Made a thousand dollar mistake

[juniorc82]

I was changing the oil in the white magic. I had the ball valve open on the cat pump which I was unaware of. Since the pump and engine share a mutual drain resivoir , I also drained the cat pump along with the engine. I put oil in the engine and went and cleaned the olive garden. I noticed after about an hour of run time the wand started sputtering almost like a machine gun. Went out side to check and heard a loud screech. The pulley on the pump locked up . After pricing a rebuild I said screw it and am having james at carpet solutions in st louis put a new one on tomarrow. I figure with the machine having 1700 hours this is one less component I will have to worry about. I feel so stupid for making such a bone head mistake. I think I may have him splice a second ball valve in the drain line so there will be a fail safe for future oil changes.

 

[ruff]

Bummer!
Though after 1700 hrs that machine made you plenty of $$
Not much of a consolation, but those mistakes go with the business. I wish my largest mistake was $1000.00

 

[Ron Werner]

bummer, I can relate.
my first TM, being ignorant of TM's, I just used what the orig owner had rigged up, he had a clear plastic tubing plumbed onto the blower so when I drained the blower oil all I needed to do was just pull it down. There was no ball valve or plug on it. So, at one job the hose falls down, drains all the oil. Made some interesting noises to get my attention. rebuilt it, $1700, that lasted less than a year, eventually had to replace, $3700. Live and learn.