Too hasty?

Mmm… I don’t think so. Much to my surprise, I managed to get hold of some exact replacement screws this morning for my ‘débroussailleuse’ from les Briconautes in Montignac. Usually whenever I go there for almost anything I come out empty-handed because they don’t have the item I want or they’ve run out of stock, but today they came up trumps.

To be fair, they’ve always had a good range of nuts and bolts (what’s called ‘quincaillerie’ in France) and I think it may even have got better as the company seems to have been given a good shake-out to make them more competitive. Anyway, I got 100 each of screws and washers for 7€ which I didn’t think was too bad at all.

I couldn’t wait to give my machine another go after I’d replaced the missing screws and when I pulled the starter cord it made a bit of a clanking noise. After a couple of pulls some bits fell out but the machine started and continued running as before. As can be seen in the following image, there was a screw (yes, another screw…) and some bits of casting.

The larger piece was curved so I’d say that they were something to do with the crankcase area around the starter pull which would explain why the machine had appeared to be locked if they were preventing the starter pull rotor from turning. But anyway, the machine continued running perfectly so they can’t have been critical.

But of course, I’m living on borrowed time. I can’t in all honesty now sell the machine on for anything less than a give-away price even though it’s running because who knows how long it will continue doing so? It did run perfectly with no problems whatsoever for a couple of hours while I cut the grass between the house and the road as I’d intended to do yesterday but although I can’t be bothered to take it apart again to find out what’s broken, for all I know the crankcase could break apart at any time.

The new machine that I ordered yesterday from Germany is already on its way and I suppose I’ll now end up with the two of them. While I’m waiting I’ll continue using this old one on the grass at the back of my house, which I’m thinking may take me at least two or three days to get down to a height where I can use my ride-on by which time the new machine should have arrived. I’ll then just keep the old one in reserve or for doing really rough work but if the new one comes up to my expectations, I can’t see much point in hanging onto it 😕