and found that the gasket from the old filter had stuck to the housing and I didn't notice it. Duh. Pulled it off and spun new filter on (again). Seemed to recall that there were 2 ground wires on 1 stud that now had 1. Found the 2nd one where I had peeled it back out of the way. Duh, again. Attached the ground wire (that obviously was required to kill the engine) and fired it up again. Everything good now after spending all Sunday morning on it.

Grabbed my chainsaw and drove out to my property to salvage what was left of a beautiful afternoon by cutting up trees that fell from the hurricane (yes, the winds were pretty strong here in Michigan and I counted about 20 trees down on my property from them. A couple of 16" diameter ones came right out of the ground.)

Opened the case to find that the chain oil cap was missing and the chamber bone dry. No oil in the case. Obviously, when I used it a week ago to start the tree clearing process, the cap came off while I was running it. Searched the area I had been cutting but no luck.

So, I sat down, grabbed something to drink and just watched my 2 dogs run around happy as 2 GSPs could be in rooting around the forest and pond. Sun shining, mid 60's and it's a November weekend n Michigan. Too bad I spent most of it on my garage floor.
 

[onefarmer]

Hey at least it was a warm weekend in Mich.
 

[wisbaker]

We lost a few trees to Sandy over here in
Wisconsin, mostly stuff that was in low ground, a
lot of clump Birch and Silver Maples.
 

[Organicfarmer1972]

Sounds like you made the best of a Murphy"s tool fiasco.

At least you could relax enough on a beautiful day to watch friends frolic
 

[bill mart]

had to look it up, "GSP" german short hair pointer? bill
 

[JML755]

[Billy Shafer]

I am having one of those weeks. Two tractors down with injector pump problems. Plus a welder that caught fire. Of course the customers wants them fixed yesterday.