O What A Tangled Web We Weave

Our lawnmower is a gazillion years old, we bought it used when we moved into the new place.  Our old place didn't have any lawn.

The lawnmower guy who sold it to us said the Briggs & Stratton motor on it would run forever.  It pretty much has.  Starts nearly always first pull, even after winter storage.

But other stuff has fallen off.  Last summer the adjustable metal bracket that holds the rear wheel snapped in half.

I drilled a hole in the mower handle and mounted the wheel permanently, no longer adjustable height but who cares.

Today, that arrangement fell apart.

• The wheel bearing inside the wheel disintegrated
  
• So I cut a piece of 5/8" PVC pipe that fit perfectly inside the wheel
  
• I went looking for some pipe or tubing to fill the gap between the 1/4" bolt and the 5/8" PVC
  
• Discovered the 1/4" nuts on the bolt fit perfectly inside the PVC
  
• But I needed 5 of them to fill the gap, and I only had 5 10/32 nuts in total.  Two more are needed to attach the bolt to the mower (had several 10/24, but they won't work!)
  
• Looked high and low for something else to fill the gap, until I found a spring
  
• By putting the spring between two nuts and tightening it, the spring expanded outward just enough to grip the PVC and make a good new wheel bearing
  
• Greased the PVC, inserted the bolt, tightened the nuts, and everything worked without a trip to the hardware store