Hello, new member from Clearwater Florida

[mattology]

Hello,

My name is Matt and I am originally from San Francisco but have lived in Clearwater most of my life. I live in a house with a lawn that I am rejuvenating with the lovable, itchy Saint Augustine grass that is so common to these parts.

I've always loved the look of those lawn boy mowers, and being a bit of a two stroke fan myself, I figured I would try and find one of those vintage mowers at one point or another.. Long story short, the ride mower that came with the house is a piece of crap and I am tired of it cutting unevenly. I miss pushing a mower like I did when I was a teenager, and I decided that I would look on craigslist for an old lawn boy to fix up in my spare time.

I picked this thing up for free, it's a lawn boy 4502.

It does not run right now, as the pull start is not winding back up all the way, and I haven't looked at it yet. However the motor seems to have absolutely wonderful compression so that seems good.

Is this a nice lawn boy to learn on? I work on Aprilia and Honda two strokes in my spare time, so I don't think it will be an issue to get it jetted correctly when it comes to that. can I put a mulching blade on this thing or will it always be a side discharge?

Last question: I LOVE the look of the old staggered style decks from lawn boys. Would something like this bolt on to my engine setup (F-300 series I believe)??

16 5779 Lawn Boy 21" Aluminum Housing Assembly Deck Assy Law N4 | eBay

Thanks guys. Hope to chronicle my lawn boy trials and tribulations on this site.

 

[Phototone]

The Muffler-plate is different between the aluminum and steel decks. The muffler plate is the circular round aluminum piece the top motor mounts thru, the exhaust goes thru to the muffler underneath.

 

[mechanic mark]

Lawn Mower Parts, Small Engine Parts & Much More! | PartsTree.com - Briggs, MTD, Toro, Cub Cadet, Husqvarna, Troy-bilt...

 

[Two-Stroke]

Hello,

My name is Matt and I am originally from San Francisco but have lived in Clearwater most of my life. I live in a house with a lawn that I am rejuvenating with the lovable, itchy Saint Augustine grass that is so common to these parts.

I've always loved the look of those lawn boy mowers, and being a bit of a two stroke fan myself, I figured I would try and find one of those vintage mowers at one point or another.. Long story short, the ride mower that came with the house is a piece of crap and I am tired of it cutting unevenly. I miss pushing a mower like I did when I was a teenager, and I decided that I would look on craigslist for an old lawn boy to fix up in my spare time.

I picked this thing up for free, it's a lawn boy 4502.

It does not run right now, as the pull start is not winding back up all the way, and I haven't looked at it yet. However the motor seems to have absolutely wonderful compression so that seems good.

Is this a nice lawn boy to learn on? I work on Aprilia and Honda two strokes in my spare time, so I don't think it will be an issue to get it jetted correctly when it comes to that. can I put a mulching blade on this thing or will it always be a side discharge?

Last question: I LOVE the look of the old staggered style decks from lawn boys. Would something like this bolt on to my engine setup (F-300 series I believe)??

16 5779 Lawn Boy 21" Aluminum Housing Assembly Deck Assy Law N4 | eBay

Thanks guys. Hope to chronicle my lawn boy trials and tribulations on this site.

Your F-series engine will bolt onto any deck from an F-series but you'll have to use the adapter (the part between the engine and the deck -- along with other, associated parts) from the new deck. The alloy decks are far superior, IMO. It's worth the trouble to find one and make the change.

 

[Two-Stroke]

16 5779 Lawn Boy 21" Aluminum Housing Assembly Deck Assy Law N4 | eBay

That's a deck from a self-propelled ==> not really what you want. The pricing is typical eBay -- kind of high -- OK if it's exactly what you want but I'd pass and look locally for the rignt deck.

 

[mattology]

Thanks for all the replies everyone.

I will work on getting spark and getting this sucker running, and then from there I will look towards making the deck swap.

What is a better deck, aluminum or magnesium?

 

[Two-Stroke]

Thanks for all the replies everyone.

I will work on getting spark and getting this sucker running, and then from there I will look towards making the deck swap.

What is a better deck, aluminum or magnesium?

