(ET) Bye bye deck and motor

[Chris Zach <cz alembic crystel com>]

Been doing a lot with the tractors this summer. From tilling the yard to 
mowing mine and the neighbor's yard it's been *busy*. And the equipment 
is showing it.

My deck has rusted to the point where the front wheel broke loose from 
the steel. The rear has been open all season; closed that with duct tape 
as I was planning on junking the deck end of season. But it didn't make it.

More problematic: The mowers changed volume while mowing and that means 
one thing: Dead motor. Stopped, checked blades, center one was jammed, 
dropped another magnet on the large fat motor. This one had a magnet 
drop years ago; I JB welded it back and all was well.

Took it apart and yeah, the other magnet dropped. More than that it 
disintegrated, so there goes that shell. Drat. On the positive side the 
JB welded magnet was fine, probably will last forever. Stupid GE for 
using bad glue patches to hold the darn magnets....

Fortunately I have a spare thin motor; thin ones never drop magnets but 
they DO have the armatures short and then need to be rewound which is 
not something people do anymore. Another drat, but this should keep me 
going.

Anyway I pulled everything off the old deck, now have to get new 
stainless steel bolts and nuts and washers and put everything on this 
new deck I had in the shed for 20 years. Turns out it is NOT a Bill Gun 
one, I could swear that I had one so now I have to look and see if I 
sold it or if it's hiding or whatnot.

Never dull. Have to see if it has POR15 or anything on the bottom. Still 
amazed that the tiller is in perfect shape after a decade with POR15 on 
the underside.

C