Race Mower - Weekend 1 - Drag er outta the bushes.

    This mower was a project I had been meaning to get back to for almost 20 years. I purchased it when I was roughly 8-10 years old. I had accompanied my dad and my grandpa to look at a motor for my grandpas truck. The man selling the motor was selling out everything and there was this 1970s? Craftsman lawnmower, the perfect go kart for me.

    My dad and I worked on it for awhile at that time, but the project was eventually abandoned. It ended up outside in the bushes beside the garage, where it has sat for many years now. 

    Fast forward to 2023. One of my coworkers (knowing my interest in go-karts) asks if I happen to have a race mower. He informed me that there are a couple guys in the shop who have race mowers, and enter them in a yearly race. To nobody's real surprise: I did have a mower, and suddenly a reason to finish that project... Well maybe a little differently than my 10-year-old self had imagined.

    I drug the old mower out of the bushes and gave it a good wash off. The main body of the mower looked really good for its decade plus in the rain. The hood that was freshly sanded did not fare as well, but was still good and solid despite the new pitting. When we got it all cleaned off and took a look, it seemed the project was most of the way along when it was abandoned. 

    We had the whole thing apart when I was young, so it appeared we had gone pretty far in putting the mower back together. I stuck a battery in it just to see what would happen, and that was the real shocker. I hit the key and it turned over. It also sounded like it had compression. Now that I could see it might just run, it was time to get to work seeing if this neglected motor could run for us.

    We took the flywheel off and cleaned up the points. After a few attempts at cleaning: we had spark. All we needed now was fuel, and this motor would theoretically run. We mounted the hood and grill (as the hood holds the gas tank). We also cleaned out the gas tank, and ran a fresh line and filter. My dad took to cleaning and setting up the old carb. 

*Probably gonna leave the hood and grill rusty for that rat rod look.*

Would you believe the thing ran? It sure did. To my surprise: this old motor took little time to fire up, and with all the glorious roar to be expected of an old flathead with no exhaust.

^Tossed on some rusty moon caps from a scooter.^

    We still need a new carb, but we know she runs and that's a great starting point. Unfortunately the belt blew off when we tried to get it mowing... I mean, uh... Moving, so we are gonna have to wait to test out the transmission. There's only one good tire on the front right now anyways, so we may as well put together our new steering and front tires. That's got to wait until next week though.