Hard drive failure

A few years back when I went to Windows 10, the PC seemed to run a bit slower. I sort of expected that, a W10 was bigger and took longer to do stuff.  It's been like that since Windows 3.1; a more cynical person might claim that it was a deliberate ploy between Intel and Microsoft to increase sales?

This got worse and worse, with disc usage being really high. Damn Windows. I eventually bought a SSD (Evo 750 256G) about a year ago. I installed it along side the HDD and it just sat there for storage. Well, the PC certainly speeded up. 

However, this latest Fall Creator's edition seemed to slow everything down again, particularly start up and shut down. I didnt think any more of it until I decided to clean the HDD and remove it. It was taking over an hour to move 100M bytes. I found the usual whining about how Windows 10 was the worst ever, and its disc access was so slow. I'd already tried all the solutions in the past, so quickly skipped to new solutions. There weren't any, just the odd post about impending HDD failure, which fitted with my observation; the drive would read data fine, then drop to 0B/s for 30s, then read ok. Windows disc manager showed it was OK. Another utility showed reallocated sector count is 1992. It's a 500G, so that's a lot of storage gone. I've had it for 5 years and manufactured 6 years ago.

This is my first personal HDD failure; I've owned about 15 HDD, the first costing over £100 for a 1.3GB in ~1993 (you can get around 4TB for £100 now, and it's a lot faster) I remember copying a CD onto it and having half left; but this was when Windows only took a few MB. I've also had one fail at work in 2006.  It turned into a proper coffee grinder. The support staff didn't know what a HDD failure was, so that tells you how uncommon failures are; they supported about 1500 PCs.

Now the disc is out of the PC, it's running a lot faster. I imagine Windows was updating the drive status on the HDD which was taking a long time to complete.

Broken basket full buzzer - Cub Cadet

I managed to overfill the bag 5 times today as the buzzer for bag full had broken. Really annoying as the deck starts shaking and dumping grass. Then even when the bag is emptied, the chute is rammed full and isn't that easy to clear.

The bag full assembly 629-1089a is 1 item consisting of a switch and very loud buzzer. A snip at €100. My junk box didnt have anything close to replace the buzzer. The buzzer is a mallory ps-551q, 105dB, available at mouser for €10.
It turns out the buzzer was taking 1A, the spec is 0.2A. It comes apart easily to reveal a large piezo and a THP pcb. A 4011 drives a few transistors, a small transformer and the piezo. Having tested the actives, I put a probe on the 4011. Dead.  A 20p item in the '80s when I used them for various projects and still a few in stock. Probably £1 for 10 now. A quick swap and all was back to its deafening old self. Consumption was around 0.15A
Not a bad saving for an hours work !

Deck removal - Cub Cadet CC1016

I couldn't find a video anywhere for removal of the deck where a catcher is fitted.

Remove upper cowling belt protection both sides. Note lhs near rear wheel has 2 bolts, not 3 - look carefully. 5/8"
Remove catcher, remove sliding metal clearing plate, then remove long tube down to deck (2 small r-clips + dowels)
Put some wood left to right under deck, then drop the deck
Pull J pins near rear wheels (on deck) - note for replacement, use the top hole (bottom hole marked 42" deck)
lhs remove 2 front bolts holding bottom deck cowl in place and pull it free a bit.
rhs a bit awkward, but 2 bolts holding bottom deck cowl. They are on the deck. Pull free, else can't do the next step
roll backwards until the front U is clear of bracket
Jack up the front on the bumper about 100mm. Check U is well clear. 
Remove large deck spring rhs near rear wheel
Remove belt off clutch
Raise deck lever
Either slide the deck out, or using a trolley jack you can roll the front sideways. Sliding is quite easy and safest.


Checked all pulleys on deck and drive. Large idler is shot. Small is ok.
Drive pulleys are all but shot. Looks like you can't just change the bearings as the pulleys are welded together.
lhs rear V pulley on dedicated bracket 6203RS NHI-3. Boss on one side 16mm, od 20.5, id 9.7. pulley id 31.5, od 77.8mm. 756-0236, a snip at €39.60
idler, flat sides, on moving drive engage plate 99502H. boss on one side 13.4, od 19, id 9.7, pulley id 69, od 81. pretty sure it's 756-04224 but od doesnt match. There are 3 of them. A bargain at €21.30

Chimney

Annual clean ~2 hours.





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