What In The World Just Happened

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:00]Okay, so today's a Sunday and I've been pretty busy today. We had to go into town so I could buy batteries. I had to buy three batteries.

[00:00:09]One just so I could have it in inventory and then this one uh the battery was completely dead on.

[00:00:17]And I've got I've got it to a point where now I can get it to turn over with the key, but the starter needs replaced.

[00:00:33]cuz it's stuck up in the up position.

[00:00:36]So um Oh, I got I don't have a battery in it. But anyway, uh what it was is the um the brake safety switch had been pushed out of its hole a little bit, so it wasn't making a good connection. Once I got the safety switch back in the right spot, you push the brake in. Turns right over now. So, that's taken care of.

[00:01:05]And uh we'll trade out the starter. We'll change the tire.

[00:01:12]I've got a sh a shroud, a blower housing on order, and then we can check to see once I get the starter replaced if the uh carburetor is okay. Actually, I probably could do that to tomorrow now that, you know, just hook the battery up. I bet I can get it running without that starter. I don't know. I I don't want to risk it. No, I'll just wait until I get the starter. Then I can figure out if there's something wrong with the carburetor.

[00:01:45]And then uh this one over here I didn't get back till 11 11:30 maybe.

[00:01:59]This one over here had a similar problem.

[00:02:04]It uh this safety switch, the PTO safety switch uh was unplugged. So I just had to plug that one back in. And it's it's turning over now. This one actually does turn over.

[00:02:20]But man, it backfires really bad. So, oh, I had to go get in touch with the customer. Of course, it's Sunday.

[00:02:30]So, I text messaged him and told him, you know, there's several things wrong with this. It's missing the air filter housing, so it's sucking in dirt. The PTO cable. I saw a broken PTO cable yesterday.

[00:02:44]I showed it to you. I don't know where it's at right now. It's stuck somewhere down in here. And uh so I thought that was broke.

[00:02:52]And then what else is there? And then the backfiring this mess.

[00:03:00]It's not the right air fuel filter.

[00:03:04]So I messaged him and he says, "Well, how much would it He piece meal his his replies. I wrote a very long professional message. And he he peacemiled it back.

[00:03:18]So he says, uh, you know, let's just keep this thing under $300 $400 somewhere around there and go ahead and service it and see if we can figure out what's wrong with the valves. And so it turned out that this was a pretty good customer. I was pretty happy. I thought it was going to be like uh he doesn't want to pay anything, but he wants the whole thing fixed. And yeah, based on the text messages, the text messages I was not getting a good feeling about fireworks.

[00:03:47]But uh once we had a phone call, I felt a lot better.

[00:03:51]So this one won't be too bad. I'll just service it. He wants me to get a new belt for it. He wants me to check the brake.

[00:04:00]So feeling I'm feeling pretty good about this one.

[00:04:06]So, there's two mowers. And then I had a Hooks Varna here. And oh, that's just a shame. It's only 10 years old. Only had a few hundred hours on it. It was It was a really nice mower, but he ran it low on oil. Yesterday, I pulled the dipstick on camera. And I didn't look at it very closely.

[00:04:27]Well, maybe I did. I don't remember.

[00:04:29]Now, I'm sitting here thinking about it.

[00:04:30]I'm sitting here thinking, you know what? that didn't have any oil in it when I when we were on video. I don't remember. Regardless, it was very low on oil.

[00:04:41]Maybe it was this one was low on oil. It doesn't matter.

[00:04:46]So, I added probably a quart of oil to that.

[00:04:50]And I started it and he says it run for a while, then when you shut it off, it won't start again.

[00:04:57]Well, I was sitting in the house while it was running. I heard the tone difference. It was running really a lot louder and then it softened up. It was clear it went down on a cylinder. It's two. It was a twocylinder. It went down.

[00:05:10]So I came out, checked the spark on both both spark plugs. The left spark plug was sporadic. It was not a good solid strong spark. This side was a good spark. So I just assumed it was going to need ignition coil. So, I pulled the uh spark plug off and it died. Well, that didn't make sense because I figured that was a bad cylinder. So, that means the other side was a bad cylinder. So, I plugged that one back in, came over here, unplugged this one, and it started up.

[00:05:45]But I forgot to tell you something. When I shut it off, when I shut the mower off when it died, the muffler caught fire.

[00:05:51]So much oil had run down into it when I shut it off that it caught fire.

[00:05:57]So anyway, I checked this side. It had nothing. There was no compression on this side. The other side was the only side that was working. The weak spark side was the only side working.

[00:06:09]So what happened was is he ran it so low on oil that it overheated. Oil on these air cooled engines is a major coolant factor. You got to have all your oil in it. If you're running it low on oil, you're reducing the amount of cooling just like your antifreeze in your car.

