Vern's Stories

Monday, October 5, 2026

I'd be happy if it started up on the eighth or ninth pull.

In the early 80's or maybe mid 80's I wanted to mow my yard every couple of weeks. During that time frame I was not making a gross buttload of money.

Because of that a new mower was out of the question.

So yard sale mowers it is. 50 bucks here I come.

This one mower I bought. Man that thing was awful. If I got it started within 30 minutes I thought it was a miracle. And then if I stopped it to empty the grass catcher, another fight to start was on.

I forget what the motor was, was not a briggs and stratton.

Invariably it would take me an hour to get the thing running. New plug, clean the carb, got gas, it was in time, good ignition, I just could not make it go.

I got so frustrated one time I threw the screwdriver I was holding. Hard. Very hard.

Ya know where it went? Right thru the damn gas tank.

Got rid of that mower and got another yard sale mower.

Best decision I ever made.

Thursday, October 1, 2026

I'm hoping I can still learn something.

How a Turbocharger Works - And What Kills Them

I admit I do not know anything about turbochargers, boost from them, and how to diagnose if something goes wrong. Never owned one, drove one or worked on a car with one. Until now.

So. My daughter owns a 2015 ford escape with the 2.0L ecoboost engine.

Yesterday she had some whitish bluish smoke from the tailpipe and maybe running a little rough. Internet surfing indicates that can sometimes happen with turbos. At first I thought head gasket, but now I am leaning to something else.

One of her coworkers found a broken vacuum hose. Didn't have any tubing so they tried to tape it up. Didn't work of course.

I looked at it with my grandsons, they put a new piece of hose on it. That car uses a vacuum pump as a vacuum source, doesn't come from the intake manifold.

She drove it and for now it is driving normally. She said it drives better than it has in a long time.

So I am doing a learning regimen about this car and found the info linked above and thought I would share.

I paid for a subscription to alldatadiy for this car. It is very hard to find what I am looking for.

Do you guys know of a better online data service I can use??