Up until now I’ve really just removed the battery and drilled a few harmless holes. But there comes a time to start really doing a Teardown. There is a bit more going on than I appreciated. First I removed the dual 42″ blades and the pulleys that ran them. Then I removed the controls and disconnected them from the engine. Then drained and removed the gas tank. A wiring harness was next. There is a somewhat complicated set of manual and electric interlocks that I still need to think about. For instance: shutting off the motor when the seat isn’t occupied, but only if the blades are in use (good if you fall off while mowing) or decoupling power from the drivetrain while braking. Removed the exhaust from the front and explored the engine mounts.

Also looking at wiring and placement of controls. A bit more to it than I realized at first. Will need two controllers, one for the drivetrain and one for the blades. A foot control is probably a better idea than a dashboard knob for a throttle. The second motor controller I have has little documentation. Wires are labeled in Chinese and something resembling English. Some experimenting is probably going to be necessary.

As far as blades, I’ve decided on 4 or 5 small blades used as string trimmer replacements. The whole deck is big and heavy and probably massive overkill for what I want to do. Might dump it all, but I will need a way to figure out how to support the blades and motors and how to make a safety cover. Probably not too hard, but something I didn’t intend to do.

Next big step: engine removal. Really not much left after that, just a frame and some wheels.

Lastly, I’ve started tagging blog entries. My goal is just to be able to group similar entries. I was just using keywords in the title, but best to use the proper tool for the job. Will go back and add tags to older posts.