Doug Warner

So a couple weeks ago I told you about some problems (I created) with our lawn mower. Unfortunately, things have gotten worse.

Well, I guess it didn't have far to go from "potentially dead" to "dead", so it's not too surprising.

My father-in-law was able to get the mower running last week after I broke it, so I was hopeful that I might get another year or two out of it. That hope was killed quickly when I started the mower up yesterday morning.

I started the mower, and a ton of smoke poured out - that was expected. What wasn't expected was the really bad knocking. I decided to try it out anyway and made about half a trip around the house when it suddenly stopped with a "klunk".

"Okay, I hit something," I thought. Pushed it back to the garage (the starter is was still being a pain) and took the starter of to shim it better, and "Oh - that's not fixable." I saw a nice crack in the block.

It wasn't leaking oil very badly, so my Dad and I pushed it into the shed to deal with it later while I push-mowed the yard. Came back to drain the oil and found that most had already drained out of a supposed crack in the bottom of the block.

So, the mower is definitely shot (despite my Dad suggesting that I could get it welded - I think I've had it with this mower for now).

I'm looking for a replacement, but I'm not sure what type of replacement. I wasn't really sold on getting a riding mower to begin with since I'm used to push-mowing about a half-acre and can do our 1/3-acre lot in a little over an hour -- the riding mower wasn't a very big time saver. I'm considering a larger and self-powered push-mower; does anyone have any experience with the newer models and how well they do? The biggest reason we got the riding mower was to make mowing easier for Tiff to do, so it would have to accomplish that (ie, it wouldn't be able to make her keep up with it if it were a self-propelled). Thoughts?

Tiff and I bought a riding mower last summer. We both knew it was going to drastically reduce the amount of work we had to do to keep the lawn looking decent (it's not possible to make our lawn look nice).

Three weeks ago I was mowing the lawn and the mower shut off on me. This didn't surprise me too much at the time; we had just replaced the battery a couple weeks before that and I was kind-of suspecting that the alternator was bad. I assumed the battery had died and there wasn't any spark left. After a fun time pushing it to the shed, I put it on the charger and finished mowing with the push-mower.

The next week I tried to start it - no go. I took the cover off the starter and noticed the gear was fully engaged. I didn't have time to work on it then so I push-mowed the lawn again.

Last week my Dad came by and pulled the starter off. He cleaned it up, it seemed to work fine, but it still wouldn't crank the mower. He took it into town to have a guy look at it.

Got the starter back today (there weren't any problems with it) and put it on, and the mower still wouldn't turn. Hmm. Wouldn't turn. As in, the starter can't turn the flywheel.

I check the oil, and there's just a tad bit at the bottom.

So, the current assumption is that the engine is seized. That pretty much means that its shot. Not a great feeling.

Of course, everyone knows to check the oil. My only excuses (which don't help me feel much better) are:

1. I've had a super-cheap push-mower for 4 years and have never had to add any oil to it (yes, I actually check it).
2. This mower didn't give me any indication it was burning oil or that it was low on oil.
3. I've never owned a riding mower before.
4. I'm not the only one who uses it.

Like I said, not very good excuses.

So, I hear Briggs & Stratton engines are kinda tough...