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Re: thoughts on oil for pressure washer

To: Elton Clark <lotus.tony@airmail.net>,
Subject: Re: thoughts on oil for pressure washer
From: Douglas Shook <shook@usc.edu>
Date: Sat, 18 Aug 2001 19:49:02 -0700
Elton Clark wrote:

- snip -

> Gripe one:  why do they make it so much trouble to drain little
> motors?  I have one that I run out of fuel and then turn it up-side-down and
> let it drain out of the filler  . . .no way you can get the plug out for a
> good hot-drain without 3rd degree burns and skinned knuckles!

Elton,

I know just what you mean.  I think the vertical shafts
are the worst. For the mower, the plug is on the bottom in
the middle, of course, but you cannot get at it unless you
prop the mover on it side, unscrew the plug and
acrobatically drop it down directly over the drain pain
before all the oil spews out on the driveway.

It could be a circus act.

Gas engines with horizontal shafts don't seem nearly as
bad, but then there is the air compressor where one
basically has to let the oil run down the side of the pump
and try to direct it toward a paper funnel or something.

I guess the manufacturers really don't expect us to
maintain these things...

My next door neighbor's 3 or 4 year-old mower sounded like
it had a loose rod or main bearing.  I yelled over the
fence that it might be low on oil.  He turned off the
mower, and I repeated that he ought to check the oil.  He
said, "Where do you do that?"

So, obviously, he had not checked or changed the oil in
his mower in four years, and now the bearings are shot as
a result.  

Now I think this is the person for whom the motors are
designed.  This probably is why the drain plugs are not
accessible.  The manufacturers really do not expect us to
even look for them.

doug

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