(ET) Thoughts on fixing a lawn sweeper

[CZ Unit <cz alembic crystel com>]

Finally got the parts for my Elec-trak powered sweeper on Friday, and 
spent a good chunk of Saturday putting them in.

I'm glad I ordered new bolts for the wheel spindles, because they are an 
odd size and thread. Well worth the money.

I'm glad I bought a new spindle as well; one of them was badly rusted, 
so I just replaced it.

The new bearings are nice; the rod now spins without vibrating much, and 
the brushes are a lot more smooth. Bought some new brush clips as well; 
it's nice to get all of them on there.

Overall though I can see why the bearings failed: They are under a lot 
of stress, it's a lot of mass to spin, and they are not sealed bearings 
so they will get leaves, dirt, and crud in there eventually.

It's a lot quieter (got a new master link for the chain) especially when 
you put oil in the oil port for the pulley/gear shift. Makes some noise, 
but not nearly as bad. And yet.

It stinks at picking up leaves. The big problem is if you hit a lot of 
leaves; if you have the metal guard on the motor/chain part, then leaves 
and debris get picked up by the spinning chain and become deposited in 
the gear teeth on the top pulley. They stretch the chain till it falls 
off, then you have to take the whole thing apart. Running it without the 
guard keeps this from happening a lot, but man that is a lot of stuff 
that could catch fingers and such.

I think it's designed for grass catchings; I have used it on that and it 
works well. But for serious leaf work I'll stick with my old Craftsman 
gas tractor+dual bagger option with 55 gallon drum liner bags. I can 
fill two of them in a few minutes with chewed up leaves, then I dump 
them in the back pile and keep going...

Just thought I would report in. Worth it, but not for leaf work.