Thought this was a nice little story. My brother has a lawn tractor that
has been eluding us. Seems sporatically she just dies, with no warning, hot,
cold, whenever.
Checked spark, ignition, carb, kill switches, you name it we checked it out.
After a
couple weeks of this we were throwing in the towel and (gasp) considering
taking it in to have it repaired. My brother is not a real mechanical guy,
in fact, he's not even close. I have torn apart just about everything I've
ran across and repaired it, restored it or just plain took it apart and put
it back together.
So yesterday, he calls me and says, "i'm a genius... i fixed the tractor"
completely shocked, i asked how. It seems the GAS CAP VENT HOLE was dirty
and creating a vacuum. So simple, but overlooked.
So the next time you're stumped, go back and check the little things... ya
never know!

walt

In article ,
"wallster" wrote:

Thought this was a nice little story. My brother has a lawn tractor that
has been eluding us. Seems sporatically she just dies, with no warning, hot,
cold, whenever.
Checked spark, ignition, carb, kill switches, you name it we checked it out.
After a
couple weeks of this we were throwing in the towel and (gasp) considering
taking it in to have it repaired. My brother is not a real mechanical guy,
in fact, he's not even close. I have torn apart just about everything I've
ran across and repaired it, restored it or just plain took it apart and put
it back together.
So yesterday, he calls me and says, "i'm a genius... i fixed the tractor"
completely shocked, i asked how. It seems the GAS CAP VENT HOLE was dirty
and creating a vacuum. So simple, but overlooked.
So the next time you're stumped, go back and check the little things... ya
never know!

walt

Back in the early 70's I worked with a 'biker type' wanna be. Thing was
he didn't know squat about bikes other than they looked and sounded
'cool'.

Anyway, one day he starts beaming about a Harley he'd heard about...
IIRC it was a 'Pan Head', and had a glitch in it that had finally ****ed
off it's old owner... another 'biker type' who did know a little about
bikes, and should have known better.

Pretty much the same deal as Walt's post above. The guy spent years
trying to find the problem, but could never get it to run more than a
few minutes at a time. If it sat a few hours, it would again be ok.

He thought it had some thermally aggravated issue, but could never find
it.

So wanna be recruits me (who neither knows, nor cares about bikes) to go
look at it with him.

It was nasty... chrome right and left fore and aft. 23 foot forks poking
out everywhere, 'suicide' shift, silly looking handle bars you had to
reach almost straight up for, matching skull laden 'sissy' bar... I
could go on and on. (Wanna be also discovered he wasn't quite heavy
enough yet for it's cool chrome kick starter, but was on it.)

It also sported a sassy little custom fuel tank with matching un-vented
cap! Imagine that... On the way back I told wanna be that was very
likely the stalling issue. He went back that night, bought it, and with
the cap loose rode 25+ miles to my place where we drilled him his very
own custom vent hole.

Far as I know, he's still be riding it...

Erik

Erik wrote:
In article ,
"wallster" wrote:


Thought this was a nice little story. My brother has a lawn tractor that
has been eluding us. Seems sporatically she just dies, with no warning, hot,
cold, whenever.
Checked spark, ignition, carb, kill switches, you name it we checked it out.
After a
couple weeks of this we were throwing in the towel and (gasp) considering
taking it in to have it repaired. My brother is not a real mechanical guy,
in fact, he's not even close. I have torn apart just about everything I've
ran across and repaired it, restored it or just plain took it apart and put
it back together.
So yesterday, he calls me and says, "i'm a genius... i fixed the tractor"
completely shocked, i asked how. It seems the GAS CAP VENT HOLE was dirty
and creating a vacuum. So simple, but overlooked.
So the next time you're stumped, go back and check the little things... ya
never know!

walt


Back in the early 70's I worked with a 'biker type' wanna be. Thing was
he didn't know squat about bikes other than they looked and sounded
'cool'.

Anyway, one day he starts beaming about a Harley he'd heard about...
IIRC it was a 'Pan Head', and had a glitch in it that had finally ****ed
off it's old owner... another 'biker type' who did know a little about
bikes, and should have known better.

Pretty much the same deal as Walt's post above. The guy spent years
trying to find the problem, but could never get it to run more than a
few minutes at a time. If it sat a few hours, it would again be ok.

He thought it had some thermally aggravated issue, but could never find
it.

So wanna be recruits me (who neither knows, nor cares about bikes) to go
look at it with him.

It was nasty... chrome right and left fore and aft. 23 foot forks poking
out everywhere, 'suicide' shift, silly looking handle bars you had to
reach almost straight up for, matching skull laden 'sissy' bar... I
could go on and on. (Wanna be also discovered he wasn't quite heavy
enough yet for it's cool chrome kick starter, but was on it.)

It also sported a sassy little custom fuel tank with matching un-vented
cap! Imagine that... On the way back I told wanna be that was very
likely the stalling issue. He went back that night, bought it, and with
the cap loose rode 25+ miles to my place where we drilled him his very
own custom vent hole.

