(ET) First mow, 15 minutes, blew up motor

[Christopher Zach <cz beaker crystel com>]

*sigh* There are days when you wonder.

Took the snowblower off the E20 and put the deck back on. All three 
motors work. I have a yard which grows a bumper crop of "ground ivy" in 
the back which basically kills everything then dies off in June leaving 
a moonscape. Then back next spring.

Roundup doesn't work. Weed killer doesn't work. Fire doesn't work. The 
only thing that works is to wait for it to cover everything, then drop 
the deck as low as it goes (no spacers) and hit it with the mower. 
Apparently ground ivy has not yet evolved a way to deal with the E20.

Well sort of. It covers branches and stuff and while mowing the left 
motor and blade hit a good sized branch which jammed the motor. Not a 
biggie, this is a "new" tall thin motor with a nice disconnect so I put 
the tractor in reverse and notice the smoke pouring out of the side of 
the motor....

*sigh* Shut down the deck and check the motor. Yep, the wire harness is 
burning through but more important I hear a tick tick when I turn the 
motor and it doesn't work right. Pull the breaker on top (yep, it welded 
shut, so much for that) and pulled the motor top.

On the good side it didn't burn the armature though it was hot. Bad side 
two commutator bars are now slightly lifted and one brush was stuck in 
the holder. Freed the brush, pressed the commutators back down with a 
screwdriver, reassembled, cut the burned wiring harness, rewired.

Motor works but there is still a tick. Not sure if the raised bars will 
wear down or if it will wear the brushes faster. Mows fine, but when I 
shut down the motor coasts a bit more than the others.

Never dull. I think I'm going to get the tiller out and just till half 
the back yard and start over. Not sure if the ground ivy can handle 
being tilled, I did this about 15 years ago on a part of the yard and it 
took a decade before the ivy was able to come back.

How is everyone else doing?