Freebird

Did that twice already. Pulled the carb and cleaned it on the outside with spray carb cleaner and then took it all apart. It was actually very clean on the inside. I had already put at least two or three tanks of gas through it this year so the gas was fresh. Still, i completely disassembled the carb, removed anything rubber or plastic and soaked it for almost an hour. Ran wire through all the jets just to make sure that they weren't plugged. None were plugged but I made sure to clean them very well anyway. Made absolutely no difference. Thought that maybe I missed something so pulled the carb and did it all again. Still didn't help. I'm 99% sure it is the fuel solenoid. When I gook it apart and pulled the bowl, there was no gas in the bowl. The when I pull the line from the fuel pump, gas comes out under pressure. The only thing that could be preventing it from getting to the bowl is that fuel solenoid plunger.

Yea, I use the old John Deere primarily for the snow blower but I can put the deck on it if I have a problem with my main mower. I honestly can't complain too much about my Snapper. Like I said, it's 10 years old now and 2000 hours is a good bit for a non-commercial mower. I'm sure I could spend just a very few bucks on it and get a lot more years from it. That may well be what I do. We'll see. I hate to spend even the $6,000.00 that it will cost to replace it. If money was not a consideration, I would buy a front deck Ferris diesel. I think a front deck would work better for my needs than the mid deck models but they are all expensive and I just can't pay 13,000 - 16,000 for a mower.

My new RSV has HIDs in the headlight and passing lights and they seem to work very well. I've read many posts here though about the trouble people go through to make them work properly and I can tell you that the fist time I have any issues with the HIDs, they will be replaced with LEDs.

This is actually the one that I came very close to buying the other day. It is their commercial version and for the price, has a lot of nice features. It was on sale for a little less than the price shown. This is with a 27 HP Briggs Endurance motor. Don't know much about that particular engine model. The Briggs Vanguard on the Snapper has been OK though. They offer this mower with three different engine options. You can get it with a 23 HP Kawasaki for $400.00 more or a 27 HP Kohler for about a thousand more than the Briggs....so they list for 5999.00 (Briggs), 6399.00 (Kawasaki) or $6999.00 (Kohler). I've heard good and bad about all of them but would likely just go with the Briggs. http://www.husqvarna.com/us/products/zero-turn-mowers/m-zt-61/967177007/

I notice that the Bad Boy posted above only has a 3 gallon gas tank. That is comparable to most of the residential zero turns I suppose but one thing I'll miss about the Snapper is the twin 7 gallon tanks.

Yea, none of them are made like they once were. Snapper and Simplicity are actually the same company now. I don't remember which one bought the other one but it was a few years ago.

It does have spindles that can be greased and I do that on a fairly regular basis. Gas is fresh. I'm almost SURE that it's the fuel solenoid. Don't know what else it could be. If I had it here, it would take about 15 minutes to verify. I just can't see paying 10,000 to 12,000 and higher for a good zero turn commercial mower. This one has lasted 10 years at about half that price. So the commercial one would have to last at least 20 years to make sense economically and I doubt I will be here in 20 years. I will either be dead or living some place with a smaller yard or no yard.

Agree. That's what I did on the '99 and is how I will do this one. Haven't split the fairing yet but will add the splitter when I take it apart to wire the GPS.

Well, you could plug the audio out jack right into the aux of the cassette deck. That will route the sound through your bikes system as long as you have it set on "AUX". As for the microphone though, about your only option is a special cable if you want to use it through your headset. @BuddyRich used to make and sell a cable just for that but I'm not sure if he still has any. I know he was having a problem finding some of the parts that he needed.

