D
Deleted member 30535
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.... and don't say "Getting married" or "having kids" or whatever!
A recent stupid mistake of mine was attempting to service and start a lawnmower that had been in the garage for 10 years but not used. Being an engineer (a proper one I might add ) I was more than happy to drain the oil, re-fill, change air filter, strip down carburettor and clean out fuel lines, clean the spark plug and remove and sharpen the blade in readiness to start it. Well, I couldn't get it to start. Not even a slight cough. Mutter, mutter. I re-checked things but no joy.
So, I swallowed my pride and took it to the local Honda place where they last serviced it 10 years ago when it had belonged to my father-in-law. I explained what I had done and couldn't understand why there was a problem. It was suggested that if the unit had been left and the petrol had fully dried out in the carb, then the carb could do with a special oil bath/sonic clean. Ok, that's sounds reasonable. Left it for a week and then collected to do the lawn at the weekend. They had tested it and made sure the carb was set right and was running OK. Sweet!
I got it home and the next day I tried to start it, making sure I had the throttle in the "choke" position for a cold start as I had the previous week.
Well blow me, it wouldn't start. Not a cough. No amount of pulling the starter chord would coax it into life. Odd. Very odd. It must be me. What could it be?
Of course I knew that the lift bar on the handle end of the lawnmower was there to put the mower into drive mode and that if you let go whether intentionally or accidentally, it would stop propelling itself. Wait a minute! What's the second bar for? It's a dead-man's handle you dipstick to cut the engine off when it's released. If I had read the manual I would have learned that. But being a man and an engineer, manuals are for wimps. So, I pulled up the dead-man bar and pulled the starter chord. Bloody thing started first time! I bet the damned thing would have started after I had serviced it the previous week!
Grrrr.
That escapade cost me £76 plus fuel.
What stupid mistakes have you made which cost you money and how much?
A recent stupid mistake of mine was attempting to service and start a lawnmower that had been in the garage for 10 years but not used. Being an engineer (a proper one I might add ) I was more than happy to drain the oil, re-fill, change air filter, strip down carburettor and clean out fuel lines, clean the spark plug and remove and sharpen the blade in readiness to start it. Well, I couldn't get it to start. Not even a slight cough. Mutter, mutter. I re-checked things but no joy.
So, I swallowed my pride and took it to the local Honda place where they last serviced it 10 years ago when it had belonged to my father-in-law. I explained what I had done and couldn't understand why there was a problem. It was suggested that if the unit had been left and the petrol had fully dried out in the carb, then the carb could do with a special oil bath/sonic clean. Ok, that's sounds reasonable. Left it for a week and then collected to do the lawn at the weekend. They had tested it and made sure the carb was set right and was running OK. Sweet!
I got it home and the next day I tried to start it, making sure I had the throttle in the "choke" position for a cold start as I had the previous week.
Well blow me, it wouldn't start. Not a cough. No amount of pulling the starter chord would coax it into life. Odd. Very odd. It must be me. What could it be?
Of course I knew that the lift bar on the handle end of the lawnmower was there to put the mower into drive mode and that if you let go whether intentionally or accidentally, it would stop propelling itself. Wait a minute! What's the second bar for? It's a dead-man's handle you dipstick to cut the engine off when it's released. If I had read the manual I would have learned that. But being a man and an engineer, manuals are for wimps. So, I pulled up the dead-man bar and pulled the starter chord. Bloody thing started first time! I bet the damned thing would have started after I had serviced it the previous week!
Grrrr.
That escapade cost me £76 plus fuel.
What stupid mistakes have you made which cost you money and how much?
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