Recent content by GrumpyCat

I’ve always parked my mowers with E10 in the unheated garage for the winter. Always started easy next spring. The Honda engine is the only one I did anything special for. Carburetor needed to be run dry to restart in 2 weeks or 4 months. Gas in tank was fine. E10 in my zero-turn is about 6...

With ethanol the initial water will stay in suspension, not at the bottom of the tank. Water in suspension leans the mixture and affects your state of tune. Pumps take fuel from the bottom also too. I want oil in my engine during storage. If moisture gets in I want it captured by the oil not...

Can use “good fuel” until one is blue in the face and still have problems. There is the matter of handling the gas can. There is the matter of the design of the mower and it’s gas cap. Bought Snapper 21” “Ninja” mulcher about 2013. B&S engine. Horrible quarter turn gas cap on a...

You know every shade tree mechanic “knows” bearing companies skimp on grease. Or maybe NTN, Timken, SKF, NSK, etc know more about their product than you? They are not going to save 0.1% to make their products fail early just to sell replacements, their reputation depends on long service life...

Cheapest solution would be to sell the 60” and use the funds to buy something smaller. Or learn to use the foot pedal to lift the deck momentarily.

About 30 years ago I had a 4.5 or 5 hp Kawasaki with that problem. Every 3 years it would quit running. Plug would spark outside the combustion chamber so I initially thought it not the problem. After cleaning the spotless carburetor (no luck) tried a new NGK spark plug and it fired right up...

A split-beam torque wrench will not drift if left set. No more than the bending beam Craftsman pictured.

If buying new I recommend a 42” Bad Boy with Kawasaki engine. Some box stores carry Bad Boy with B&S engines. I recommend against. I don’t think a 42” ZTR will be too big for 1/2 acre if you can get through gates.

The steel tube backbone models only. Not the new stamped steel chassis. Not really. IIRC RER decks start at 30”.

The biggest problem with those is how users will over torque the plastic 10mm drain thing. The way it is designed, tighter will not seal any better than simply closed.

Contact a certified Kawasaki repair shop. There was a recall on a production lot for improperly cut threads on drain. Kawasaki replaced customer’s lower crankcase casting where the drain is located. No HeliCoil hacks. Job done right. If yours is one of the bad lot you should get a free repair...

Split beam torque wrenches do not have to be dialed back to zero. There is no benefit unless it makes you sleep better. Clicks when the set torque has been reached.

Yes, that is a flex beam. A split beam is click-to-torque value.

Split beam is torque to click.

My go-to torque wrenches are an old Craftsman flex beam, and a couple modern Tekton split beam. The split beam is wonderful in that it can be put away with a torque still dialed in. It doesn’t preload a spring.