Good test, tractor trouble
So I had my testosterone blood test results emailed to me last night. It took me a few seconds until I could find the pertinent info. I had mixed feelings when I saw my number of 684 with a free count of 10.5. It means that my testosterone numbers are in the good range which I was glad to see. At the same time it means that my poor state of mind is not tied into my levels which just leads to more questions.
So my plan for last night was to repair the Cub Cadet mower deck and get the grass mowed since I was going to be working on Saturday. The parts I needed had showed up a couple days ago. The repair should have been pretty straight forward. All I needed to do was replace two ball bearings on the center pulley and put everything back together.
The first ball bearing went into the pulley easily, the second one did not, the hole appeared too small. When I looked closely at the hole I realized what happened. This was the end of the pulley that had the bearing that disintegrated. The guts of the bearing had fallen out into my hand when I first took it apart, however the outer casing of the bearing was still in place.
A quick tug on the casing did nothing so I brought out the hammer and screwdriver. I hoped I could drive the casing out from behind. Well I banged on that thing forever and it didn’t budge a millimeter. Evidently as the bearing failed, the heat that was generated effectively welded the casing to the pulley.
I was extremely frustrated. It seems pretty much anytime I take on a tractor repair it doesn’t go as planned. Now I was shit out of luck until I ordered a new center pulley ($50). Grrrr.
My neighbor across the street was out buzzing around his yard on his monster 60″ zero turn Gravely. I asked him if I could borrow the mower to get my grass done. I had used it once before. He said , sure, no problem.
After a quick refresher on the operation of the mower I was off and cutting, quickly. This thing is a beast. The 26 HP motor doesn’t cut grass, it destroys it. I would go through thick and tall St Augustine grass like nothing, the motor never slowed down one second. The cut grass was catapulted out the exit chute a good 10-15 feet.
There are some dangers with using something this big and powerful in a yard that has a number of areas with slopes and various obstacles to be carefully navigated around.
The Gravely has two MASSIVE rear tires that look like they would be suitable for a top fuel dragster. They way it turns is by independently changing the speeds on these two monster tires. Well when you try to turn, especially on a hill it is extremely easy to rip up the ground under you. I left a number of small divots in the yard as a result. The extra wide 60″ mowing deck also results in scalping problems as you go over small undulations in the lawn.
Steering on the Gravely is touchy as well. Just like the first time I used it, I plowed into another landscape feature when I unintentionally surged forward instead of going right. Even with these warts it didn’t take away from the enjoyment of being in control of massive amounts of grass annihilating power. Mowing with this thing feels like trimming your nose hair with a hedge trimmer.
So after finishing up I pulled the Gravely in front of the garage and turned it off. I wanted to get out my leaf blower to blast all of the grass clippings off it as well as gas it up, it was the least I could do. When I was finished I hopped back on and turned the key and just got a “click”. Hmm I figured I had one of the interlock’s not set right. I verified the parking brake was on, deck was turned off and tried again, click….. WTF, I thought to myself, did the battery just die? I screwed with it for a good 10 minutes with no luck until I called my neighbor.
He was pretty sure it was just some interlock that wasn’t set right as I thought. However after he double and triple checked everything and had the same results I did we were both baffled. I brought my truck over and connected jumper cables to the tractor battery to see if the battery just happened to take a shit. The Gravely still just clicked.
My neighbor and I were all over the thing, looking for some simple reason that the mower which had just finished 90 minutes of flawless mowing was now dead as a door nail. We looked at it past sunset, using a flashlight to continue the examination. It revealed nothing.
Initially we just pushed the tractor to the side of my driveway and left it there. The neighbor said he would call the dealer and describe the problem the next day. He said he wasn’t sure where his manual for the mower was.
I apologized to him for returning a dead mower although I hadn’t knowingly done anything to cause the issue. He knew it was just one of those things, shit happens. I still felt bad regardless. Later in the night I found the manual for the mower online which included instructions on how to release the transmissions so it can be easily be pushed. I called my neighbor back and we pushed the mower inside his gated property. At least we didn’t have to worry about a criminal landscaper trying to make off with it.
I am interested in what the final remedy is of course.