Making More Room In The Shed

 Now that I have an automower taking care of my grass cutting chores I feel its time to get rid of my little rear engine rider. Sure I could keep it around for doing Forrest Gump impersonations while grinding up leaves but I have a bagger push mower that will work better for that chore. A big sale at work next week will be a good opportunity to try to peddle it because I need to raise some cash to pay up a bet my wife insists she won. She says our garbage can is one color and I say its another. She thinks she is right just because everyone she asks about the color agrees with her. I feel a need to pay up and just get this over with, even though in my mind I know its green, not grey...or at least the old can was green. Anyway, the problem with selling it is that it leaks engine oil worse than an old harley. I can't just pressure wash it and hope for the best because the leak reveals itself as soon as you start the engine. For the longest time I just assumed the leak was the sump gasket but today when I pulled it from the shed there was a huge puddle under it and no oil at all in the crankcase. The problem must be the lower crank seal.
 I pushed the machine from the shed to the garage where I could better work on it.

 Nothing has been fixed in this garage in a long time. I was looking forward to some quiet wrenching.

 Initially I was prepared to yank the engine and all of the associated bull that went along with that. After taking a closer look I discovered this was gonna be an easier job than I thought. I pulled the mower deck, one rear wheel and the crank pulley.

 What I found was a huge mess except where the seal was leaking, That area was washed clean from all the oil flow.

 Of all the gaskets, seals and o-rings I bought for this repair, I only used this crank seal. The old one came out too easily and the new one pressed in just about right. In a couple days I'll know if the repair was a success.

 It really was a simple job and this is all the tools I needed. Now I feel the need to get into another project. I suppose I should get back into learning how to use that airbrush and get the sporty painted. I'll keep you posted.

Later.