Last weekend, during the freeze, I noticed a shiny white object lying out in the yard. I had no idea what it was, but waited until the temperature was back in the upper 70s to go find out. It turned out to be the hanger rod that connects the front of the mower deck to the Snapper lawn tractor, or what the parts diagram calls a Link - Lift - Suspension - Front - Mower.
The one I picked up from the yard still resembled the one above, but it had obviously been hit by the mower, because it had several additional bends. I got it reinstalled, but it would not fit correctly, so yesterday I took it off and attempted to straighten out some of the kinks.
I laid it on the concrete and beat on it with a hand sledge, then slid one end into the receiver hitch on the truck and bent it by hand. It wasn't perfect, but I made a lot of progress - possibly enough for it to work. Then I decided to give it a few more whacks with the hammer.
I should have left well enough alone.
On the third blow, the thing bounced up and hit me back, striking me in the right eye. It hurt like the devil, and by the time I made it to the house, blood was dripping down by cheek, but thank goodness it looked a lot worse than it was.
Honey washed it up and had me put ice on it. I ended up with a small cut on my cheek just below the eye socket and another little scratch on my upper eyelid. This morning, I don't even have much of a black eye.
I'm going to try reinstalling the link later today. I think it will work now, but if it doesn't, I'm going to order a new one.
No comments:
Post a Comment