OK....so I'm trying really hard to get the yard all cleaned up from the winter and ready for Maintenance Day. We have had rain so often that the yard seldom dries out enough to get caught up. Finally had a nice weekend and I got ready to get on it EARLY Saturday morning. Guess what, the mower wouldn't start. Now I had a good weekend about 2 weeks ago and ended up with a broken deck belt. Nobody had one so had to order it and lost another week. Then it rained. So now it's finally all dried out and the mower won't start. I started at 7:00 in the morning and worked on the stupid thing all day and never got it started. I don't claim to be a small engine expert but I can usually make things go. There had been intermittent problems all spring. It got where it would run pretty fair but the longer you mowed, the worse it got until you finally had to give it some choke to make it run. I assumed that there was trash in the carburetor so when it finally wouldn't start at all, I pulled the carb and cleaned it. Put is all back together and it still wouldn't start. When I say won't start, I mean it doesn't even TRY. So I pulled the carb a second time. This time I made SURE that it was clean. Tore it down completely and soaked all the metal parts in carb cleaner. Soaked it for about 30 minutes and then ran wire through all the jets and etc. and made SURE that I could see through them all and there was no trash anywhere in the carb. Looked very good. Put is all back together and NOTHING. Doesn't even try to fire. Now I know I have spark because I can squirt a little starter fluid into the breather and it runs. It has fresh gas and if I pull the hose off the fuel pump, it's pumping as it should. So now I've worked on this thing until about 2:00 in the afternoon and am wishing that I could get it running just enough to drive it into the pond and let it sink. No such luck. I finally give up and decide to take it to the local small engine shop in Wellington. Of course I have to get it on the trailer first. So I hook up a cable hoist and start cranking it up onto the trailer. I am literally worn out from working in the hot sun all day and now trying to crank this thing up on the trailer. It should be this hard to do. I finally have it up to the point that the back tires and just getting to the trailer...almost there....then I notice something that made me feel even MORE stupid. The parking brake was set on the mower. So that explains why I am almost killing myself trying to get this think loaded. I release the brake and it almost jumped on the trailer. So I get it to the shop. Now this is a shop that I've used once before and ordered parts from on a couple of occasions Older gentleman and as nice a person as I've ever met. He said "ok...tell me what you have tried and done so far"....so I told him. He said well....did you test the fuel solenoid. Uh...well...no....and then I felt even dumber because I had to unscrew it from the carb both times that I pulled it so it should have been second nature to at least check it. To be honest though, I really didn't even know exactly what it does. He explained to me that it is essentially an "anti-backfire" device. When you turn on the key, it sucks in a plunger so that the gas can flow through the venturi tube. He asked it I just wanted to take it back home and check it myself because that could very well be what it is. I thought about it for about...I don't know....2 seconds and told him NO....I had loaded it and drug it up here so I would just leave it and he could check it. After doing some searching, I would just about bet that he is right. I also saw where a lot of people just cut the little plunger off and therefore disable it completely. If it were here, that is exactly what I would do. At least for now so that I could get finished with the yard. I honestly don't see the reason for it on this motor. If it was a gravity feed system with no fuel pump, it would make sense because if a float stuck open, you would flood your cylinders with gas. With this mower though and it's vacuum type fuel pump that can only pump when the engine is running, I don't see a need for it and from my research, a lot of people agree with me and disable it. So....I did get MOST of the yard mowed. I fired up the 45 year old John Deere with the old 10HP Iron Kohler and got er done. It takes about twice as long because it is SLOW and it takes about a mile and a half to turn it but it continues to just chug chug chug and mow mow mow. That is until late yesterday evening when apparently the deck belt broke. Not sure because it is all enclosed and I have to pull the deck and remove the covers to even SEE the belt. All I know is that it quit mowing. So now my backup mower is also down. When I went to the local hardware store to see if they had a couple things I needed, all those shiny new mowers were talking to me as I walked past them. I think it's getting close to that time. My current Snapper zero turn is 10 years old now and has about 2000 hours on it. I don't know what is a LOT of hours for a mower but this one seems to be having issues too often now. Maybe 2000 hours is a lot for a non-commercial mower. It was the very top of the line residential mower when I bought it. 21 HP Briggs Vanguard, 52" fabricated steel deck, etc. What do you folks think? Am I asking too much from a mower with this many hours on it? I can tell you for sure that I'm one or two breakdowns away from buying a new one.

