Archive for October, 2007

Lawnmower Maintenance – Before You Put It Away For The Winter

It is easy to just put the old lawnmower away after the mowing season and forget about it until next spring, part of that may be from you being glad to be done with it for a few months, but before you put the lawnmower away you should do some basic maintenance procedures first.

1) The engine should be cleaned of all of the cut grass that has accumulated in the cooling fins of the engine. First step is to take off the top cover, the one with the pull cord in it and expose the cylinder cooling fins. Once the fins are exposed you should see cooling fins surrounding the whole cylinder and head. The grass cuttings usually accumulate around the curved section of the cooling fins as they go behind a cover between the engine and the carburetor. Just take a garden hose and push the grass cuttings out using water pressure. When you spray the coarse stream of water into the fins the debris should come out on the bottom of the engine.

Once the debris is out of the cooling fins the next step is to clean under the cover that was on the engine over the cooling fins.

2) Wash and scrape the dried grass cuttings from all around the machine so they don't cause rust to form during the winter. Be extra careful to remove the spark plug wire before starting any of the work.

3) After everything has been washed and cleaned you will have to leave it apart for a while so it can dry thoroughly. When everything has dried reassemble the engine and start it and let it run until it gets warm that way you can be sure that all of the water has either dried by air or the heat from the engine.

4) After the engine has cooled remove the spark plug and squirt some Marvel Mystery Oil into the cylinder and turn the shaft a few times to spread it around. Reinstall the spark plug.

5) Store the lawn mower somewhere where it will stay dry, if at all possible, so rust doesn't attack the metallic parts.
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Bob Crane is the author of http://www.americanwrenches.com - a site that helps many find tools they need for their projects.

Polaris 360 Won’t Move Forward

After two years of constant use my Polaris 360 just stopped moving. We had recently had a storm and the swimming pool bottom was covered with debris from the trees. The Polaris had been running around the bottom of the pool around thirty minutes before with no problem now it had just stopped. I checked the obvious things, such as, the screen on the inlet hose and it was clear and the water pressure was up to where it should be.

I decided to pull the 360 out of the water and investigate the problem further. As soon as I got it out the problem was obvious. Both wheels on the right side were jammed solid the single wheel move somewhat but there was definitely a resistance on it keeping it from turning smoothly. I removed the top of the Polaris 360 and found that the main drive belt had stretched and slipped off of the pulley. It somehow wrapped itself up around the drive gears jamming them.

All I had to do was replace the belt and it has been working fine ever since. The procedure for replacing the belt is tricky only because you have to remove the wheels from the axle and then slip the axle out to be able to get the old belt out. Installing the new belt is exactly the reverse order of removing the old one.

While you have the Polaris 360 apart it would be a good time to check the wheel bearings for wear. If they show signs of wear and look like they want to separate they should be replaced as well. As the wheel bearings wear out the race that holds the balls in place will slide out and allow the ball bearings to come out in the pool.

There is one more reason that the Polaris 360 will stop moving forward and it has to do with the water jet that turns the impeller that moves the Polaris. The water jet can become clogged if there is no filter in the hose that feeds the Polaris. If a large piece of debris gets into the water jet and can't fit through the jet and be washed out it will plug the jet stopping the forward motion of the Polaris 360.

To get to the jet and clear it take off the top cover of the Polaris and you will see another cover inside on the right side as you look at it head on. Only one screw holds the cover on so remove the screw and lift the cover off. Once the cover is off you will see the impeller and a water jet under neath it attached to a small hose, pull off the end of the hose closest to the water jet and either blow or wash the debris out of the water jet from the outlet side of the jet.

Make sure you get it all out and then re-assemble the Polaris and it should work fine. One more check to make while the Polaris is apart is the water jet that is attached to the "tail," the tail jet can become clogged and cause the Polaris to suck the tail up into the debris bag so it is a good idea to make sure the tail jet is clear as well.

Toyota Corolla Window Washer Bottle

When the window washer pump went out on my 1995 Toyota Corolla I was able to find a new one as good as OEM at the local Advance Auto Parts store. Thinking almost for sure the pump would be a dealer item I was prepared to go to Toyota and get one until I found out that Advance had one, inexpensive too.

While taking the water reservoir out the mount toward the firewall cracked apart from plastic fatigue. I was trying to be as careful as I could so it wouldn't break but it did any way. First I tried epoxy to fix it but that didn't hold for long so I tried a strap to hold it into place. The water bottle really didn't need to be bolted down as much as it needed to be kept from swinging into the engine compartment. I f it swung out it would fall out of the other mount and into the engine compartment.


The water bottle wasn't leaking so I didn't see the need for spending money to replace it so I devised a strap out of wire and rubber tubing to support the bottle and hold it tight against the side of the engine compartment. You can see the tubing strap in the picture above. It goes from one of the bottle mounts to the other, no holes were drilled or hardware added.

Brake Caliper and Wheel Cylinder Maintenance

When you do a brake job on your vehicle be sure to check the wheel cylinders and brake calipers for leakage and rust. The wheel cylinder is much easier to check than the caliper because in order to check the caliper you will need to remove it from the wheel, while the wheel cylinder can be checked in place, most of the time, just by gently moving the rubber boot and checking to see that no brake fluid comes out. It should be dry.

