Please help, I am the recent victim of divorce and I have 2 questions (one about my lawnmower and one about my bobcat skidsteer.
1st, I hit a stump with my riding lawnmower and now smokes is coming out of the engine area and it is using oil quickly. Any ideas? I have cleaned the spark plug. A friend said he thought some ring??? or seal??? broke inside the engine and is causing the oil and whatever else to mix inside the engine. I would really like to be able to fix this myself as I can't really afford repair costs. I am not afraid to work on things.

Next, my bobcat skid steer won't start. I got it started already this season and have tried to hook my bushhog attachment up and now it won't start. I got the attachment physically on the skidsteer but can't get the hydraulic hose hooked up?

I would really appreciate any help.

Thanks
Amy

he was thinking about it breaking a ring on the piston, which they do sometimes break but it doesn't cause the oil to "mix" it causes increased oil consumption, not a quick fix, you'll have to tear the engine down and re-ring it. as for the bobcat, does it have electric start?, my be a bad solenoid, you could try jumping that to just get it going.

About bobcat, have tried to jump it off. Even left it connected to my suburban for about 45 minutes. It was suggested this evening that my ex might have disconnected something to prevent it from starting. Any ideas?

I will probably have someone who can work on engines come out and check my lawnmower.

Thanks for replying.

well be warned that some devious people will do stuff to the fuel and all, sugar would be the most common in the fuel. Not saying to drain it though. but when you look at all the wires. ALL OF EM, make sure they are all connected, might be snipped, who knows. could have the little in line fuse was taken out, that prevents it from starting as well. but yeah the lawnmower may have a broken ring, if its smoking like hell, and never did it before you hit the stump. i don't know what engine it is, but if it has a cast iron bore like say a I/C briggs, the damage to the bore itself should be to a minimum, cast iron bore of course, new rings wouldn't be that much and as for hiring just a small engine shop or getting a person to do it wouldn't be much, but it does require to replace the rings or find out the problem to take the sump of the engine off and taking the piston and rod out. which shouldn't cost much since its not a "rebuild" just a re ringing, and the rings can break, though it may be something more serious that can only be found out bu looking further into the engine.

Guess what, bobcat runs now that all wires are CONNECTED again!! Now my problem is getting hydraulic hoses connected. How do you release pressure, someone suggested that could be my problem.

If you don't know alot about hydraulics, I would suggest leaving the hydraulic lines to someone with experience. You can get hurt very easily if you don't know what you are doing. Trust me, I had a friend that was killed when the bucket on an excavator fell on him because someone relieved pressure on the wrong line.