Fun with the Ariens drive chain

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Sep 25, 2004
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Marshfield , MA
Just as I was finishing the 2nd pass of the driveway,the Ariens' stopped moving. Yesterday, I took the belly plate of and found the drive chain broken. I went out back of the shed to my OPE parts dept and pulled in a dead 524 tractor. I have acquired 4 old 24" from Craiglists free stuff. So I decided to take a chain from the most stripped one. Lo and behold, it has a master link. Life is good. The link is 3 pieces. the 3rd piece is a spring steel retainer. AKA as geezus, As in " geezus where did that clip go? Despite putting it safely in my pocket , it was nowhere to be found It was in my grasp long enough to realize it was identical to a 1 and 3 spd bicycle chain ML. I bought one at the local bicycle store after coming up empty at the ACE hardware store. I bought one. When I tried to put it on. Geezus where did it go. across the shed into the void. Undefeated, I returned and bought 2 more. the first clip flew , but this time I heard it bounce. I grabbed the light and moved some stuff. There it was, I used a pair of needle nose pliers and successfully installed the retainer. This is my first time to have to do anything to the tractor in 20 yrs of old Arienss.
 
Master link clips are like socks, they will show up on the dark side of the moon
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When working on stuff like that, try putting a see through plastic over your hands and work. If the clip/spring flies, chances are it will stay in the bag.
 
Yeah, it seems like I spend more time than I like walking around behind my magnetic (roofing) nail finder. I always think it probably looks funny from an outsider walking by my garage; me running that thing around looking for that screw, or spring from a weed whacker carburetor.
 
Now for the rest of the story. Yesterday was the first day above freezing in 12 days. I needed to replace the belly pan. I was gonna scrape the 40 yrs of accumulated gunk off of it, when I noticed the original geezus clip stuck in the muck. I retrieved it and bolted on the dirty pan ready to hang onto the next loose parts. The clip was a bit mangled, It responded well to a little TLC from some needle nose pliers. It sits on an entire spare link in my change bowl.

yeehaw ,you just described the beginning of my journey into fixing small stuff. Hours spent looking for some vitally essential, seen only for a milli second as it flew out of sight, widget. As my vision has dimmed, my brain accounts for it by anticipating and planning the set up better.
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