The caliper, especially the front one should be replaced if it shows signs of sticking or rust when you are doing a brake job. I normally replace mine after 50,000 miles simply due to the heat that the caliper has to deal with. After replacing the caliper along with the brake pads the brakes operate trouble free for at least 50,000 more miles. Of course, the miles you get out a set of brakes depends on your driving and the amount of stop and go traffic that you have to contend with, either way you want your brakes to last as long as possible before you have to do another brake job.

Rebuilding the wheel cylinder, or caliper will require that you hone the cylinder walls before you re-assemble, that is an important step because rust or pitting may have occurred in the cylinder that will need to be removed. If after you hone the cylinder or caliper and notice that it is still pitted inside replace it. To smooth out a deep pitted area will require too much metal to be removed from the cylinder wall so it is better to replace the cylinder of caliper than take a chance on brake failure.

Auto parts stores carry rebuild kits for both the wheel cylinders and calipers. The rebuild kit consists of all replacement rubber parts and springs as needed to complete the job.

Doing a brake job yourself sounds easy and may, or may not, save you money, but if you don't feel comfortable rebuilding your wheel cylinder or caliper you will either have to have it done by a trained mechanic or replace it with a new one.

In an area where there is a lot of snow and ice it would be best to just replace the wheel cylinder, and especially the caliper because the cylinder may be pitted from the temperature changes and the moisture in the weather and the pitting will be difficult to hone down and still provide a good seal for the piston.

Bob Crane is the author of http://www.americanwrenches.com - a site that helps many find tools they need for their projects.

Ford Taurus – Cheap Car

When considering buying a family car and you are on a budget why not consider a used Ford Taurus. With the costs of everything going through the roof you need to save money every chance you can especially if you have a family or are on a tight budget. Since a car is a family's second largest expense right after a mortgage why not try to save on your transportation expenses. The original Taurus was discontinued from production in 2006 but there are many of the available on used car lots everywhere and at a surprisingly reasonable price that could end up saving you thousands of dollars. The money that you save could be put away for your child's education or possibly to pay down some other debt. The stress of not having to meet a big car note each and every month will be worth the small sacrifice of driving a used car.

Many of the Taurus' can be found with barely any miles on them. I have even found a few 2005 models going for under ten thousand dollars with little over ten thousand miles on them. With that kind of service life left in the vehicle you can almost own it free after a couple of years. Doing that would free up your finances to take care of needs that would otherwise go unmet if you needed the money for large car payments.

I personally own a 1995 Taurus Wagon that I bought new in July of that year and it has not given me any trouble at all and I use it like a truck sometimes when I have to haul building supplies. Of course, I wouldn't advise using the Taurus like a truck on a regular basis but it can pull it off in a pinch.

If you do decide to look into owning Taurus take your time and pick one out that is in the best overall mechanical condition because that is the most expensive to fix should something go wrong. Some slight body wear won't affect the performance and you will most likely get used to it. After all it is not brand new and even a new car can get a dent as soon as you drive it off the lot.

One thing to look for before you decide to buy a Taurus is to make sure that all of the recall work, if any, has been completed. Usually, the factory pays for any recall work, but it is still better to get that all taken care of before you decide to buy. It would be one less thing for you to worry about afterwards.

Bob Crane is the author of http://www.americanwrenches.com - a site that helps many find tools they need for their projects.

Toyota Corolla – Rattling Noise Coming From Hood

On my 1995 Toyota Corolla I noticed a rattling noise coming from under the hood and thought something had happened to the engine or at least something came loose. After checking everything out and finding nothing I let the car idle for a while to see if the noise came back. It did not. But I knew for sure that I had heard a rattling sound coming from the area of the hood and I needed to find it just in case it turned out to be something serious.

I decided to make the idle really rough by removing a vacuum line and cause the engine to sputter. It isn't a good idea to do that for long, but I needed that type of vibration to help find where the noise was coming from. Sure enough, the rattle returned and it turned out to be nothing serious at all.

On the hood of the Toyota Corolla, as in most hoods, there is a frame underneath the finish sheet metal, the places where the frame and the sheet metal meet is caulked at the factory to prevent rattles and the top sheet metal on the hood from flexing.

What had happened is the caulk started breaking off and was rattling around inside of the channels of the underlying hood frame. I uses compressed air to blow most of the broken pieces to one of the drain holes so I could remove it. Once the chunks of broken-off caulk was removed the rattle stopped. The caulk was not damaged even though pieces of it were rattling around. The caulk that held the frame to the hood to the finished sheet metal skin was still holding strong so there wasn't really any need to do anything but remove the broken off pieces of caulk.

If your Corolla hood rattles and you notice that the adhesive has come loose between the hood frame and the sheet metal skin just fold up a piece of paper and wedge it in between the hood and hood frame to create an opening then apply an epoxy that remains flexible. Once the epoxy dries remove the paper.
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