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I love Gator blades and run them all year. 3” is very short, try at least 3.5” and preferably 4”. If you have an exit chute, bungee cord it up at a 45 degree angle and throw the grass out as far as it will go.

Number 1 through 5 on relays and swap them out until you can see if you are able to start and run mower.

So customer screwed up the valves, carburetor linkage, and should have kept and cleaned OEM carburetor. Other than that he did great, ha!

The loose carburetor stud is stripped and will not work. Possible air leak in intake therefore throwing off air/fuel mixture. Spray carburetor cleaner around intake while engine is running (carefully) and listen for change in Rpm’s, indicating an air leak.

John Deere is the the king of “proprietary parts”. There is something slightly changed so you must buy their part for it to work right. John Deere is also secretive about service and repair information making it harder to work on. I am not a fan of John Deere by any stretch, however, with about...

I have had good results with cheap Chinese carburetors, over and over again. When the cost is up to 5 times more (OEM versus aftermarket), and the availability is limited, aftermarket is often the way to go if the results are positive and the comebacks are negligible.

Over a hundred years ago… I wonder what that beast weighed?

I can understand your frustration. Hopefully you can understand why shops charge $80 an hour to diagnose and repair your problems. The tools, skills, and experience that a good small engine mechanic have are of value. The cost saves your time, frustration, and parts that are often thrown at a...

The only way to know for sure, is to adjust carburetor and see if that helps. If not, step two is to remove carburetor, clean, replace metering diaphragm, and install carburetor. Make sure fuel is no more than 30-60 days old.

Not picking on you, however, with 30 years as a vehicle mechanic, you of all people know that replacing parts without seriously attempting to diagnose the actual problem is not the way to go about it. I would say that most repair shops are honest and try to do the right thing. I would also say...

If you want to be about half the cost of average labor rate of many shops, nobody is stopping you. I don’t know how long you have been working on small engines is why I added the “newer” part. If you can do all that in only ten minutes, then you should have charged about $5 bucks. See how that...

If you are using it weekly, this is completely unnecessary. Good procedure for occasional use equipment though.

A Kawasaki engine with 8100 hours on it should be in the Hall of Fame.

Throwing parts at issues on equipment isn’t usually worth doing because it is expensive, time consuming, and not the proper way to repair problems.

To replace two deck pulleys and a belt should be about 1&1/2 hours of labor book time. Your labor rate of $40/hour, and increased to $50/hour is way too inexpensive, unless you are newer and just getting started. At $75/hour you would have charged $115 versus the $50 in labor you charged. Most...

As the shipping costs rise, like everything else, something has got to give. So slower shipping times is the result.

It is called planned obsolescence. The manufacturer wants the consumer to keep buying more products to keep them in business. The President mainly affects the economy positively and negatively by individual regulations he enacts. Tightening or loosening regulations is what affects many...

If you can buy oil for $5/quart then you are getting a great deal. I am buying oil in 5 gallon buckets for $5/quart and buying 4 buckets at a time.

The silver Stihl 2-stroke oil is synthetic. Prevents carbon build up and better oil and worth the extra money versus the orange bottles.

Very few shops will work on hydraulic pumps, pump motor, and transaxles. I used to, but no longer offer this as a repair. It is not worth the time for the effort and money when lots of equipment is waiting to be worked on. It is normally a remove and replace nowadays and very expensive.

The fact that the dealer had your mower a month, fixed nothing, and said it was the best he could do and gave up, is mind boggling.

So in other words, this is why the oil and filter rarely/never get changed in hydrostatic transaxles. Plan B is to pump out as much oil as possible and refill.

An engine autopsy is in order here. Seeing the damage is sometimes worth the effort for a learning experience.

Some mufflers seem to do a really poor job of quieting an engine down. I think the design and or quality it poor and leads to a loud exhaust.

It is a cheap big box store residential zero turn. MTD makes Cub Cadet, there are a lot of them out in the field, nothing special.

