Getting a hose onto the drain spigot was hard enough, but I got that drained and worked on cleaning the air filter. When that was done I started working on the oil filter.
Three-jaw oil filter wrench wouldn't touch it. Got the strap wrench and it wouldn't touch it.
Me: Ahh, damn. Gonna have to do it the messy way, I guess. *sigh*
Speared it with a screwdriver and hit the screwdiver sideways with a hammer--and THAT didn't pop it loose.
I mangled the shit out of the oil filter trying to get it off, and finally got a chisel. I had to take the hood off the tractor and remove the fuel line to have room; but then I set the chisel at a tangent to the curve, and hit it. And hit it. And hit it. And hit it. And hit it. And hit it. And hit it. And hit it. And hit it. And hit it. And hit it. And hit it. And hit it.
Then it moved a little bit.
I kept hitting it and it kept moving. Maybe every third blow from the hammer and the thing would turn a couple of degrees. Then every second blow it would turn a little bit.
I have three hammers in my toolbox. A 5-lb hand sledge, a 2-lb ripping hammer, and then a regular 1-lb claw hammer. I kept trying to use the claw hammer because my hand was getting so tired I could barely hold the ripping hammer, but the claw hammer simply did not have enough mass to do the job. So I had to keep hammering with it until the oil filter had loosened enough that the 1-lb hammer was enough.
I hadn't gone right to the hand sledge because that was too much hammer for the job; it's hard to aim that thing and I was working too close to the carburator to risk hitting it. And the position was awkward and I'm out of shape enough that I could only have hit it once or twice with that thing, anyway.
But even though it had been broken loose, it was still not loose, so I had to keep hitting the damned chisel with a hammer to turn it. I finally had moved it enough that I needed to reposition the chisel to a new place on the filter housing--about a quarter-turn--but it was still so tight that I just had to keep hammering away at it. Sweating my ass off because we finally got summer weather but I'm not used to it thanks to all the cold weather we've had.
But eventually, it was loose enough to unscrew by hand. And it looked like this:
I have never, in my life, had that much trouble removing an oil filter. I mean, the one on the red Escort was bad, but at least that one yielded to the screwdriver method.
I don't know what the unpacking and assembly procedure is for a lawn tractor. I'd bet that the filter is installed at the factory. I don't know; but it should not have been that fricking hard to remove it, even if it had been on there eleven years. It was probably put on dry and torqued down far too tightly. Not a problem if you change the filter every year, or every other year. Shit.
I put the new filter on and refilled the crankcase, run it and checked for leaks, and made sure there was enough fresh 30 weight in it, then put the hood back on and put her away. I think I'll adjust the valve lash and get a new spark plug put in, too, but just changing the oil took long enough that I had no more time for it today. (Saturday, that is.)
And then it's off to Menards' for a new battery. Get it into tiptop shape!
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The other thing I got done today was to go buy a "FOR SALE BY OWNER" sign, at the behest of the co-owners of the back lot. It had been requested that I do that, and that I put my sister's phone number on it; having done that, now I can hope it sells relatively quickly, so I'll no longer have to cut the grass on it. Then I'll need to decide what to do with the tractor, because I won't need it to cut the grass unless I'm feeling really lazy. Maybe get a snowplow for it....
* * *
Boy, are my arms tired.