Deal with a dead lawn mower

So, I have this incredibly crappy lawn mower I got off of craigslist. I thought it had decent specs, and I did ask the guy to start it for me, which he did.

However, I used the lawn mower about 4 times before it started giving me grief. It wouldn’t start until the 100th pull (long after I’d had to use the asthma inhaler.) It would quit every row I’d mow. The self-propelled throttle thingy was upside down so holding it in place killed your back.

In January, I had it repaired to the tune of $200+ dollars. (Do not ask me why this happened, I am not happy about the circumstances surrounding that. Actually, okay. They did a ton of work without giving me a figure. Then they’re like, “here you go, it’s $200.”) Still, I thought, “great, this’ll be a really good lawnmower now.” They again started it up in the parking lot and everything. Worked like a charm.

I started lawn mowing season and it was back to its old tricks–only worse. Finally, last month, I could not get it to start. At all.  So now, I have to get a new lawn mower AND dispose of the old one. Turns out I can have it recycled by a place that does ferrous metals. So, that part is fine. But I have to drain the oil and gas first. I for one have very little small engine experience (if I’d had some, I wouldn’t have been in this situation to begin with). However, I did some research and here is what I figured out.

For oil.

If you turn the lawn mower upside-down, you should see a little cap screwed into a hole near the blade base, like this:

Then, you screw it off, like this:

Then you can, if you have some, use some cinder blocks to lift the lawn mower up so the oil can drain out. I just balanced it on the bucket, like this:

That’s it for the oil part. For the gasoline, many online sources say to “run the lawn mower until the gasoline is dry.” Which would make perfect sense, except for the fact that I’m readying it for the dump because it won’t run! Anyway, I did the logical thing and held it on its side while draining the gasoline into another pail.

So for the disposal, where I live anyway, you have to take the oil and gas down to the hazardous waste recycling place. Then you take the lawn mower to the ferrous metals place. Fortunately, when folded up, the stupid thing fits in my trunk.