first of all there should be NO movement when you grab the crank anyone that say's different should take up collecting stamps because they have no idea what they are taking about.as far as the dura force engine when you have the engine off of the mower deck take out the crank seal on the blade side off and see what kind of movement you have if you see the inner race of the crank bearing move then the problem is the bearing spun in the case and now you have play the older LB had a tab on the bearings to keep them from moving the duraforce does not.i worked on about six so far and everyone of them spun the bearing.

I'm not going to try and moderate what is a very active digression from the original issue, but I can try to clarify some of the statements as I understand them. Note: I'm not necessarily contributing to the OP's question, either. I just want the issues to be understandable with as much as we know. yardtractor said, Other than Milo, no organic fertilizer supplies N without a prolonged and unpredictable period of microbial processing. Prolonged and unpredictable...Hence the term, slow release. I prefer delayed release because slow release implies that there is a release beginning when the product is applied. I believe for the grain type organic fertilizers it is more like no release at all for 2 weeks and then a build up to the point where the grass looks much better by the 3 week point. Then as more of the product is decomposed by the microbes, nutrients are delivered to the plant by known biological communication systems as the plant needs it for months down the road. And that is my opinion about both prolonged and unpredictable nature of organic fertilizer. Prolonged, yes. Unpredictable, not really. Now if the temperatures are below 50 degrees, that 3 weeks will be longer, so maybe that is what yardtractor was referring to. But for the grass growing season 3 weeks is a pretty solid prediction for "release" of grain type organics. Using a single cultivar of a plant can be a little more risky in terms of susceptibility to disease or other issues. If you have a blend of KBG cultivars and a disease comes in and wipes out all of one cultivar, then you have the remaining cultivars to fill in for you. That's what they're talking about. yardtractor also said, and I don't mean to sound like I'm picking on you, The reason I cut an exception for Milorganite is that Milo contains 40% fast release urea that does not need weeks of rotting for that to become available. My understanding is that milo is made from stage 2 or class 2 biosolid waste with a dash of iron chloride and iron sulfate. There is no urea in Milorganite - at least not the homeowner variety in the 30-pound bag. That seems to be confirmed by the MSDS for the product. If it has any faster release effect than the grain type organic fertilizers, that speed would be due to the predigestion of the material to bring it up to the class 2 biosolid stage. With reference to the use or possible repeated use of starter fertilizer (high P content), Morpheus mentioned that overuse of heavy P fertilizer products was illegal in several states - or words to that effect. Yardtractor went into retired attorney mode asking for details and eventually I could see him asking for landmark court decisions. Who cares? The problem is we are a homeowner forum with a vast and deep knowledge of lots of information, but we don't know everything. Whether it is legal or not in YOUR state, what we do know is the overuse of P historically has turned even huge bodies of water into slimy green masses of floating goo and fish carcasses. Those of you living on Lake Erie should be plenty familiar with the effect of washing too much P down stream. I believe morpheus is trying to save the OP some hassle, time, and money by keeping to an organic approach that has proved to work. Sure there are chemical approaches that work, but the owner too often ends up worrying about picking the right brand, getting the right NPK, using too much, using too little, thunderstorms washing it away, and forgetting to water it in. With grain based organics you can eliminate those worries. Legality of fertilizer use is such a side issue. If the OP has a soil test showing low P in the soil, morph would be the first to recommend balancing it with starter fertilizer. Without such a soil test, it is not prudent to pile it on.

1) Can you confirm this is a lawn fungus? Pattern has been, grass gets a dry area and then develops the yellow color of doom. Mostly this happened in a handful of places the irrigation doesn't cover too well. I'm not an expert at disease in northern lawns, but if I had those spots in my St Augustine I would declare it a disease. 1) What is the best path forward from here? Just hope and wait the fungicide works? Am I watering too much/too little? Can I over fungicide? Can I go get immunox and double down or will that kill the grass? You can absolutely overuse fungicide. As far as I'm concerned you already have. To my belief using a fungicide is like poisoning your soil, so I stay away from it. Why? Because most of the beneficial microbes in your soil are fungi. Best path depends on the watering issue. Are you watering too much or too little? You'd have to tell us how much you're watering to help us with an answer to that. How often do you water and for how long? If you are still watering multiple times per day, as if this were just installed, then you're watering too much. That would be my suspicion. Transitioning from new install watering to mature turf watering can be tricky. At this point if you are watering more than once every 10 days to 2 weeks then I'd be suspicious of too much water. Put some cat food or tuna cans in the yard and turn on the sprinklers. Time how long it takes to fill them. That's how long you should be watering. 2) Is the yellow grass a goner? At this point in time I'm planning on having to resod a handful of places come September, but if it'll come back on it's own I'd be very happy. Agree. Adjust your watering for now and resod selected spots at your leisure. Boston area is a forgiving climate for new grass, unless you got bad advice on watering the new grass.

Would it hurt your feelings to leave the rye out of your seed mix? Rye complicates the germination phase of a new lawn by tricking you into thinking all the seed is germinating in 7 days. Fescue germinates in about 10 days while KBG takes 15-20 days to germinate. Too many people stop with the daily irrigation after a week and the result is they never get much fescue or KBG. Next season practice good lawn care. Water deeply and infrequently, mow at the mower's highest setting, and fertilize on Memorial Day. You'll be doing the reno in late August so you'll use starter fert with that and then a regular fertilizer after the grass stops growing in November. Morph may have other thoughts, but if you got the soil test in the spring you would still have plenty of time to correct it. I am curious to see your CEC to see if you have sandy soil or something else.