smhardesty
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Dec 8, 2022
- Threads
- 25
- Messages
- 272
I had a customer bring me a Yardman push mower early this morning. It's kind of a strange deal. The guy is 85 years old. He is in the process of moving into his dad's house here in town. He said his dad mowed the yard until 6 years ago. Apparently the dad has just passed on recently which is why he is moving to town to move into his dad's house. The guy said he would REALLY like to get this mower running because it was his dad's. I do understand the nostalgia thing, but I don't necessarily think getting a Yardman mower running again is the kind of thing to be overly nostalgic about. I ran the date code and this thing was built February 22, 2000. It is almost exactly 23 years old. The first step was hitting the thing with a pressure washer to get it clean enough to even start removing pieces.
You guys can lend your opinions, but I'm prepared to do everything in my power to convince the guy to NOT pay me to go any further. I have two mowers that each have only run one season. The things are like new. I've got one priced at $110 and the other at $125. I have room to dicker, so I could easily get him into one of those two for a flat hundred bucks.
The first photo is what I found in the carb bowl. That crap in the bottom is like a slimy piece of bacon. When I dumped what little fuel was still in the tank, it ran out like hot pancake syrup and was just about that color. I haven't bothered cleaning the tank and hope I don't have to. I believe what is in the tank and in the bowl is the result of ethanol blended fuel sitting for 6 years. Of course, every gasket I ran across in the carb is now torn and crumbling in pieces.
The second photo shows that one side of the coil apparently slipped sometime in the past and has been rubbing the flywheel. Then, the last photo is of the scoring on the flywheel. There are a whole host of other problems. The rubber breather tube is toast, the fuel line is rotten, one wheel is broken and there is NO WAY I'll find a new one. The oil is closer to being a 50/50 mix of oil and gas. And then there is some sort of problem with the engine break. It's locked open and won't let the break lose to grab the flywheel or ground the engine out. I never even looked at what that problem is.
So, since I'm just getting back into this whole business again, I'll ask. Would you guys fix this POS?
You guys can lend your opinions, but I'm prepared to do everything in my power to convince the guy to NOT pay me to go any further. I have two mowers that each have only run one season. The things are like new. I've got one priced at $110 and the other at $125. I have room to dicker, so I could easily get him into one of those two for a flat hundred bucks.
The first photo is what I found in the carb bowl. That crap in the bottom is like a slimy piece of bacon. When I dumped what little fuel was still in the tank, it ran out like hot pancake syrup and was just about that color. I haven't bothered cleaning the tank and hope I don't have to. I believe what is in the tank and in the bowl is the result of ethanol blended fuel sitting for 6 years. Of course, every gasket I ran across in the carb is now torn and crumbling in pieces.
The second photo shows that one side of the coil apparently slipped sometime in the past and has been rubbing the flywheel. Then, the last photo is of the scoring on the flywheel. There are a whole host of other problems. The rubber breather tube is toast, the fuel line is rotten, one wheel is broken and there is NO WAY I'll find a new one. The oil is closer to being a 50/50 mix of oil and gas. And then there is some sort of problem with the engine break. It's locked open and won't let the break lose to grab the flywheel or ground the engine out. I never even looked at what that problem is.
So, since I'm just getting back into this whole business again, I'll ask. Would you guys fix this POS?