Little Foxes

Have you ever noticed how little things that you do not know can lead to very big problems? For instance, I have a Cub Cadet lawn mower and have had it break down about five times in the past two or three years. It has an electric clutch that activates the mower deck and that clutch kept getting loose and spinning on the shaft.

Did you hear my description? It is an electric clutch, so when it spins, the wires that carry electricity to the clutch are damaged and pulled out. One of the mishaps was so serious that it pulled the wired completely out of the housing, which required a replacement with a new clutch at the rate of $100.

Well, I got the new clutch installed last week and cut the grass. I was doing it again this afternoon when suddenly the mower just stopped dead. Fearing the worst, I stepped off the tractor and peered at the wire that is supposed to go through a hole in the deck to the clutch underneath. Just as I suspected, no wires were visible. Lying down on the grass, oblivious to chiggers, I looked under and there they were, stripped of insulation and hanging free.

To make a long long story short, as I was securing the clutch so that it would not spin again, I discovered that there are two, different sides to the bracket that secures it. The bracket, for those who are mechanically inclined, or declined, also serves as a belt guard to hold the deck drive belt on the pulley driven by the clutch.

You can disengage the bracket, swing it back out of the way, and slip the belt off the drive pulley to remove the deck. When I reconnected the deck and replaced the bracket, I made sure that it had engaged the clutch to keep it from spinning. Only this time, I decided to connect it to the opposite side of the bracket. The side, incidentally, that is fastened to the frame with a bolt so that it cannot come loose.

I tried several times to move the bracket far enough to engage the clutch mechanism but was unable to do so. My only recourse was to remove the bolt, lower the bracket, spin the clutch to match the bracket, and bolt it back. And it suddenly dawned on me why it continued to come undone. The side that I was using to hold it was not made for it, and was slipping.

So I have now connected the clutch “where is is supposed to be,” repaired the wires which were broken, and reassembled the connections. That one little thing, which took less than 10 minutes to connect correctly, even if the bolt had to connect with a hole in a blind location, has cost me over one hundred dollars and 15 to 20 hours of “monkeying around.”

I had even contemplated jerry-rigging a clamp on the bracket to keep it from slipping. The little things that we do not know can surely cost us time, money, and frustration.

Solomon noted that in Song of Solomon 2:15
Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes.
Little foxes can spoil an entire harvest, particularly if they strike at a vulnerable time in the development of the crop. “Little things” in our lives that are not controlled and even eliminated can cause significant havoc.  Take care of the little things and the big things take care of themselves. Emily Dickinson may have been the first to say that, but she could have taken it from Solomon.

Take care of the little things.