Me and My Toro Personal Pace Lawn Mower

Six years ago, I became the proud owner of a Toro Personal Pace Lawn Mower. For you Toro neophytes, "Personal Pace" is Toro's nomenclature for what the rest of refer to as "self-propelled." Being in my late 60's, I thought this was my last lawn mower. My theory was I would treat this baby with bi-monthly oil changes, air filter changes, and annual blade sharpening so that it would last a long time--thus postponing the point at which I would have to admit that I needed a lawn service.

Well, in 2007, I noticed that the "personal pace" technology had disappeared and I now had a regular "push mower." Being an optimistic idiot, I decided that this was a "good thing," going so far as to conclude that this was a message from the "Big Guy Upstairs" telling me that I needed the exercise required to push this damn thing.

But this spring, my body rebelled. I finally determined that all of this energy I was expending on my Toro could be used to play tennis or golf. It was an EPIPHANY! This damn mower should be moving itself and here I am pushing it. After examining the mower. I determined that the drive belt and the engaging mechanism were in good shape and that the problem must be the transmission.

Having convinced myself that I should bite the bullet and have it repaired, I went to my local Toro repair shop, Janney's, on north Secor. When I finally was attended to, I told the lady: " I have this Toro Personal Pace Lawn Mower, but unfortunately it has lost its pace, and now it's just personal--that being me." I thought I was being funny ( and the young man next to her smiled), but she just glared at me. I concluded that either she had no sense of humor or that she had heard this same line a hundred times and was sick of it. She informed me that it would be a month or more before they they could look at it to determine the problem. I asked, "Will Toro send someone out to mow my lawn in the meantime?" Her response was: " We are very busy; is there anything else I can do for you?" I left sensing that we did not share the same sense of humor.

Since I was confident that the problem was the transmission that transferred power to the rear wheels, I went home and began taking it apart. I soon learned that one had to disassemble most of the mower to remove the transmission. Being a Toro novice, that required two hours. Having checked the internet, I learned that a transmission was $39, but since I wanted it immediately, I decided to buy it locally. The problem was that the nearest place that stocked it was my humorless friend at Janney's. Having decided to forget humor, I returned the next day to purchase said transmission. On that day Miss or Mrs. Humorless was quite accommodating. Although I was tempted to surmise why she was in a good mood today, I decided to behave myself, get the damn transmission and get out. Of course, instead of $39, it cost me closer to $70, but I chalked that difference up to convenience.

At home, with the help of my wife, it took another four and a half hours to install and reassemble the mower. Nevertheless, I was feeling quite proud of myself, but unfortunately, I soon learned that the pace of the "Personal Pace" mower, when it was operating correctly, was considerably faster than MY personal pace.