Frickin' lawn mower
My rotten luck with lawn mowers continues. Last year we got a wonderful push mower on sale at Sears, and really, since it came home, it's performed admirably. A key start ignition, reliable operation and fine cutting with a 22-inch radius. It was the first new mower and only reliable one I'd gotten after years of suffering with lousy used models that would fall apart or fail with spectacular regularity.
Unfortunately that run of good luck ended on Saturday.
The mower started leaking prodigious amounts of fuel, and at first I thought something must have nicked a fuel line. Gas was dripping off one corner of the sideways-mounted air filter. That's a user-serviceable part, so I pulled the cover off the filter and checked underneath, and saw that the gas was pouring out of the carburetor.
The throttle and choke are factory-set on this model, and I think something must have gotten stuck in an open position enough that the carburetor is just dumping gas out now.
So off the mower went to Sears this morning for some (thankfully, warranty) service, hopefully back in time for the weekend, before the back lawn is two feet tall.