My idea fizzled and I had to put it back like it was. I didn't know about the differences in the pre-1997 and post-1997 crankshafts and blade adapters. The old ones have a Woodruff key and the new ones have a slot in the crank and a rib inside the adapter. I probably could have worked on the crank slot and got the thing on there but I just didn't want to modify it. The blade was new last year and just needed an edge put on it. So its all ready to go back now for another season. Picture is at least ten years old - it looks a little more worn now but still not bad.

I had previously written about a fuel leak on this one but no comments came in. During operation, there was no problem, but sitting in the shed it would get wet with fuel at the base of the carb where it sits on the tank. Now Keep in mind, this is a Pulsa-Jet that has no fuel bowl - the gas tank is the fuel bowl, and it sucks a shot of gas up into the carb with every intake stroke, but after shut down there really is almost no fuel in the carb itself - so how does it run down the carb onto the base plate?

Well, I found out by accident. The rubber adapter from the side of the carb to the crankcase vent tube was the original and it was hard and cracked. I had bought a new one and put it on this time when I had the mower. Bam! No more fuel outside the carb after shut down. The old one was definitely leaking vacuum so I think fuel tended to build up in that area and leak down when the engine was cut off.

I solved another problem related to the driver and generic blade - it had a high-frequency vibration after putting the new blade on last year but I figured it was my hand work on the blade cutting the pin slots closer to the center hole so it would fit on the original adapter - maybe the blade fit maybe 0.01" more to one side, but you don't know which side so you can't balance for it.

So right before I delivered this mower the other day, I started it just for one more check and that vibration got my attention. I got out the balancer and the blade was way off! I had only lightly filed it on both ends prior to that so there's no way I caused it. This time I measured the work I had done before by eye and the holes were equidistant from the center hole, but there was about 0.02" play in how the blade could be mounted, which is pretty normal. But first things first, it was definitely heavy on one end - the most I have ever seen, and it had to have come that way new. So I started filing, checking, filing, but I was getting nowhere fast. So I had to drag out the bench grinder, and I had to seriously grind the one end to balance it. Bottom line, when I put it back on and tried the mower, it had only the normal light vibration from the engine. I know my nieces are going to appreciate that when they have to cut grass with it.

Anyway, I will never again mount a new blade without checking the balance - it just never occurred to me that a new blade could be out by that much.