The Termination Of The Suction Pipe Follies

The RRR tells the sad story of the end of the Suction Pipe story. Eventually, the parts arrived, my leg healed and I installed the part and the new hydraulic filter and fluid. I started the tractor, the transmission worked fine. But before I could start driving I noticed hydraulic fluid leaking from the filter. I shut down and pulled the filter I'd just installed. My filter wrench had torn a hole in it. The new brand name filter was a fraction of the thickness of the old one. I drove the eight miles to town and bought another filter of a different brand and a new filter wrench guaranteed not to cut the metal. Back at home I carefully installed the new filter, tightened all the nuts on the suction pipe and started the Cub Cadet again. No leaks. I began cutting grass. It worked better than it ever had. But then a vibration started.

At first I thought a blade was bent on the mower. I stopped twice and checked the blades. They were OK. I continued to cut. The vibration became more severe. So I decided I would stop at the end of that turn around the yard when I got close to the shop. Suddenly the vibration because explosive. The tractor shuddered to a stop. Oil ran out of every opening in the side. Pieces stuck out of places they weren't supposed to. The transmission was, as we used to say in the '60's... lunched. It was all over. The one hundred plus dollars... the time... gone and wasted except for being one more installment of tuition in The School Of Hard Knocks.

I went back to the shop to begin the resurrection of my old Sprawl Mart lawn tractor. The case looked hopeless. Mrs. RRR and I consulted. It seemed the best idea was to get Bubba, the 1987 Dodge pickup running so we could go buy another garden tractor and bring it home. Bubba needed the fuel tank removed and the intake tube unplugged. I spent the next several hours siphoning the old gas out and began trying to remove the fuel tank straps. One bolt out of four came out. The other three would obviously need to be cut. Then replaced.

As a lay under Bubba contemplating the Meaning Of Life And Other Things... usually the thoughts that occur to me at such a time... I noticed what looked like a hole in the frame of the truck by the fuel tank. I poked it with my finger. My finger went THROUGH the frame. I punched it. My fist went through the frame. Bubba was a total loss, maybe with a salvageable motor and transmission, but nothing else. I decided there was much more to the Meaning Of Life And Other Things than I had ever imagined.

The next day I began the Final Resurrection of the old Murray lawn tractor. It runs now, not well, and parts are in the mail to overhaul the carburetor.

I mowed the yard close to the cabin with the push mower and wherever possible with my antique H Farmall. And now I look out the window at the yard that already needs mowed again and one more time ask myself do I REALLY understand The Meaning Of Life And Other Things.