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Hey guys,

After thinking & thinking I decided to go ahead & see what kind of trouble I can get in to with some non-working mowers. I have noticed so many success stories that I decided to attempt to get some broken mowers & fix them. The first one I am going to attempt to save is a 2003 Bolens. It has a Briggs & Stratton engine but not sure of the horsepower. In the ad it was offerred on Craigslist for $15, being sold as a locked up engine. Turns out the mower was caught on something & turns over freely. Has good compression & no binding at all when pulling the starter cord. Since it was pouring down rain I couldn't look at it too well but this weekend I'm gonna pull it out of the garage and see what I can find out. Provided it has good spark & the oil looks good I'm gonna try to fire it up & see what happens. I'm hoping it won't need much so that I can get it sold relatively quick. I bought this one & a Craftsman self propelled 6.5 HP mower for the total of $35 so if I can get this running without much money being put in to it I should be able to make back the money on the one alone. Tomorrow I'm gonna get a pic of the mower as it sits in my garage & hopefully get it running & cleaned up. While I don't know much about the mowers right now there's no better place to start than one that may be an easy fix... or I hope is an easy fix.

We sure like pictures & I bet you get it running & sold :thumbsup:

Well, after getting ambitious I decided to give the mower a go to see if it would start. I put in some gas & sure enough it fired up but shaking all over the place & smoking everywhere. Knowing the mower had sat outside for some time I didn't let that deter me & was trying to see if it would clear up. The smoke did seem to lessen to a degree but not too sure about the engine. It pulls somewhat easily & when it started was actually much quieter than the 25 yr old Craftsman Eager-1 I have been using. I tried to give it a go & it was cutting decent but died shortly after. I'm not too sure what to look at first but I'm thinking I will go ahead & check out the carb & clean it up. Looks relatively easy to get to so I will clean the carb & go from there. Only thing that really concerns me is the shaking, the abrupt stop, and the smoke. Hopefully it can be fixed. If not, well I now have parts for a future save. Kinda makes me wish I woulda got this one & a Southland mower with a cracked deck. I know I coulda done something with those two to make one good one but since this is the only Briggs powered mower I have I don't have that option as of yet.

Today since my grass was gonna need cut I decided to work on the Bolens a little more. I got a can of carb cleaner, took off the carb & intake & cleaned it all out. I also removed the gas tank & cleaned it out to make sure there was no crud in there. The carb was nasty but not too bad. Got it put back together & tried to start it but no go. No matter how many times I pulled it would not start. Remembering how much it smoked before I pulled the spark plug. Sure enough it was oil fouled. Since I have a couple other mowers that don't run I went ahead & took a spark plug from one of them & installed it. Fired up first pull! It still shook a lot but ran none the less. I also noticed it seemed to idle a little low. Not too sure but I think the throttle return spring might be stretched a little. I bent on the spring bracket & now it seems a little fast but it runs. I noticed the engine did smoke but it eventually went away after running for a while. I think the rings were just a little on the stuck side since it sat outside for a while. I did also notice that the oil is filthy so I plan on draining & refilling the oil with fresh. The air filter is really clean which is shocking considering how dirty the mower was overall. Just got done cutting my back yard with it & I must say this little Bolens did a great job. Especially since the owner originally thought the engine was bad. I plan on washing it up & getting it up for sale. It may not be perfect cosmetically but it a darn good job cutting the back yard.

Disaster just struck... When I was cleaning off the mower I noticed something I didn't see before. CRACKED DECK. What a shame since I had no money invested in this thing but was gonna sell it for what I paid for both broken mowers. Chalk it up as a learning experience. Gotta take the good with the bad. At least I have a good engine if I find a mower with a blown engine.

I have gotten mowers before to resale. You just have to look them over. If you have to invest in a lot of parts and time you aren't going to make any money. I guess I have found for myself if I am going to sell something its going to be in perfect working order before I sell it. There has been times I just spend too much on them which doesn't take long when you start buying belts and bearing and then engine parts. Then if you are going to sell them for good money you need the chassis to look nice with a good paint job. I find a person will spend just a little more money and buy a new mower before they will buy a used one. Unless maybe you plan on buying and selling junk.

reynoldston said:

I have gotten mowers before to resale. You just have to look them over. If you have to invest in a lot of parts and time you aren't going to make any money. I guess I have found for myself if I am going to sell something its going to be in perfect working order before I sell it. There has been times I just spend too much on them which doesn't take long when you start buying belts and bearing and then engine parts. Then if you are going to sell them for good money you need the chassis to look nice with a good paint job. I find a person will spend just a little more money and buy a new mower before they will buy a used one. Unless maybe you plan on buying and selling junk.

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Which was what I wanted to with the Bolens. It has a good paint job & the only thing I had invested in it was time due to needing the carb cleaned out but when I found the cracked deck I decided I could not sell it in good conscience. I won't sell something that I don't feel will be a good, safe mower for the person using it. The way I was looking at it, if I wouldn't use it how would I expect someone else to? Oh well, at least I have a good spare engine, should I find a good deck in need of an engine but for now I will hold on to it.

Just a crack in the deck can't be that big of a repair. If you don't have a welder yourself take the deck to a weld shop and have it welded. That is a easy and cheap fix unless the deck is rusted out.

reynoldston said:

Just a crack in the deck can't be that big of a repair. If you don't have a welder yourself take the deck to a weld shop and have it welded. That is a easy and cheap fix unless the deck is rusted out.

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Hmmm.... I wasn't aware of that. I might do that. Even if it costs a few bucks it would be worth it to sell a mower that is worth selling rather than sitting on the engine. The deck isn't rusted out & the paint looks really good for a mower that was sitting outside for a while. Worth a try anyways.

Finally got to work on it yesterday. Removed the engine & found the deck isn't only cracked but the block mounting point is completely broken at the deck. Good thing I have another deck to put the engine on. That explains the bad shaking though.

Sounds like you have a bent crankshaft.

Fish said:

Sounds like you have a bent crankshaft.

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Yup, sure do. Just found it after I installed the engine on the good deck. Oh well, back to the drawing board to get the mower fixed. Looks like it will be needing a different engine. At least I learned a lot off this project and will have parts for future repairs.

I have a crank "straightener" up in the attic of my garage, works real well. Check with some of your local guys, they probably do as well....

It doesn't really straighten, but rebends the crank in a different spot and the blade cuts level, and the vibration is gone.

Most dealers put them away when the world was taken over by lawyers, but if you brought the engine in off of the mower,
and paid cash, etc... They could fix it for you......On lunchbreak, etc....