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Fred Sanford would be proud.

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Jedi Knight
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I'm the worlds worst to pick up someone else's junk, fix it and make a buck or 2 but this one I'm a little floored by. The other day I hauled off a load of scrap metal to the local recyclers. While unloading, I spied a nearly complete lawn mower engine thinking it at least had some good parts. I came home, bolted it to a frame I had picked up off the street earlier, stuck on some of the big wheels , which I had also found earlier, and a handle I had laying around. A little gas and oil and it fired right up. I just sold it for $40 with about $1 invested. Yeah, I think ole Fred would be proud.
 
My brother gave me an edger that his neighbor threw out because it didn't work.
The engine worked but it didn't edge very well. When I took the blade off I noticed there was an arrow stamped into the blade indicating rotation. His neighbor had it installed backwards. I put it on correctly and offered it back to the guy who threw it out. He told me he bought a new one and to keep it. It still works great.
 
I'm running a nice newer craftsman mower right now that I picked up down the street a couple years back. The lady was putting it on the curb, and told me I could have it. it didn't run. I brought it home, drained the water out of the fuel tank, filled it with fresh gas, and have been using it ever since.
I love curb mowers. There's usually very little wrong with them, and the local landlords will buy them from me all day between 40-60$ depending on how nice it cleans up.
 
Bad luck with new mowers this summer. With about 6 hours of run time mine swallowed a valve. Not sure exactly what happened to cause the breakdown, when I removed the valve cover there was oil, valve spring and retainer, rocker broken in two and one valve guide which had come out of the head. Sump filled with gas and oil so the piston is trashed. Dealing with shipping for warranty will cost nearly as much as just replacing, if they decide it wasn't operator error...
 
Embarrassing but true story.....bought a lawn mower for the house I was living in college, brought it home, assembled it, no big deal for a car guy after all. Adjusted everything, put gas in it, went to mow the yard. After about 5 minutes, it died. Checked everything, all looked good. Started it again....same thing, it died. My roommate comes out, "how's it going?" "I don't know, it keeps dying." "Did you put any oil in it?" DOH.... That mower ran forever though.
 
Paternal grandad: "Boy, ya can run it all day with no gas. But don't even THINK about startin' it without OIL."
 
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