I have had very similar experiences my friend. That's why I too have a plastic tarp that I put under mine. Sometimes it's nothing more than an educated guess where that oil is actually going to fall.

There are a lot of instructions on how to turn off the various Windows 10 features that report all your personal stuff. I just got a new company computer and they always buy Dell. Dell is not near the computer that they once were but it's OK. I did talk them into getting me one with a solid state drive this time. It makes a HUGE difference in performance over the old spinning disks. It will boot up in about 45 seconds I guess though I haven't timed it. No doubt much faster than the old one. That being said, I have never been a fan of Mac computers but after my son went to work for Apple, he finally talked me into buying a MacBook Pro. I use it for all my personal stuff. I can only say that after using it now for a couple of years, I HATE having to use the Dell. It just feels cheap compared to the Mac. Unless Windows and the PC manufactures make some big changes, I figure I will be using Macs for a long time.

Yes. The only exception was that the '99 had a different base. They are interchangeable though.

It is a VERY liberal little school. That doesn't surprise me at all.

Sounds to me like you used the wrong Mobil 1. I use nothing but Mobil 1 Motocycle oil. I'm not sure but I think that the 0W/40 is energy conserving oil and if so, then yes, it will cause your clutch to slip. You can look at the bottle and see if it has the energy considering logo on it.

Supposed to be a secret.

Beautiful. @Yammer Dan this is the one. Procrastinate and lose.

Some excellent wiring diagrams here. http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?42358-1st-Gen-Wiring-Schematics-1983-1993

No, Yamaha does not use a standard CB mount. You will need the antenna and the base mount as we'll as an adapter cable. The doc posted by Kevin shows the part numbers needed to install the Firestik. If you scroll to the end of that document, you will see that it covers the first gen and the second gen. I'll just post it here. To replace only the CB antenna, you will need: 1 FL3B Firestik "Firefly" Antenna 1 203EZ - Fold Over Adapter Item: 203EZ 1 Stud Mount - #JBC930- Oversize 1 18" 18SMMPL Pre-made Coax Cable (CB) To replace the AM/FM antenna also (If you want them to match. You will need: 1 AM/FM3-B Firestik AM/FM Antenna 1 203EZ - Fold Over Adapter Item: 203EZ 1 Stud Mount - #JBC930- Oversize 1 128XMOTO29 RG-8X 12' Pre-made Coax Cable (AM/FM) Now Marshall/s original article just calls for two of the FL3B CB antennas and I suppose it will work for AM/FM but you really don't need the CB antenna on the AM/FM side. . The AM/FM3-B is made to look like and match the CB antenna but is actually just wound with nylon cord. It is supposed to be a better choice for the AM/FM side. The cable listed for the AM/FM is one that will reach all the way from the antenna to inside the fairing. I didn't want to go to all that trouble when I did the '99 so on the AM/FM side, I just cut and spliced a new end onto the existing cable to plug into the new AM/FM antenna. I suppose though that replacing it all the way is the proper way to do it. Mine worked fine though. I never use the AM/FM anyway. Also, you can forgo the two 203EZ fold over adapters if you don't use a cover on your bike and don't need the antennas to fold. Here is the Word document that Kevin uploaded in .pdf version for those of you who may not have Microsoft Office. By the way, the Firestik AM/FM3-B antenna has been discontinued but they can still be found if you look around. Just do a Google search for it. Marshall Mod .pdf

I just got a response from Jim Anderson's wife that he left this world on his 60th birthday. Please keep Karen and the rest of his family and friends in your thoughts and/or prayers. Jim was from Kitimat, BC.

Actually on the second gen....that is all it is. Replacing the stock antenna with the Firestiks.

I thought about Halle because I've always said that I would be willing to spend a weekend with Halle Berry just to prove that I'm not racist. Eileen would NOT like that though.

Yes, I thought about Raven and do like it. Like others have said, I really like girls names for the bikes but nothing comes to mind.

It was COLD and RAINY....almost froze to death on the 225 mile ride home.

LOL....did not. You made that up.