A New Plan of Attack

 Hello again.

We're now in October and it's been 10 months since I've moved to Pakenham and in the process of building up some money.

There is a new idea on one Saturday when I was working at the Cranbourne Repco store after a text message from my dad suggesting I should work on lawn mowers as projects. Although it'll be a similar idea as with cars buying to fix up then selling them, I thought it'll be a bad idea. It'll be easier as lawn mowers are way cheaper to buy and easier to work on and especially that I haven't reached my goal amount to start my new hobby yet, that'll be a why not moment.

So anyway, I went onto it. I've been looking at lawn mowers for sale on the internet to get a good idea in terms of pricing. I've had good discussions with my colleagues at Cranbourne as well as Cody who I work with at the Doveton store and Mark who used to work at Repco. Mark pointed out lawn mowers aren't used at much compared to cars. And as newer cars have to meet new design rules and emission regulations, there isn't that much emphasis on lawn mowers and theoretically, wouldn't be as daunting.

Now, back to finding a lawn mower. I went on the Facebook Marketplace to look for cheap lawn mowers that are fixable. I'm after a 4 stroke lawn mower and one that can be fixable. I've submitted my interests with 2 lawn mowers then found to be sold out. However, I got in contact with one and we've arranged to meet up her house in Carnegie which is further in Melbourne and having to get by with the great deal of rain on the day. I have brought with me my Euro tool set which has been my Christmas present for god knows how long.

I've bought the lawn mower for $50 AUD. The date was Friday the 7th of October.

What you're looking at is the Cheetah 4 stroke lawn mower assuming it'll be a generic brand. According to the seller, it wasn't used much and it wasn't starting greatly so they wanted to get rid of it. She wished me luck getting the lawn mower going.

When I had a look at it, I've found the tip of the spark plug black indicating the fuel and air mixture to be rich but I found the air filter to be grimy but I've been cleaning the air filter sponge so the engine can run better. I have replaced a spark plug which interestingly enough is an NGK branded spark plug and knowing Repco sell NGK spark plugs, I went to the Pakenham store to buy the replacement spark plug.

After I've put the new spark plug in, it fired up but puffed a little bit of black smoke briefly. I then adjusted the throttle to find the engine not running to greatly. I then bled the carburetor of contaminated petrol after my dad's idea, then its eventually running better.

Next up, I've replaced the lock wheels that secure the handle. I found the original lock wheels to be worn in the threads so it was hard to screw them securely but I bought a new kit and it worked greatly as the bolts fit flush to the inner bracket. I also replaced the fuel filter despite running around for an appropriate sized filter but I got there in the end.

So now, my lawn mower is all good. The last thing I'll need to do is give it a wash then sell it on the Facebook Marketplace.

I have also bought an exercise book to write down the lawn mower I've bought and take notes on what's wrong and what's been fixed and replaced. And here's the photo to show you.

Initially, I would use the exercise book to write down cars I've bought along with other notes with it bit this is a start. Next up, I'll be looking to buy another lawn mower to fix up and sell.

And another thing. I've been getting in touch with Cody. He mentioned to me his neighbours when he was living with his parents are passionate about working on cars, they're looking for a workshop so I can eventually share and make my hobby flourish. They do work for a disability service and they're constantly busy as Cody updated. But everyone will get there.

That's all for me.