Recent content by Hammermechanicman

I have a couple customers with bad cams on old craftsman mowers. Not worth having me put cams in them and i showed them the turn bsckwards till it hits compression and then it will crank. They think i am some kind of magician LOL

As much as i hate to admit it i have had good results with china parts on honda GX engines. Got a complete cylinder head off ebay for $44. Looks identical to the OEM. Bolted on and works perfect. I have installed like 20 honda style china carbs with no issues. Same for recoils. I have put a few...

I am sure the quality will double as well as the price for parts <sarcasm alert>

If you take the head off you can put in on a piece of glas with some high grit sandpaper like 600 and hold it flat and swirl it in a figure 8 for about 30 seconds and see if it is warped by the scratch pattern on the head. I sand heads flat if they are warped.

Underground phone cable near my house hit by the county ditch mower. Belongs to Frontier. Can't get a human being on the phone or on their chat feature. When my landline and 50 others craps out maybe they will care.

How fast does fresh oil turn black? A blown head gasket will turn oil black in a couple of hours of running.

A leakdown test would tell you more. If the head was warped the new gasket could have failed on startup. Does it start right up but blows a puff of smoke the runs fine with no smoke? A slightly blown head gasket on that engine will do that.

The head gasket is blown. Seen it blow oil out of the fuel pump a few times.

Remove the paper filter and replace it with the round red screen type. Some paper filters are not compatible with gravity systems.

The great ethanol vs non-ethanol debate rages on!!!! Just like oil, oil filters, spark plugs use what gas makes you happy. I have about 30 things with gas engines that all run regular pump gas and i have stored regular gas in cans for over a year. Never had an issue. I guess i am just luckier...

"When it stalls the only way to get it going is to disconnect the fuel filter and let gravity fill it up again." Does it have a fuel pump or is it a gravity system? Is the fuel filter the pleated paper element type?

Thanks. A very long time ago my father told me that something you have is worth what someone else will pay for it and you are worth what other people think of you. Took a while for it to sink in.

When i took it back she refused to let me eat the blown engine repair. We haggled and i said just pay for the parts and labor for the original repair and the parts for the blown engine. She said OK and then wrote the check for $50 more than that and gave me a hug. She lost her husband 8 years...

If it has the stupid automatic electric parking brake you might try unplugging and plugging in the connector to the brake control module a few times and see what happens. They are famous for corroded connections.

I have a 320 grit ball hone designed for cast iron and works well. I have used it on aluminum for a few seconds and had good results with regular rings.

If letting out the clutch kills the engine then that switch is working. Seat swith a better place to start.

It's a 4stroke. One will be impulse from the crankcase.

There was an article i read on the internet (must be true) that most of the plugs on amazon are counterfeit. I get my plugs from stens and another reputable online source. Took a plug out of a honda once that i was pretty sure was a counterfeit NGK.

I guess i am lucky. I put in close to 100 plugs a year most of which are champion. Haven't seen any failed plugs

I found the guy a used flywheel on fleabay for $100. Cheaper than wasting time with a maybe fix.

Yeah cust asked if i could fix the flywheel. Sorry. Used a hacksaw and a cold chisel to cut the stuff off then found it got up in the bottom bearing. So they get to buy a new spindle.

I have had the RJ19LM not work in some old tecumseh but the nonresistor version worked.

Customer did an oopsie! Then i get this fargon mess. Electric fence plastic string. Has stainless steel wire in it. Just another day...

It varies but this is this morning.... till the satellites move.

I was getting 2mbps on a good day with DSL. Most days was 1.5. Starlink generally gets 120mbps.

The is3100z came in 2 varieties. The older ones, like mine, have separate self contained hydros. The newer ones have a single pump and separate wheel motors. Sounds like the OP has an older one with separate hydros.

Yeah fixing them isn't the issue. Give me a schematic and a parts list and i can fix most things. Did that for 40 years. Nothing special about the technology. Right now my favorite engine to work on is Chondas. I can get most any part now cheap. Just put a new complete chonda cylinder head on a...

You are breaking a 5/8 belt with a 6.5 hp engine. Something wrong here. Are the belts snapping or getting shredded?

Very true but it's just me.

"Kinda sounds like a battery power unit that I need to start researching before they start showing in my shop." I solved that problem in my shop. I don't take in any electric mowers. Every piece of equipment i have taken in has needed parts i can't get. I've spent so much unpaid time searching...

The owner is a lady i have known for 25 years and i just decided to fix it on me. Seems to be the right thing to do.