The Honda S90 I'm fixing up had both a plugged
vent cap and a very small leak in the carb float.
Made for some interesting interactions before I
found both of them.

"Erik" wrote: (clip) He went back that night, bought it, and with the cap
loose rode 25+ miles to my place where we drilled him his very own custom
vent hole.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Yeah, but how did you take care of all those other nasty characteristics?

Erik wrote:

....snip.......

Back in the early 70's I worked with a 'biker type' wanna be. Thing was
he didn't know squat about bikes other than they looked and sounded
'cool'.

The Gypsy Joker (Sydney) motor cycle gang was like this in the 80's
--wannbes.

Out at Thirlmere lakes one day and 13 bikes roll up.
First thing I noticed was all the riders made me look trim, taut and
terrific.

Then the support "unit" arrived. Okay, the 48 cases of beer on the back
didn't look good, but I could not get over the four broken down motor
cycles on the car trailer.

Okay, they were Harleys, but it was only midday Saturday of a three day
weekend.

I later figured they must have already been broken down and they brought
them along for the sunshine or something.

On Wed, 15 Sep 2004 09:57:55 +1000, Terry Collins
wrote:

Erik wrote:

...snip.......

Back in the early 70's I worked with a 'biker type' wanna be. Thing was
he didn't know squat about bikes other than they looked and sounded
'cool'.

The Gypsy Joker (Sydney) motor cycle gang was like this in the 80's
--wannbes.

Out at Thirlmere lakes one day and 13 bikes roll up.
First thing I noticed was all the riders made me look trim, taut and
terrific.

Then the support "unit" arrived. Okay, the 48 cases of beer on the back
didn't look good, but I could not get over the four broken down motor
cycles on the car trailer.

Okay, they were Harleys, but it was only midday Saturday of a three day
weekend.

I later figured they must have already been broken down and they brought
them along for the sunshine or something.

Harleys are like dogs..they love riding in the back of pick up trucks.

And they mark their territory.

Gunner

"In my humble opinion, the petty carping levied against Bush by
the Democrats proves again, it is better to have your eye plucked
out by an eagle than to be nibbled to death by ducks." - Norman
Liebmann

"wallster" writes:

So the next time you're stumped, go back and check the little
things... ya never know!

A friend of my father's had a car that would die whenever you took it
up to high rpms. After a couple of useless but expensive trips to the
garage, he asked us to take a look.

Turned out the fuel filter was clogged. :-)

-tih
--
Tom Ivar Helbekkmo, Senior System Administrator, EUnet Norway Hosting
www.eunet.no T +47-22092958 M +47-93013940 F +47-22092901 FWD 484145

"Tom Ivar Helbekkmo" wrote in message
...
"wallster" writes:

So the next time you're stumped, go back and check the little
things... ya never know!

A friend of my father's had a car that would die whenever you took it
up to high rpms. After a couple of useless but expensive trips to the
garage, he asked us to take a look.

Turned out the fuel filter was clogged. :-)

My first car was a Holden ( Aussie division of GM ) model ' EK '. Its a
collectors item now, but I sold it gladly for $100 twenty years ago !
Anyway, like the above mentioned car it would die whenever a bit of grunt
was required from the motor. After spending all day checking the obvious
things atom by atom, it turned out that a blob of solder used to stick the
fuel pipe connector to the gas tank had come loose ( someone had been over
enthusiasic when soldering ) and was partially choking the fuel flow. It was
about the last thing I would have guessed !

Dean.

"wallster" wrote in message
...
Thought this was a nice little story. My brother has a lawn tractor that
has been eluding us. Seems sporatically she just dies, with no warning,
hot, cold, whenever.
Checked spark, ignition, carb, kill switches, you name it we checked it
out. After a
couple weeks of this we were throwing in the towel and (gasp) considering
taking it in to have it repaired. My brother is not a real mechanical guy,
in fact, he's not even close. I have torn apart just about everything I've
ran across and repaired it, restored it or just plain took it apart and
put
it back together.
So yesterday, he calls me and says, "i'm a genius... i fixed the tractor"
completely shocked, i asked how. It seems the GAS CAP VENT HOLE was dirty
and creating a vacuum. So simple, but overlooked.
So the next time you're stumped, go back and check the little things... ya
never know!

walt

I have a Pembroke Welsh Corgi, which, for those of you who don't know looks
like a short legged round dot, but is actually a small man in a dog suit
that doesn't smoke cigars.

I was working on my spa. The spa has these little annoying magnets that are
on the door panels, and sensors on the frame of the spa. When you open the
doors, the electricity in the spa dies. Well, the first thing this safe
worker did was to duct tape the magnets to the sensors so I could work on it
with the doors open. We don't need no steenking safety switches.

