TonysPower.com

I first found Tony on Craigslist a few months ago. I’d bought a single stage Toro snow thrower/​blower 5 years ago and couldn’t get it to run. I took it in to Tony’s small shop (next door to the «Breakfast King» at Santa Fe and Mississippi). Tony told me that he’d tune it up for $ 65, but that that might not solve the problem and he’d call me either way. Turns out the carburetor had to be replaced. Because the engine was only a single stage one, the ethanol gasoline that sat inside it soon turned to water (since ethanol is made from corn and corn has a high water content). Another $ 30, and I got my snow blower back with a new carburetor. I also found out where the only gas station in Colorado is that sells regular gasoline that is NOT ethanol. My snow blower worked perfectly and then Spring hit, so I drained the gasoline and oil and stored it away.
With all the recent rain, I couldn’t get outside to mow for over a week (after having put down fertilizer). Don’t have a scythe, so fired up my lawn mower yesterday and mowed the front yard. Took me most of the day to trim the front and back yards with the string trimmer. So this morning, I went back out to tackle the back yard. The lawn mower started right up and I was able to mow about ¹⁄₃ of the back yard until after the last time I emptied the grass catcher and tried to pull the starter cord – it wouldn’t move at all. I read through my owner’s manual, but it was useless so I began watching Youtube videos to try to figure out what was wrong. Most showed how to replace the cord, which involved taking the lawn mower apart. Since that was beyond my skill level, I called Tony. When I explained what had happened, Tony said, «your grass is very tall and wet, isn’t it?» I admitted he was right. He told me to turn the lawn mower onto its side (NOT the side on which the air filter was located) and to scrape off all the wet grass stuck to the bottom of the mower. There was a LOT of grass that I scraped off (after first unplugging the spark plug). Pulled the cord and it started right back up again. I managed to finish mowing all of my back yard before any rain hits. Thanks, Tony!