Last week after cutting my neighbors lawn, my cable broke for the blade brake. I ordered one from Amazon, and it arrived today. What I found when I took the Pulley/belt cover off was the ENTIRE area was PACKED - absolutely packed tight with old dry grass. Hindsight is 20-20, and I wish I took before pics, but I did not. The only area that was not packed with grass is the path that the belt makes between the two blade pulleys.
This cavity is where the brake lever assembly is located, and it was packed tight!
After every mow, I will blow the grass from under the mower, and rinse it off before putting it away. Apparently that was not enough. The space under the belt/pulley cover has openings in the deck that allows grass to find its way in there, and if left unchecked, it will fill up. The reason my cable broke was the grass was packed in there so tight that the brake lever could no longer move freely, so pulling the lever put more stress on the cable. The other thing that caused it to fail was the grass held moisture in there, and as it goes, I have a little rust in there. The cable succumbed to the rust.
After cleaning all the grass out of the space, I cleaned it with soapy water, then lightly sanded the rust away. Then I hit it with black spray paint to protect the metal. The cover will hide the ugly spray paint. Black is all I had on hand, and since it is under the cover, me'h... it will work.
After I finished replacing the cable, I noticed the Vbelt is shot... and as luck would have it, I can't find anything close to this size anywhere, Auto parts, and big box stores were a strike out, so I ordered one, and will have to wait until Monday to get the mower back in service.
So lesson learned. If you have a Timemaster take the time to periodically pull the cover and remove any grass built up in that area. I think I will make it a monthly item to check.
This cavity is where the brake lever assembly is located, and it was packed tight!
After every mow, I will blow the grass from under the mower, and rinse it off before putting it away. Apparently that was not enough. The space under the belt/pulley cover has openings in the deck that allows grass to find its way in there, and if left unchecked, it will fill up. The reason my cable broke was the grass was packed in there so tight that the brake lever could no longer move freely, so pulling the lever put more stress on the cable. The other thing that caused it to fail was the grass held moisture in there, and as it goes, I have a little rust in there. The cable succumbed to the rust.
After cleaning all the grass out of the space, I cleaned it with soapy water, then lightly sanded the rust away. Then I hit it with black spray paint to protect the metal. The cover will hide the ugly spray paint. Black is all I had on hand, and since it is under the cover, me'h... it will work.
After I finished replacing the cable, I noticed the Vbelt is shot... and as luck would have it, I can't find anything close to this size anywhere, Auto parts, and big box stores were a strike out, so I ordered one, and will have to wait until Monday to get the mower back in service.
So lesson learned. If you have a Timemaster take the time to periodically pull the cover and remove any grass built up in that area. I think I will make it a monthly item to check.
