Why, yes, I had to do more repairs over the last few days.
First is our standup freezer. A couple weeks ago it gave me an alert that it was at a high temp. So, I tried to figure out what was going on. I really hoped it wasn’t going bad since it has a lot of food in it. I looked around at it, but I figured it needed to start taking stuff out and take it apart. I can’t get to the plug for it so I turned off the breaker at first to the area. I cleared off the top of it, and was ready to unload it, but then I realized that I couldn’t see anything since the breaker was off. So, I turned it back on, and low and behold the freezer was working again. I figured something just needed a reset. But then a couple days later the same alert was there. I opened and closed the door and it reset and started up. So over the next few days I paid attention to whether it was running or not, and if it wasn’t I would hit the door near the control board, and then it would start up. After some research online I found out that the control board sometimes goes bad. So, I ordered one up, got it, and 5 minutes later it was installed and no issues since. So, that is now the easiest fix I think I have ever done.
But not all fixes are that easy.
The other fix was on my lawn mower. I was mowing my lawn last weekend and I got about a third of it done when the mower just stopped running. I didn’t have time to work on it right then so I put it away. I did work on it that afternoon, and I took the carburetor all apart. I assumed it was a gas flow issue. So i cleaned things out, and while doing all that I broke a plastic part (you can see it there on the ground):
That part is the auto choke assembly. It is pretty important for this mower, but not something you can just go and get anywhere. I had to order one online and wait for it to show.
I got one a couple days later and put it all back together, and it ran for about 5 minutes and died again. CRAP! So, I took the carb apart again and cleaned it out again with cleaner. Put it all back together, and no go, as soon as I tried to get the blade to spin it would die. At that point I figured it was related to the electronics that control the auto stop on the blade. I called my dad and talked to him about it too and he thought that seemed pretty likely. So, I spent a couple hours trying to diagnose that, and finally was at the point where I was going to try and take that out and trick it into running without that feature. I did get it to run that wait, but I was going to have to do some other things to get it to work all the time like that. I didn’t like that fix so I started looking at the wiring and found that the bag is required to be installed on the mower for the blade to spin. There is a electronic kill on the motor if you try and spin the blade without a bag on it. Learned something new.
So, with the bag on it seemed to work, so I went to mow again, and it worked for 5 minutes and then died. CRAP! So, I took the carb apart again, cleaned it again, and tried again, and it ran for a couple minutes. At this point it was clearly a gas/fuel mixture issues. I could see that the air intake butterfly was wide open. I got online and found that the butterfly should be wide open when it is hot, which it was. But the person in that video pointed out a screw on the carb that has a jet under it that you can only access if you take that screw out. I hadn’t done that yet, and so I took it all apart (again) and took that screw out and blew cleaner and air through that jet as well.
*NOTE – jets in carbs control the amount of gas that flows through the carb.
Put it all back together and… it worked for about 5 minutes, because I was then done mowing my lawn. So, I am not sure I have it fixed yet. I didn’t see the need to keep it running and wasting gas to mow nothing since I will have to mow again in a week or two. But I am going to claim that as a fix for the moment.
**NOTE – while it wasn’t working I investigated electric mowers. The truth is, I was ready to buy one if this last fix wouldn’t have taken that day, and I am still ready to buy one if the mower doesn’t work the next time I go out. I know there are downsides to electric mowers – less than an hour before the battery is dead – but my yard is pretty small and so I think an hour is plenty of time, or I can just buy 2 batteries.