My Corgi likes to get in the middle of anything. He is more curious than
Thomas Alva Edison. Sometimes if he can't figure something out, he will
grab a screwdriver or tool and want you to chase him. He usually grabs the
next tool I would have picked up, so I always oblige. He was putting his
pointy nose in the situation, trying to stick it in the door where I was
looking for the cause of the malfunction. After many tries, and me shooing
him away, he managed to get his nose inside the door, where he promptly
picked something up and ran to the step. I was frustrated with the spa, and
just about ready to barbecue a fat little round dog. I yelled at him to
stop, which he did. I ordered him to drop it, which he knows he better do
whenever I yell that.

Ptooooooooooooooey!

He spits out the magnet, and walks through the doggie door and into the
house. But not before he gave me a "here's yer problem, dummy" look.

He has done other amazing things, too, and I swear he is a reincarnated
person.

True story.

Steve

On Tue, 14 Sep 2004 11:03:43 -0400, "wallster"
vaguely proposed a theory
.......and in reply I say!:

remove ns from my header address to reply via email

I once spent a day with my BIL trying to get his car going. After
about 4 hours his wife wandered out and said "It's not the key is it?"
(didn't even know to call it the ignition).

Anyway you guessed the rest.

Thought this was a nice little story. My brother has a lawn tractor that
has been eluding us. Seems sporatically she just dies, with no warning, hot,
cold, whenever.

************************************************** ***
I know I am wrong about just about everything. So I
am not going to listen when I am told I am wrong about
the things I know I am right about.

I had the same thing happen on my bike. took a while to figure out.
Karl

"wallster" wrote in message
...
Thought this was a nice little story. My brother has a lawn tractor that
has been eluding us. Seems sporatically she just dies, with no warning,
hot,
cold, whenever.
Checked spark, ignition, carb, kill switches, you name it we checked it
out.
After a
couple weeks of this we were throwing in the towel and (gasp) considering
taking it in to have it repaired. My brother is not a real mechanical guy,
in fact, he's not even close. I have torn apart just about everything I've
ran across and repaired it, restored it or just plain took it apart and
put
it back together.
So yesterday, he calls me and says, "i'm a genius... i fixed the tractor"
completely shocked, i asked how. It seems the GAS CAP VENT HOLE was dirty
and creating a vacuum. So simple, but overlooked.
So the next time you're stumped, go back and check the little things... ya
never know!

walt





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Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.762 / Virus Database: 510 - Release Date: 9/13/2004

"wallster" wrote in message
...
Thought this was a nice little story. My brother has a lawn tractor that
has been eluding us. Seems sporatically she just dies, with no warning,
hot,
cold, whenever.
Checked spark, ignition, carb, kill switches, you name it we checked it
out.
After a
couple weeks of this we were throwing in the towel and (gasp) considering
taking it in to have it repaired. My brother is not a real mechanical guy,
in fact, he's not even close. I have torn apart just about everything I've
ran across and repaired it, restored it or just plain took it apart and
put
it back together.
So yesterday, he calls me and says, "i'm a genius... i fixed the tractor"
completely shocked, i asked how. It seems the GAS CAP VENT HOLE was dirty
and creating a vacuum. So simple, but overlooked.
So the next time you're stumped, go back and check the little things... ya
never know!


My son put 5 bucks worth of gas into almost empty Honda Civic a coupla a
month ago, brought it home and shut it off.

After that it wouldnt start.

Check this check that in my spare time for over a week but couldnt figger it
out--hell it wouldnt hardly even fire on starting fluid.....the plugs were
wet but looked greasy kinda......and the gas just didnt smell right to me.

Finally I pumped the tank, put in fresh gas and primed the fuel
rail.......and then it started right up no problem......

I poured some of this "gas" on the gravel drive and put a match to it and
although it lit, it only burned a few seconds and then left very noticable
greasy spot in the gravel.

Im still kinda ****ed he couldnt remember exactly where he had bought that
gas, If I knew I would be returning it for *them* to dispose of.

--

SVL

My son put 5 bucks worth of gas into almost empty Honda Civic a coupla a
month ago, brought it home and shut it off.

After that it wouldnt start.

Check this check that in my spare time for over a week but couldnt figger it
out--hell it wouldnt hardly even fire on starting fluid.....the plugs were
wet but looked greasy kinda......and the gas just didnt smell right to me.

Finally I pumped the tank, put in fresh gas and primed the fuel
rail.......and then it started right up no problem......

I poured some of this "gas" on the gravel drive and put a match to it and
although it lit, it only burned a few seconds and then left very noticable
greasy spot in the gravel.

Im still kinda ****ed he couldnt remember exactly where he had bought that
gas, If I knew I would be returning it for *them* to dispose of.

--

SVL

Seems I remember seeing something on the news about a refinery somewhere
letting a bad batch of fuel get out... the time is about right, but
don't remember where. Remember thinking it would probably turn into a
bigger story, but never heard any more about it.

Erik