[00:06:28]So, uh, he overheated it and warped that head really bad. And I told him I could repair it, but with it having ran so low on oil, who knows what else is wrong with it. I mean, we know the ignition coil is bad.

[00:06:44]It overheated. That's obvious.

[00:06:48]So, we were going to replace the ignition coil, the head. It could run for a week and then all a sudden something else goes wrong. Connecting rod bearing goes out. Who knows?

[00:06:58]So, he decided he wanted to buy a new mower. So, that means, you know, since I don't charge the diagnostic fee that, you know, I wasn't going to get paid for that one. So, I was a little disappointed, but he gave me uh my hourly rate. I didn't even ask for it. I didn't tell him what my hourly rate was.

[00:07:15]He but he just looked out and that's what he gave me.

[00:07:18]So I thought that was great.

[00:07:24]Well, so I like I said, business starting rolling. And then just a few minutes ago, this is a repeat customer. He has been This Moore has been here before and he doesn't follow my instructions, of course, and I raz him about it.

[00:07:41]But uh last year I put a shut off on valve on it because this this is that last year was the second time it was here.

[00:07:50]So put a shut off valve on it, but he didn't use it. So the carburetor's dirty again and it's leaking oil for some reason. I got to figure that out.

[00:08:02]That doesn't make sense.

[00:08:07]I wonder if it's low on oil. everything else has been today.

[00:08:12]So, that's a that'd be a nice little, you know, that's easy money there.

[00:08:16]There's no there's no part cost to that.

[00:08:23]So, I like these carburetor cleanings.

[00:08:29]I don't understand where the oil is coming from.

[00:08:34]New air filter.

[00:08:56]So, I don't know what else is going on today. There's not a lot going on.

[00:09:02]Oh, that fell off again.

[00:09:05]So, a truck just drove by with a CubCadet on the trailer.

[00:09:09]Oops. Sorry. So, I wonder if that means that I got another customer coming that I didn't even realize was coming on a Sunday afternoon on Memorial Day weekend on my only day off. I can bet you that's what it is.

[00:09:29]Or is it the neighbor? Look like neighbor's truck.

[00:09:34]might be the neighbor.

[00:09:36]Guess I ought to go up there and take a look.

[00:09:56]Well, I don't see him.

[00:10:05]beast is getting a workout. I think I said that in yesterday's video.

[00:10:12]I'm a little worried. I don't know who that was.

[00:10:20]You know, I don't know how strange this is. I mean that that guy, he's a good customer for the Pushmore and uh he lives in Kansas City, but he has a second house down here.

[00:10:33]And he says, "Uh, do you got a battery charger I can borrow?"

[00:10:37]Well, I only got the one for the solar pan, you know, the batteries for the solar system.

[00:10:42]So, uh, I said, "Yeah." Well, no, he says you got a battery charger. I said, "Yeah." He says, "Uh, can I borrow it?"

[00:10:51]I said, 'Well, yeah, but you got to have it back here by 7:00 p.m. because if it's not here at 7:00, I you know, I have no way to top off my batteries before I go to bed. I like to make sure they're topped off before I go to bed.

[00:11:03]So, he promised he would be right back.

[00:11:05]He just wants to get his truck or his tractor started.

[00:11:10]So, that's strange. People come around here all the time asking for tools.

[00:11:15]It's total str. Now, the only reason I gave it to him is cuz he's a pretty good customer and I I kind of trust him. I mean, he's very good to me online. Every time I post online, you know, something about the lawnmower repair, he is always there. Yeah, he's great and all that stuff. So, I trust him and he never complains about pain. Those are great customers. So, uh, but I had a total stranger come up the other day. He just pulled into he says, "Uh, I'm working on, uh, my grandmother or somebody's cupcadet and I'm trying to get the carburetor solenoid off." Of course, he didn't know what it was, so he explained it to me. This little thing on the bottom of the carburetor has wires running into it. He says, "Uh, I don't know how to get that off. Do you got a tool I can borrow?"

[00:12:06]No, I'm not going to let you borrow my tools. I mean, all you got to do is get a half inch wrench and grind it the the sides down on the open end and it'll slide in there to to fit in. So, I told him that's what it could do. But, you know, why would I give out tools? I mean, you can buy a specially designed tool, but of course you can make one. I don't understand that. Coming up to a total stranger who relies on tools for his livelihood, being asked to borrow a tool. Why would I think that you're going to bring it back? And the thing is is I'm sure some people wouldn't bring it back. So, all very strange to me. A lot of voices going on.

[00:12:50]I don't know what that's all about.

[00:12:52]So, but it's getting late in the afternoon. So, I think I'm going to jump off of here. So, if you'll click this up next box to take the video over to my other channel. It's a brand new video day. I really appreciate it. Go check it out. So, I hope this video inspires you.

[00:13:02]I don't know. Stay busy when your season comes around so you can live your dreams.