I think I just Destroyed My Walk Behind Mower

[Ledgemere Farm]

Been too busy mowing everyone else's grass and mine got away from me. I put down dome fertilizer and then we got a couple of days of heavy rains. Whoosh! Instant hayfield. Anyway, I forgot about a stump that was down by the brook and I nailed it with my John deere JS63 walk behind. Engine stopped dead. Restarted, but vibrated terribly. shut it off and looked underneath. Bent blade. Switched to spare blade, but not any better. Rolled it over again. This time I noticed that one end of the blade was flush with the bottom of the deck and the other end was about 3/4" up inside. Looks like a bent shaft on engine. Anybody know if you can fix that or am I the new owner of a parts mower? I also noticed grease oozing out of the transmission. Not good.

 

[beenthere]

I think you know the verdict. Sorry to hear of the trouble you have. Years ago I had an old Sears mower walk behind. I cleared about three acres of woods with that thing. I would push over small trees if I could, and let the mower chew them up as I lowered it over them. It would shake, rattle, and keep on chugging. If I cut trees, I would (up to 2" diam) chew up the stumps the same way. Never bent a blade or even, in 15 years, had a different motor to run that thing ('63 - '78). Think it was a Clinton engine. Had several fixes to the housing to keep the wheels on it and to 'fix' the housing breaks.
Sudden shock of hitting the stump is probably what did it, as well as the weight of some of these walk-behinds out now. I preferred the lightweights that didn't resist, and would bounce around on top of trouble.

 

[cag]

Look's like it's time to do a little shoping /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[Bird]

The first power mower I ever used was a cheap one with a Clinton engine that I bought when I was 15 years old to make some money mowing lawns for people. I had one customer who let the grass get a foot high before she'd pay to have it mowed, and she had 5 dogs. I always walked the yard carefully, picking up bones before I mowed, but one day I missed one; hit a big bone and bent the crankshaft. I don't remember what it cost, but I had the dealer fix it and that about wiped out my profit for the summer. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[Ledgemere Farm]

I had better uses for my June mowing money than replacing a mower... Will go to the JD dealer tomorrow and get another JS63. Thought about some other ones, but like I said, I now have a complete, er, almost complete parts machine... /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif Thanks for the input!