Yesterday morning started out with the little boy in tears because his little electric powered Gator wouldn’t run. After a bit of messin’ ‘round and disassembly I determined one of the drive motors was bad. Some further disassembly and I had the motor in my hand. The darn thing ain’t designed to be “fixed”, a totally sealed unit. I looked at the boy and told him I couldn’t fix it… he looked as though someone had doused him with a bucket of cold water (dad can fix anything) and that’s when the tears started. OK… OK… I’ll try something… and I put the grinder to the crimps holding the brush retainer on. I managed to get the thing apart without destroying it, filed and cleaned the commentator, lubed the bearings, realigned the brushes, and somehow got the thing back together. I wasn’t holding on to much hope, but… It worked! But now I’d lost half the morning that I had planned to use for splitting wood… and it was already getting hot.
After dragging the splitter into the woodlot I came back for the trailer… and discovered the flat tire. Lost another hour or so foolin’ with that. Finally… ready to split wood. I got maybe half the trailer filled when the splitter made a terrible noise… and quit running. When I go to pull the rope… NO COMPRESION! Now I’m cussin’ like a drunkin’ sailor, throwing and kicking stuff… and sweatin’ in 90-plus degree heat. Hauled it up to the shop and pulled it apart; the strew holding the choke plate on had fallen out, been sucked into the engine, and got between the intake valve and head… bent the intake valve. I managed to straighten the valve (good enough) so it would seal and reassembled the engine. Found a screw for the choke plate and decided to use a bit of Lock-Tite on it… Ya’ know, some days it just don’t pay to get out’a bed… the damn bottle of Lock-Tite exploded (don’t ask) all over the carb, filling the inside of it. What a royal mess… I spent the next 4 hours cleaning that stuff from all the ports and passages. It was darn near 7:00 PM before I had the splitter running again.
I skipped supper and drank a box-o-beer instead… and there’s still a half load of splits in the trailer I never did unload.
After dragging the splitter into the woodlot I came back for the trailer… and discovered the flat tire. Lost another hour or so foolin’ with that. Finally… ready to split wood. I got maybe half the trailer filled when the splitter made a terrible noise… and quit running. When I go to pull the rope… NO COMPRESION! Now I’m cussin’ like a drunkin’ sailor, throwing and kicking stuff… and sweatin’ in 90-plus degree heat. Hauled it up to the shop and pulled it apart; the strew holding the choke plate on had fallen out, been sucked into the engine, and got between the intake valve and head… bent the intake valve. I managed to straighten the valve (good enough) so it would seal and reassembled the engine. Found a screw for the choke plate and decided to use a bit of Lock-Tite on it… Ya’ know, some days it just don’t pay to get out’a bed… the damn bottle of Lock-Tite exploded (don’t ask) all over the carb, filling the inside of it. What a royal mess… I spent the next 4 hours cleaning that stuff from all the ports and passages. It was darn near 7:00 PM before I had the splitter running again.
I skipped supper and drank a box-o-beer instead… and there’s still a half load of splits in the trailer I never did unload.
