Us versus the Lawn Mower

Our lawn is hideous. It is shaggy and ugly. All summer we paid a neighbor to cut it for us and we rarely touched the second hand mower we bought last year. I stopped paying the neighbor for 2 reasons. 1. We were broke and couldn't afford it. 2. He was tired of mowing our lawn.

For the past few weeks, I have been pulling the mower out of the garage and have been trying to start it to no avail. I even checked out Sears and Home Depot for clearance Lawn Mowers. Funny, the lawn mowers aren't on sale yet.

Today I got serious with a TON of help from my dad via the telephone. I replaced the air filter, topped up the oil, sprayed some starter fluid and even replaced our practically new spark plug. This required a trip to Home Depot and the car parts store.

We could get the thing started, but it wouldn't stay running for more than 2 seconds. Thanks to the help from my Dad, we decided that it was the fuel line. It probably clogged because the fuel I used was not stabilized. There should be a warning to NEVER USE UNSTABILIZED GASOLINE in the mower.

I called the lawnmower repair guy but he wasn't doing repairs until spring.

I Googled some stuff like "unclog fuel line in my lawnmower". I learned that the carburetor is part of the fuel system in my lawn mower. Can I find the carburetor? I found the air filter! What if I break the lawn mower? I am considering buying a new mower anyway!


What the heck. I went for it. I disassembled the mower and then Nick had to make another trip to Auto Zone for carburetor cleaner. By the time I got the mower put back together, it was pitch black. Unfortunately, I STILL couldn't attempt to start the thing because I had no gasoline. Unclogging the fuel line requires you to drain the gas tank. That gas was skunky anyway.

So. . . one more trip. This time to the gas station. I added stabilizer (I can't emphasize enough how important this is). I filled the tank and the mower started in my driveway in the pitch black of night. It was only 7:30pm, but it seemed like the middle of the night.

I would like to thank Nick for his patience and tolerance for my love of fixing stuff. Nick doesn't care about lawn mowers and he is man enough to admit it. I would like to thank the weather for being nice. I would like to thank most of all, my Dad. He put up with all 400 of my telephone calls. That is what Dads are for. You are the best!

I conquered a carburetor! Hooray!

Yes, I am completely insane for attempting this. I think this is up there with when I deleted Microsoft Office by hand. I still have nightmares about Registry Keys (whatever the heck they are). This does not top the craziest thing I ever did which was deciding to raise a human child. She is still alive so I guess I can do anything!