The Lawn Mower & the Huge Puff of Thick, White Smoke...
It was 415pm. Work was done for the day and I had made my way home ready to be productive and get the job done. It was my yard week and the lawn HAD to get done. I knew the time was probably overdue for the mow, yet I had not been at my house for over two days and didn't really know what to expect. My roommate, Robyn, had called me earlier that day to let me know that she thought the lawn mower was out of oil because she was unable to finish because the mower began to smoke on her.
So, I arrive at my house with the assumption that the lawn has been partly mowed... there was no evidence of a mower going over the grass at all. Seeing this and being the only one at the house I changed out of my professional clothes into my soccer stuff and set out to find the lawn mower. No wonder it looked as if the grass had not been touched, the setting of the mower was VERY HIGH so only the tops of the big blades were being cut as Robyn worked hard on the lawn before it gave out on her.
In response, I dropped the level of the mower to the the second lowest setting, filled the tank with gas, and started the heavy mowing process on the front lawn. I cranked the mower, assuming it might not start since Robyn had issues with it, however it started right away and I began mowing the front lawn. Three-fourths into the yard it began to make a noise or two, and before I knew it, some mile smoke began to come out of the lawn mower. Thinking about Robyn's diagnosis that it had ran out of oil. I checked the oil stick and from what I could see at my glance, maybe we were low on oil.
I marched back to the storage shed in the backyard, grabbed the oil, poured a bit into the lawn mower and started at that last fourth of the lawn again. Yeah, well... the "oil" solution was not the most promising idea... within seconds, the thickest, whitest clouds of smoke began to come out of my lawn mower. At first, I stood there, thinking, "Surely it will stop in a couple seconds". But in that short moment of time that I waited, my entire yard was filled with huge puffs of thick, white smoke and it began to flood into the street.
Obviously, seeing that the smoke was not coming close to ceasing, I stopped the lawn mower and quickly trotted three doors down to my neighbor house, Kevin, and asked for help! As we walked back to the house, another neighbor was driving by and stuck his head out the window and asked, "what's burning???"
Well, what was burning was the MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF OIL within the lawn mower!!!!!!!! OOPS! The only solution - Kevin had to hold the lawn mower upside down while I held a funnel over the top of the Motor Oil bottle and let the steaming hot liquid pour into the plastic I was holding. After emptying the lawn mower of the large amounts of liquid, we started the lawn mower again, watching less thick white smoke come out of it... within a minute and half of running it, the smoke was gone... and I was left to finish what I had started - the front lawn twice (once each direction), the back lawn, and sweeping up the sidewalk and driveway of excess grass. It is now accomplished!
So, I arrive at my house with the assumption that the lawn has been partly mowed... there was no evidence of a mower going over the grass at all. Seeing this and being the only one at the house I changed out of my professional clothes into my soccer stuff and set out to find the lawn mower. No wonder it looked as if the grass had not been touched, the setting of the mower was VERY HIGH so only the tops of the big blades were being cut as Robyn worked hard on the lawn before it gave out on her.
In response, I dropped the level of the mower to the the second lowest setting, filled the tank with gas, and started the heavy mowing process on the front lawn. I cranked the mower, assuming it might not start since Robyn had issues with it, however it started right away and I began mowing the front lawn. Three-fourths into the yard it began to make a noise or two, and before I knew it, some mile smoke began to come out of the lawn mower. Thinking about Robyn's diagnosis that it had ran out of oil. I checked the oil stick and from what I could see at my glance, maybe we were low on oil.
I marched back to the storage shed in the backyard, grabbed the oil, poured a bit into the lawn mower and started at that last fourth of the lawn again. Yeah, well... the "oil" solution was not the most promising idea... within seconds, the thickest, whitest clouds of smoke began to come out of my lawn mower. At first, I stood there, thinking, "Surely it will stop in a couple seconds". But in that short moment of time that I waited, my entire yard was filled with huge puffs of thick, white smoke and it began to flood into the street.
Obviously, seeing that the smoke was not coming close to ceasing, I stopped the lawn mower and quickly trotted three doors down to my neighbor house, Kevin, and asked for help! As we walked back to the house, another neighbor was driving by and stuck his head out the window and asked, "what's burning???"
Well, what was burning was the MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF OIL within the lawn mower!!!!!!!! OOPS! The only solution - Kevin had to hold the lawn mower upside down while I held a funnel over the top of the Motor Oil bottle and let the steaming hot liquid pour into the plastic I was holding. After emptying the lawn mower of the large amounts of liquid, we started the lawn mower again, watching less thick white smoke come out of it... within a minute and half of running it, the smoke was gone... and I was left to finish what I had started - the front lawn twice (once each direction), the back lawn, and sweeping up the sidewalk and driveway of excess grass. It is now accomplished!