Back to the transportation issue. My 25 year old daughter finally bought her new car. She compared all the Japanese compacts and selected a Honda Fit. Despite my urging she refused to look at any American car because "They are not reliable". Its going to take Detroit a long time to overcome this prejudice that is probably undeserved at this time. I, besides the Moped, am still driving my 1990 4 cylinder Dodge Caravan because it never breaks and gets 28 mpg as long as I baby it. Several Chrysler dealers are closing in our area and giving huge discounts, way below their costs. I thought maybe its finally time to upgrade so I callerd one of them to see what kind of a deal I could get. I asked for a 4 cylinder Caravan. The unbelievable answer I got is that they stopped making the 4 cylinder available in the Caravan years ago! They deserve to go under. Their smallest 6 cylinder is rated at 18mpg city and 22 mpg highway. I told them 'Thank you but no thank you, talk to you in a few years if you get up to speed with what people really want.' Nick

You had posted the five home tests awhile back, and I did those. One of those was worms. The news isn't good, although they aren't non existent. Sadly, when I was digging the soil for my testing, I think I came across a total of four worms. I only had to actually pick one out of the buckets of collected soil. I dug several shovel fulls out, then did a slice, per each test. So about 15 or so digs...I think four worms. My compost bin is right next to the veg garden, and in early March, I planted my lettuce/spinach/greens right next to it (because it gives shade). As I worked that little patch of soil with my fork, that soil was LOADED with worms. Either they were enjoying some goodies that were leeching out of the bin, or the bin was full and they were going back and forth. I remember posting about another one of the home tests, and that was smell...my soil had NO smell, good or bad. The other tests were okay, the tilth and the drainage.

Thanks, I have taken the cowling (fan and flywheel cover) off and see the Ignition Unit is the whole ignition, except for the spark plugs and the magnet on the flywheel that swings past the Ignition Unit package with the laminated core for the rotating magnet to induce the ignition electrical charge into the spark plug wires. It also has a kill wire, which I disconnected, and found there was still no spark. I then measured the resistance (ohm meter) from each plug back to the laminate/ground and found an open circuit. As this is the secondary of the "coil" it should measure in the neighborhood of 3K ohms, per an on-line reference. I have ordered a new Ignition Unit, expect it will arrive tomorrow. It came for about $35 delivered, a good bit less than for an Onan I'll bet. I end up with a completely new Ignition with this one part. I'll post here if this fixes the problem, if it doesn't there must be something wrong with my trouble shooting method or with the magnet/installation. I have also found the gap should be a bit over 0.01" or the thickness of a business card. As for the authenticity of the GT6000 claim, the manual shows 917.255970, no mention of GT6000, and the hood has "Diehard" and "Gold 18 HP" which refers the the B&S engine. The front, below the "grill" is a lable: GT6000. The tractor was purchased in April 1993, and was not the top-of-the-line, which I think came in a dark gray color and had an Onan engine. The engine has about 1500 hours on it, and is "tough as nails" as is the 2x3 manual transmission (6 forward, 2 reverse), and the frame. It has been a good tractor; this and a fuel diaphragm replacement are the only engine repairs to date. It may be on its third set of plugs, and the full air cleaner components were replace a couple of years back. It has a washable prefilter.

I am guessing that kitchendetective meant to post on my pathetic upholstery/slipcover thread. :) Your fabrics clearly look like they should be upholstery. My nutty choices look suspect. :) I would of course order a sample to be sure they are heavy enough and I am not making the covers myself, so I am sure the upholstery place will tell me if my choice is too light. I vote for the plaid again while I am posting. :) that blue herringbone almost looks grey to me from afar, but it might be my monitor!