The alloy (non-steel) decks are an al/mg alloy. Pure aluminum would be too soft --- pure magnesium too brittle. Together in the right proportion they're durable, light and will never rust. :thumbsup:

 

[mattology]

Hey guys,

I just wanted to say I got this thing running, and it is awesome!

the first thing i tackled was the pull start. i figured out how to pull it apart, removing it from the crankcase by loosening the allen key that held it in place. once I pulled off the E clip that held it together i figured out what the problem was. the coil spring had broken:

i simply re bent it a little bit shorter, re wound it, and gave it some lubrication, and it pulls like a champion now. i had to re wrap the cable and what not, and it still has a little bit of play if i don't pull it 'quickly'. what i do is i quickly pull up until the cam engages onto the flywheel, then i do an accelerating pull to start the mower as to not damage the plastic starter teeth on it.

Now that it was pull starting routinely and repeatedly, i needed to see if it had spark. pulled the multimeter and i figured out that the coil needed to be grounded to run according to the ignition switch, i believe. so I grounded the coil, pulled the spark plug, grounded it to the aluminium, and sure enough it sparked brightly when i gave it a pull. I sprayed a little carb cleaner in the carb and gave it a pull, and it fired right to life for two seconds! Sweet.

All i had to do now was give the carburetor a significant cleaning. after removing the carb and pulling the float bowl, i worried that the severely corroded float would sink. i tossed it in a can of gas and it floated perfectly. the float needle valve was totally frozen shut crusted, so i gently removed it and cleaned everything out. the rubber taper shutoff on the top seemed fine after some cleaning, and i was able to verify that it shuts off fuel. i cleaned out the main jet with some micro wire the best that i could, along with the air screw ( i don't know what you guys call it ) and everything else. I cut a small piece of foam air filter for it and put that in place. i also put a fuel filter in-line with the fuel supply line.

I had some 100LL 28:1 mixed from my grand prix bikes so i poured some of that into the fuel tank and let the float bowl fill. After about 5 primes and 10 pulls it didnt' start. I decided to spray the filter a good bit more with carb cleaner to kinda help it start. it worked! It was revving up and then sounded like the governer was shutting the engine off to almost stalling before the governer would open back up, so it was hunting really hard for an idle. I learned how to adjust the governer so that there was some more spring preload on the air vane (it felt like it had ZERO spring preload or pressure) and the thing ran great. I mowed a strip with it, and forgot that i never sharpened the blade!

I shut it down, pulled the blade, sharpened it, put it back on, and away we went! This thing is awesome!

sometimes, while mowing, it will begin to surge, sounding like its running lean. If I ignore it, the surging gets worse and worse, and it eventually stalls out. I then give it a pull and it starts back up is fine. I've also learned that when it starts to surge and act up, if i pump the primer three times while it's running that problem goes away. I'm thinking the carburetor could be a little bit cleaner and there is a chance that the float needle might be getting stuck again. Either that or it wants the main jet drilled out a little bit.

My last question is this: What is a good aftermarket blade for this thing? I bought a ' universal ' blade from Home Depot to try on it, but the center hole diameter was incorrect and without some sort of a custom shim made, there would be no way to perfectly balance this thing. I don't want to rattle this vintage mower apart, so I just sharpened the original blade a nice amount, and have been mowing with that ever since.

Thanks everyone. i'm slowly getting my st augustine lawn up to par.

 

[mattology]

Hey guys,

I just won an auction for an aluminium staggered wheel deck and a muffler mounting plate, so hopefully I will have this deck swapped over in the near future! I am in love with this little mower... I wish my grass grew faster!

 

[mattology]

so i received a deck with engine mounting / muffler plate yesterday in the mail, and then this happened today

the push handle and brackets swapped over, as did the wheel height adjusters.

the wheels didn't work right away - as it turns out the staggered deck models apparently use a 6" front wheel and an 8" rear wheel. so it's kind of unevenly set up right now with the wheel adjusters in order to make it sit level... i'm probably going to get some 6" front wheels eventually.

i didn't know that i was going to need a new lower muffler mount - it didn't come with the mounting plate that i ordered so i ordered one of those.

also, when removing the blade collar piece it bent, so i ordered a new one of those as well.

lastly, i ordered an easy-mulch plate and a gator g-3 blade, 21" with 5/8 center hole, so this will no longer be a side discharge and instead be a full mulch model.

the rear leaf drag skirt panel whatever you want to call it swapped over, but i had to widen the mounting holes.

we will see how it ends up!