Is your crankshaft bent?

Does the handlebar on your mower vibrate? Do your arms feel like pins and needles after you mow the grass? You might have a bent crankshaft. This happens if you accidentally hit a stump, or a big rock, or if your paved driveway sticks up above the ground level.

Your blade on your lawn mower is attached to the crankshaft with a sacrificial soft metal adapter, which is supposed to break easily if you do hit something. Sometimes however, that blade adapter will not sacrifice itself to save your crankshaft, and it becomes bent. If your crankshaft is bent only a bit, you might just suffer some bad vibrations. However if left alone, or it's bent badly, you might end up with a failed oil seal, and you eventually seize your engine up when all the oil leaks out from underneath the mower deck.

There's lots of ways to determine if your crank shaft is bent. Once your mower is on its side (remember turn your mower with the oil dipstick down), and you pulled the spark plug; you did remember to pull the spark plug, right? it's easy to turn the blade by hand. A piece of string or stiff wire can help you eyeball if the crankshaft is wobbling. I found however a relatively cheap trick to look for a bent crankshaft: 

Now, I don't expect your average DYIer or homeowner to go out and buy one of these laser gadgets just for this, but you might be able to borrow one from your friend or neighbor who has that garage full of carpentry gadgets. 

Since I made this video, the original laser gadget:  https://amzn.to/3cpeIwF  was discontinued, now it seems to be back in an updated version. I can't vouch for this one:  https://amzn.to/3x6RGCF   but it comes in at about the same price point with a small flexible tripod like this: https://amzn.to/3z9L4VE 

I hope these tips and tricks can empower you with oracle like skills to make your small engines run smoothly and consistently.

Please watch for new videos on Youtube at The Lawnmower Lady or follow along on Instagram at thelawnmowerlady and Twitter at the Lawnmower Lady 

Mow Happy!

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Wear your safety glasses, or you'll put your eye out. Try on some gloves. Take off that spark plug boot. Clean your room. Open the windows, those fumes are nasty. Just 'cause I do it, don't think it's the end all, be all solution. There's plenty more ideas out there, I can't take responsibility if you slice off a few fingers after watching my videos. And don't just pour that toxic stuff down the sewer or in the ditch, dispose of waste responsibly. Just be safe, OK?