It is not uncommon when you do repairs to have to remove one or more parts to do the repair. It is not uncommon for space to be very tight and limited when working on ATVs and small engine equipment. It is not uncommon to have a poor line of sight as well.

Drain and refill oil, make sure the belt is in good condition, and belt tension is good. Open up transaxle as a last resort and keep your expectations realistic.

Wheel lug bolts got loose and you ran it like this long enough to “egg or waller” out the factory holes. This happened to me years ago when I was mowing commercially and had to replace rim as a result. Expensive lesson.

I have never heard a seat safety switch, PTO switch, or relay chatter, because they don’t. That was the starter solenoid quickly engaging and disengaging, most likely due to a battery not fully charged. Charge the battery, load test the battery and try again.

I do own a Ferris 60” zero turn, and a Scag as well. The point is, I have worked on enough mowers to know there is a tensioner pulley on the drive belt on a zero turn, and a stiff spring gives it tension. I have a spring removal tool, but sometimes you have to use a ratchet strap and wire...

Yep, those cheap Chinese Torch spark plugs are hit and miss.

Berryman’s, Seafoam, etc. limited success helping any engine problems. Usually a good carburetor cleaning gets it running right.

Is this a trick question? That is what a mower sounds like when blades are spinning.

Next time remove tensioner spring, install belt, and reinstall spring and it will be easier.

Or just raise deck all the way and look under deck for grease coming out with a flashlight.

Check the deck hanger brackets at the rear of decks will be one or two bolts that can be adjusted. Then the front hanger bolts needs to be adjusted. Make sure all tires are inflated properly and on level concrete. Adjust from of deck 1/4” lower than rear.

Some people on internet claim the grease still gets into bearings despite being sealed. I know in some cases it takes up to 150 pumps on these spindles before grease comes out to let you know it is full. Others claim at a minimum it helps keep moisture out. It has bothered me for a long time...

Push on the valve spring and spraying with penetrating fluid. Remove cylinder head if necessary.

I can’t believe they dropped the purchase price $4500 off of retail. You should remember this as you are going through all this aggregation with the drive belt.

As stated, reinstalling the drive belt, or installing a new one should be doable, and not take three days worth of trying. Because this zero turn is brand new, and you probably paid around $20,000 for it, why not call the dealer you bought it from and ask for help? Surely if they are a good...

Step 1: Check for intake air leaks Step 2: Drill out pilot jet slightly if you know the carburetor is clean. Step 3: Optional-buy another aftermarket carburetor and see if that fixes hunting/surging, or bite the bullet and buy OEM carb for 3 to 5 times the cost.

That part is to help hold the starter in place. A small bracket that “locks” one side in place. That is a one off and a good catch.

Until you check with a digital tachometer, you will not know for sure. Not uncommon for throttle control to have a section as you are increasing the lever, to have little to no affect on engine speed.

If it is hunting and surging, then it is running lean on fuel, as you know. Can only be one of three reasons: 1) air leak intake 2) dirty carburetor 3) governor (long shot).

Most blades I see from customers are very dull and chipped. The blades are usually sharpened at too steep an angle also. They do not sharpen them near enough. There are blade sharpeners you can buy to achieve the desired angle of about 30 degrees. The problem is the mulching style blades...

Take a small chisel and hammer and tighten the drain nut by tapping it tighter. These drains are often loose when I go to change a customer’s oil.

Does it have a double barrel Nikki carburetor on it? I think the carburetor needs to be cleaned again. These specific carburetors are known to make popping and small backfires when not totally clean.

The question is, how does replacing a cotter pin suddenly make a hydraulic transaxle sluggish? That simply does not make sense.

$1000 is comparable to rebuilding an engine. However, you can get a lot more than 2-5 years life out of an engine normally. I encourage people to do some research and reading about battery equipment and electric vehicles. Weigh the pros and cons. I will be running internal combustion engines...

I have cleaned many Huayi carburetors. Main jet, emulsion tube, pilot jet, all passages including tiny Welch plug holes in carb throat. Huayi is simply a Chinese knockoff of a Honda carburetor.