lawnmower maintenance?

[Miss Mary]

Is it difficult to do yourself?

Reason I ask is we haven't had the lawn mower blade sharpened in 2 years (although I hardly cut grass last year, we had a severe drought).

And I did a dumb thing - went to cut this season and started to add a little oil (slightly low). I added 2 cycle instead of 4. Just a tablespoon. So we can't run it. It has to be drained.

All the shops in our area are running 3 weeks behind right now. One shop booked me, said they'd pick up the mower on Tuesday, they didn't show, so on good faith I put it out again on Wednesday. No show again. They won't even answer their phone.

Meanwhile I'm paying a neighborhood kid to cut each time but that's adding up.

I'm so frustrated I think my husband and I should just drain the darn thing ourselves. But how hard is it to sharpen a blade? One website I went to said you could replace the blade (it is 8 years old now).

All I want is a working mower, with the correct oil in it. At this point, I'd take it with a dull blade....LOL, I know it's not good, long term for the lawn....

Appreciate any answers. Back in the day when my dad took care of our home, he did it all - and I mean it all. Even built our house! But neither of us have ever done this type of work. It can't be all that difficult....

[CajunMama]

MissMary, i'd go ahead and get a new blade but keep your old one and sharpen it. We do that so we always have a sharpened blade. As for the oil....can't help you with that. Would a tbsp. of that oil make that much of a difference?

[Miss Mary]

Yes, apparently 1 tablespoon would. I knew the color was different (4 stroke/cycle is black, 2 is blue or green)......

I've done 2 dumb things this week...ugh. The wrong oil was the first and signing the wrong credit card was the second. Yes, I signed my hubby's card.....and yes the bank is sending two new cards, but they'll take 7 to 10 days to get here. I can't believe I just signed away....without looking!

The oil and signature - are my two dumb-dumb things.....I know things come in threes and I've been trying to find the third! LOL

Hubby has already said we can change the oil ourselves. I'm looking for the manual right now (well, when I log off.....).

I think I need sleep or something.....he he Running on empty lately!

Good idea about the second blade! I'll mention it to hubby...

[Jack8631]

Miss Mary, changing the oil in a lawnmower that takes 4 cycle is pretty easy. Just pop the oil cap, flip it on it's side (I use a brick propped under mine to increase the flow angle and thus remove more oil faster), but make sure there isn't any gas in the machine. If there is fuel in the lawnmower and you tilt it at a sharp angle, you might get gas (so to speak ) in places you don't really need it. . For routine maintenance, I run mine out of gas before changing the oil.

While you have the mower on it's side, take that opportunity for a nice cleaning underneath...

I agree with having a backup blade. As for sharpening, you have to be careful that the blade remains balanced. I send my spare off with a friend that has better tooling than myself.

For safety, pull the boot off the spark plug before you start..

[Miss Mary]

Thanks!

Trouble is I filled the gas tank right before I put the wrong oil in it. So it has a full tank. One of our friends said we could run it with mostly 4 cycle, with a small amount of 2 cycle, which I accidentally put in. I don't want to ruin the engine though. We're just going to do this quickly and close that gas cap tightly. I'll have a roll of paper towels nearby too. I clean underneath on a regular basis so I'm used to doing that messy chore. If you keep up with it, it's not so bad and the mower doesn't bog down with caked on grass.

One more shop called me back tonight, they're 2 weeks behind schedule.

So we are going to do this ourselves. Hoping to pick up the blade tomorrow, new oil and an oil pan. If it doesn't rain, I might be cutting the grass by dinner time!

Thanks again everyone.

[Ed Mahmoud]

Call me crazy, but I have been using Texaco Havoline motor oil, a remnant of when I had a Buick that burned a little oil (not bad though, for 120,000 miles) in both my weed-whacker and mower. The weed-whacker calls for a mix of oil and gasoline, a little oil, a lot of gas, the mower has a separate tank.



And they've both been running pretty well for 3 years. I probably do need my blade sharpened.



But so far, 5W-30 hasn't seemed to hurt anything.

[Miss Mary]

Here's the plan - heading to Honda today for a replacement blade and changing the oil ourselves.

I think if we manage this job just fine, we will be doing our own maintenance from now on (take that, to the first shop I booked a service with but they never picked up the mower, they had a total of 20 hours to do so! Mower sat in my driveway two days in a row, for 10 hours each)......I feel like reporting them to the Better Business Bureau. The other shops I talked to were at least honest - they're overbooked right now. I appreciate honesty like that!

Only job we'd have done would be to have the spare blade sharpened and sitting on a garage shelf, ready for the swap next time.

My dad passed away 20 years ago but I know he did all of this himself. He wouldn't have considered hiring this job out.

Oh, we'll have to figure out where to have the oil recycled but that's about it.

I might be firing up this mower by 7 tonight! If all goes as planned.

*Edit* - new blades (two, since it's a mulching mower) and oil was under $30. Found out my local Honda dealer offers mower service too. They charge $65 an hour in labor, plus parts. Offering pick up and delivery. Sounds a little steep but at least we have that option should we ever need it. I do think we'll be taking care of the mower ourselves from now on.

[Jack8631]

Good luck, Miss Mary! You shouldn't have too much trouble finding a free oil recycling center near you. Advance Auto Parts and several other auto part stores serve the community in this manner.

Now, off to cut my grass!