Good morning!!!!

   / Good morning!!!! #168,581  
43F with alternating sun and clouds @ 13:00, Woman said that we were having that snow mixed with rain a little bit ago.

Currently under a Freeze Warning for tonight, calling for a low of 31F.

Dogwoods and Hawthorns have joined the Redbud and Magnolia in the Spring Bloom Parade.

Made good progress up in the shop yesterday.

Got all of the metal pieces/parts I had soaking in the vinegar bath scrubbed off and rinsed:

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Used a small fine-bristle stainless steel brush by hand while they were still wet.

After that I stuck them in the vise and hit them with a wire cup brush I had in the old slide-switch Harbor Freight angle grinder that I was running at half speed (so it wouldn't throw wires):

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Managed to crater the gearbox on it (orange one in pic below) while I was doing that, think it was over 20 years old ... so I can't complain too much:

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I'm less happy about the dark blue one ... think it's the 2nd one of those and is considerably newer ... but it's about to launch as well:

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Meanwhile, the old Milwaukee just keeps on ticking ... albeit somewhat noisily (knock on wood ...🤞)

All in all, the clean up turned out fairly well:

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Last thing I did before knocking off just before 01:00 for the night was to cut a piece of steel to resolve the "no full swivel" issue on the caster and stick in the tub for descaling. Will clean that one up today.

UPS delivered the shoulder bolts and self-locking nuts from McMaster for the wheels a little bit ago so I'll start working on getting all the holes drilled (10 of them I think), do a minor bit of additional trimming, and probably lay out the parts and start tacking things up later today.

Woman headed off for an appointment @ the Eye Doctor's here in a little bit ... so I'll be able to sneak up without any complaints from The Shop Widow ... ;)

Hope everyone is having a great Monday ... (y)
 
   / Good morning!!!! #168,582  
daugen said:
success with the Gravely.
not sure I can blame it totally on this but when inspecting the pack of four new
Champion plugs I bought, I noticed two of them were way misgapped, very tight like something had wacked on to the end of them.
So I found the two new ones that were gapped properly, and put them in.
Started immediately.
but did not purr.
some popping and burbling, I think more than usual.
probably due to lack of use and maybe some gumminess in carb jets. Vanguard 23 twin
or perhaps 25...I think that chrome exhaust tip has to add at least two horsepower.

my cheapo spark plug gap setter, from Craftsman by way of northern Mongolia, could not fix the two since the gap was about .15, too low for the beginning opening.
Need to secure them and pry apart, well not pry, am sure that's not good on center electrode. Set those two aside to give to my favorite mechanic.

I was fooled, first one I inspected looked perfect so one right next to it must be right too?... So I didn't check the gap on the second one and it was almost flat.
Click to expand...
I find my pocket knife is good to start a plug gap.
 
   / Good morning!!!! #168,588  
Finished the service on the ZD lawn mower. One of the blades was bent almost a 1/4 inch so replaced it and sharpened and balanced them. Replaced the 6 cupped washers since the cupping was out of the old ones and replaced one of the cans covering the spindle,


The ZD's are not built for service for sure. Grease nipples are hard to get to and draining the power deck gearbox is a pain because you can not hold a container under the plug. Found the vacuum suction gizmo and used that instead. The fuel filters are just poorly positioned and have to dismantle and take battery etc out. Calibrated the Milwaukee torque impact and found it to be close to the required torque at the second position with two lights showing. So not planning to use the torque wrench next time. The transmission oil did not need to be changed for another 200 hrs only one of the filters was due for change.

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