Forgot to mention I also have fully functioning brakes, an important bit. It is much faster than the chain drive but can still run it full bore at maybe 10 m.p.h. Enough for a mower, I suppose. Also this didn’t seem to put any strain on the motor, which stayed cool. Also noticed my older battery is going bad and neither is fully charged. So maybe it would be a little bit faster. I’m starting to lust after those pricey lithium batteries. Much quieter than the old mower but the transaxle probably needs some grease, after 20 years of mowing in the Texas summer.

I was been simultaneously itching to try out the new direct drive on the riding mower project, but also a bit afraid. It something burned up or broke, I was probably finished. So I promised myself I would do it right and reassemble the whole back end and put in a proper kill switch. And I was distracted with the blades.

I decided at the last minute to keep the big blade height handle. I figured out a way to connect it with the new motor set up. Hopefully I will be able to use it to control the blade height. At this point I am happy with the motor and the electronics. I will post a video in the next posting.