Lawnmower

If your mower stops running, the first thing you should check is your spark plug (after you make sure you have gas.)

Mine stopped the other day in the midst of mowing. I cleaned the air filter. Took the spark plug out and cleaned all of the carbon off. Checked the oil. It started and then died. So I sent an email out to the neighborhood email groups and got several replies (see below for details.) Sears. A local guy in our neighborhood. A place on Armenia. A mobile mower repair guy.

I could not get connected with the neighborhood mower repair guy so I decided to tackle it myself before the weekend. Went online. Pretty sure it was a fuel system issue. Got two books out of library. Took the gas tank and carburator off. Cleaned things up. Nada.

Just in case bought a new spark plug. $1.58. Started up immediately. Sheepish grin on my face as I told my wife (who asked me earlier if it might be the sparkplug) Priceless.

This just reiterated the fact that I can work on my house but not on our automobiles or engines.
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SE Seminole Heights Email comments:

"I highly recommend Sears. Not only do you get your mower back in a reasonable amount of time, but their maintenance contracts are awesome and they will offer to you even if you didn't buy the mower at Sears. I have used Buzz's in the past but right off the bat they charge you between $26.00 & $35.00 just to look at it and then from there the price goes up...they will tell you the average mower repair for them is between $67.00 to $85.00. "

"The best in town is M&M, but usually has a 3 month waiting period. I usually end up going to Sears on Spruce off of Dale Mabry."

"Best to use someone close. The repair shops charge a fortune thinking that they can get you to purchase a new mower instead of fixing the old one. FYI, if you purchase at Sears, they have their own repair center here in Tampa and they are GREAT at honoring any of the warrantee/guarantees and get things back in a hurry. "

"There's a place on Armenia on the left north of Hillsborough where the road narrows. Been there for years. All they do is lawnmowers"

"We use Jim Hannigan's Mobile lawnmower repair, his number is 641-6835. He is reliable, fair and moderately priced. "