Well, today I was thumbing through Craigslist just to see if I could find a gas powered weed wacker when I came on one heck of a deal. Figured I would have to spend about $20 to $30 on one but ran across an ad for 2 Craftsman mowers and a gas weed eater for $15. Called the guy and he still had them. One mower labeled as running but the other not, with the weed eater as well for $15 total. Picked them up and I think i got a good deal. One mower needs a little TLC to get running, such as a different handle as the old one is bent, new plug, and oil, and the other is pretty much a parts unit. Non running mower that needs a new wheel, rear deck mulching flap that's wired open, and possibly a sheared flywheel key/bent crank. As for the weed wacker it's a Homelite dated 10/05. I don't know much about them but figure a little tinkering I can get it running, as well as some fresh gas/oil mix. The one with the engine issues will be sacrificing its handle and carburetor for another Craftsman that needs those parts. The other Craftsman should be running with minimal effort.
Craigslist find
- Thread starter mmanter
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lawn mower fanatic
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Let us know on your progress through fixing up the mowers! :smile:
Well the one on the left I put in a new plug and after a few pumps of the primer it starts & dies. Think I need to pull the carb & clean it. The one on the right needs too much to fix. I've already pulled the handle for another mower, and carb for another mower as well.
The weed wacker itself starts and runs, although not sure it's quite right, as if not in full choke it dies. Either way the carb and handle alone is worth the $15 I paid for all three pieces.
Which is why I jumped on the deal. Use not even $15 in parts to get a mower from last year running, and hopefully sold for a decent bit, keep the weed wacker which when pricing in other ads was alone about $30, clean the carb on the other mower and be able to sell it for even more money since it's a self propelled Craftsman. I'm way ahead on this find.
grumpygrizzly
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The deck on the one you're parting out along with the back wheels at least are worth hanging on to.
Those large wheels on mowers make them sell like hotcakes. Lot easier to mow with and turn.
I've taken a few motors off roached out frames and put them on good frames to make complete mowers. Most of the time I'll give the belly of the deck a real good cleaning and grind away the surface rust. Then I spray paint the belly with spray paint that I buy at yardsales (also found on CL) for usually .50 to $1.00. I even clean and paint the blades.
They're not all nice and shiny but, I do take the time to clean them up, get as much gunk off as I can (Makes working on them a lot easier) and trying to take care of any rust.
I also advertise each individual piece I have for sale on CL, post that I'm looking for small engines, and occasionally search for small engines as well. I've heard Facebook has a classifieds page but, I gave up my FB account over 2 years ago and haven't missed it one bit.
I have a yardmachine that the engine runs pretty good on but the unit is self propelled with a locked up transmission so the wheels dont turn. I'm prolly gonna get the engine off that mower and put it on this deck. The right rear wheel has a bad bearing so I can get a new bearing sleeve at a local hardware store to fix it.
So after I found the crankshaft was bent on another Craftsman mower I decided to try the engine on the parts mower to see what would happen. The engine didn't start at first but eventually sputtered to life, no shaking. The engine ran great so now the mower will be going to my Dad's house for him to use, while I rebuild is beat up Toro. Not sure what it will take to get it running but we'll see. At least in the mean time I've got my money's worth just out of the parts mower alone. That engine itself was worth the $15 I paid for the entire lot.