Recent content by Opelman

Oddly enough, I have some friends in CA who have recently received some new Echo gas powered equipment. I guess that they know a guy......

Echo has 2 stroke weedies with a cat. CA is just being unreasonable. Just another line on the list as to why we left.

I believe that Hydro Gear recommends a fluid change early 75-100 hrs initially and then to 400 hrs. Sometimes the hydros aren't exactly the same speed wise, small adjustments to the speed control linkage/ lever travel are necessary for the machine to track straight. I would look at this after an...

The machine shop charged me $100.00 for the repair. Super cool people and high quality work.

Well, here it is almost back in fighting trim. The engine runs beautifully, the hydro is smooth and quiet too. It has a noisy bearing on the deck somewhere and the steering is a bit stiff still. A little more work and this will be a nice mower. Serial dates it to 1988 with a Sunstrand hydro.

That is a great way to go except when the OE stops supplying the needed parts. Our local GM dealer put a Cardone reman steering box from O'Reillys on the wife's 03 GMC 1 ton as factory new or factory reman weren't available. I even told the service writer to avoid Cardone. It was complete and...

Well, the head is back and the necessary gaskets and a new air filter should be here tomorrow.

Maybe drill a few small holes in the outer tube to get some penatrating oil in further down. Since you have it moving a bit, keep working it and it will free up. Once you've dug your holes it should come apart easily for a good cleaning and greasing.

I'm going to second this. I've run across several of these which just plain get stuck closed. Pop it out, free it up and mow on.

I really like those water cooled Kawasakis. Make sure that the fuel line from the pump to carb is in good shape. I have dealt with a few that failed and burned.

Today's public service announcement, make sure your blower housing isn't full of cooling air blocking rodent nest. A customer got a great deal on a super clean JD 185 hydro. No start so it came to me. Found a dropped exhaust valve seat from overheating. A new head is unavailable, luckily we have...

I've had the same thing come through here. Always Stihl oil. I do the FD rating explanation and give them a bottle of Stens full synthetic FD to try out. I've just started stocking Kinetix brand FD full syn with fuel stabilizer. It seems to be a good product and should help out the occasional...

Those are designed to take a regular U1 size as a replacement for that bitty battery installed at the factory. I will say that those little guys have a pretty good track record for holding up.

Bummer, our 2014 C-Max with a flaky camera isn't included either.