Saturday fun for the male part of the family

Ignoramus26578 fired this volley in news:QsGdnX4WsZmOq2nMnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

And even if you could find an 'ood' tranny for it, a cheap used one would be throwing good money away. Pull out the 'ood' motor, and scrap the rest.

That stupid thing is badged under a dozen brands, but they're all basically Murray crap.

Lloyd

"Lloyd E. Sponenburgh" fired this volley in news:XnsA20AB24BD8EB3lloydspmindspringcom@216.168.3.70:

Does look like the boys are enjoying it, though! LS

I know that the worst thing that I can do, is put a lot of work into this and make a good thing (free tractor) into a bad thing (labor and money pit). So, I agree with you 100%.

Sorry, the letter "g" does not work well on my laptop.

Yes, plus I read some discussion threads about those drives, it looks like some problems are easier and cheaper to fix than others. Some are solved by replacin oil in the drives.

Ignoramus26578 fired this volley in news:_M-dnTERQJDao2nMnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

And some are repaired by removing the filler plug at the top of the tranny, and driving a new mower under it.

Lloyd

New toy!! Cool!!

Gone leave it as a mower or gonna turn it into a hotrod?

cool.

I will have my guy go over this, if there is an easy fix for the trans, we'll do it, otherwise we will take out the engine and junk the rest, like Lloyd said. Or just sell for parts.

"Ignoramus26578" wrote in message news:_M-dnTYRQJBSoGnMnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com...

Replacement keys:

or the whole keyboard:

Replacing the keyboard may be much easier than fussing with a single key cap. jsw

YOU SUCK, IGGY!

Nice grab, BTW.

Add a bit of hyd. oil and run it forever? ;)

Sometimes you can get lucky, and the "engine runs odd" is a carburetor rebuild or a replacement spark plug. Or the points have closed up, other stupid simple stuff.

And the transmission can just be low on fluid, or they topped it off with the wrong stuff - they used 30-wt motor oil instead of proper

And it's usually printed right on the fill cap too, but people think they knew more than the builders and they can substitute...

Transmission flush and fill, sometimes more than once to get all the wrong stuff out of the system. Worst case, it blew a seal or toasted an actuator - you get the Factory Repair Manual, buy the rebuild kit and tear it down.

And let the kids drive the project, that's how they learn. Maybe they'll start a neighborhood Lawn Service for the summer... Even if not, it's good Driver Training.

-->--

The key "cap" won't fix it. Keyboards are (relatively) cheap and relativey easy to replace

kinda what i am hoping

It was a typo, I meant to say "Engine runs Good".

Exactly

Thanks...

I will keep you posted...

It is stuff that gets under the laptop keys, it oes away after a short while.

Iggy in a later post mentioned that his laptop keyboard had problems with the 'g' key, so that should have been: "engine runs good" I believe.

Enjoy, DoN.

It depends on the kyboard. I have a Sun keyboard which I use all the time, and the first layer of problems is a buildup of cat fur (yes, we have cats) under the keycaps, and around the stems of the keycaps, making it difficult to press far enough. A Xerox of the keyboard (if you don't have identical ones for comparison) and then pop off all the keycaps (taking care to note how the anti-tilt bails connect on the wider ones -- and especially the spacebar), and then a combination of a small hook to loosen it, and either tweezers or a vacuum cleaner to remove it.

But -- eventually it gets so that is not the only problem. Even with all the visible cat hair and lint removed, some keys (usually ones which I need most often :-) take excessive pressure to send a character.

This keyboard has two flexible printed circuit boards, and a Swiss-cheese Mylar layer between them. The key bends the upper board to bridge two resistive pads on the lower. This works fine until a cat hair makes its way between those two boards and walks to where a set of resistive pads is, so you need to bend the upper board around the cat hair. At that point, it is a matter of pulling the keyboard fully apart, vacuuming everything, and then taking it down to the shop and using compressed air to blast any remaining cat hairs off and out the door. (Yes, I know that compressed air can cause static damage, but these keyboards seem to be pretty tolerant of that -- at least in the summertime when I am more likely to be doing this (cat shedding season, after all. :-) )

Other keyboards have other constructions, and most of them don't have as good a feel as the Sun keyboards. And keyboards for laptops tend to be rather specialized, so it can be easier to plug an external keyboard into a USB port whenever not using it away from home. (If using it between home and office, keep a spare keyboard in both places. :-)

And if you use the laptop in a lot of places, and can find a replacement -- and are good with fine work (pretty likely in this newsgroup -- except for the trolls), then try replacing it.

Good Luck, DoN.

For me the replacement key mechanism (it's not just the cap) fixed the damage the previous owned did while trying to clean soda off the board contacts. He gave up and sold the laptop to me cheap for parts, but $20 and a lot of "valuable learning experience" fixed it better than new.

jsw

This laptop lives on a computer desk, with a USB keyboard and mouse on the pull-out keyboard drawer and a 19" monitor on the upper shelf. I added a rope light under the desk top to illuminate the keyboard so I don't need room light.

I bought a wireless keyboard and trackball for my other laptop that sits on the table beside my recliner, where it serves as a TV and TIVO-style recorder. An accident won't damage a USB connector or drag the laptop off the table. So far the trackball hasn't fallen off the chair arm, a continual annoyance with the mouse. jsw

MOST laptops today do not have discrete keyboard switches - or any serviceable parts. They are monolithic membrane switches - basically flexible printed circuits.