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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.

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.

mattology said:

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.

Click to expand...

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.

mattology said:

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

Click to expand...

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.

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?

mattology said:

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?

Click to expand...

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:

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.

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!

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!

I've been following your project and I like how it looks. I'll be looking forward to seeing the final product. When you get it completed, you will have a nice, long lasting mower you can be proud of. Who cares if it is a mix of parts--it's still a Lawn Boy. I would rather have a mower like yours as opposed to the complicated, modern "junk" that is sold all over today.

Thanks 2smoked!



Here is the mow n mulch plate that came from eBay, it fit right on.

I found this gator Oregon g3 blade that is the exact width of the lawn boy blade stiffener as well as matches the center hole diameter of 5/8. It is a 21" and fits perfectly, it should make good lift even though it is a mulching blade. Part number 96-347. I don't know what it's meant for but i think it will work great on my mower. It is definitely heavy duty!



The new blade collar came in the mail as well. All I am waiting for now is the muffler that should be here tomorrow, then it is time to mow again!

mattology said:

Thanks 2smoked!

Here is the mow n mulch plate that came from eBay, it fit right on.

I found this gator Oregon g3 blade that is the exact width of the lawn boy blade stiffener as well as matches the center hole diameter of 5/8. It is a 21" and fits perfectly, it should make good lift even though it is a mulching blade. Part number 96-347. I don't know what it's meant for but i think it will work great on my mower. It is definitely heavy duty!

The new blade collar came in the mail as well. All I am waiting for now is the muffler that should be here tomorrow, then it is time to mow again!

Click to expand...

I'm sure you know this, but just in case you don't. The blade and stiffener photo you have, shows the blade upside-down in the stiffener. Here is the correct assembly: With the mower upside down, you have the stiffener, then the blade with the "lifting jagged tines" facing the underside of the deck-towards the motor/muffler, and the solid cutting edge of the blade towards the grass-when the mower is upright.

Phototone said:

I'm sure you know this, but just in case you don't. The blade and stiffener photo you have, shows the blade upside-down in the stiffener. Here is the correct assembly: With the mower upside down, you have the stiffener, then the blade with the "lifting jagged tines" facing the underside of the deck-towards the motor/muffler, and the solid cutting edge of the blade towards the grass-when the mower is upright.

Click to expand...

You are correct. i figured that out when i originally sharpened the blade that came with the mower, and learned which direction it went in to correlate with the direction of rotation so that the sharp part actually did the cutting! I just wanted to show the part number and the blade design, as well as showing how it fits the stiffener perfectly. thanks!

mattology said:

You are correct. i figured that out when i originally sharpened the blade that came with the mower, and learned which direction it went in to correlate with the direction of rotation so that the sharp part actually did the cutting! I just wanted to show the part number and the blade design, as well as showing how it fits the stiffener perfectly. thanks!

Click to expand...

I only mention this, because I have seen several mowers with the blade upside down, and let me tell you, they don't cut as well. ha ha.

I picked up the correct size front wheels yesterday and now the thing actually adjusts height properly :thumbsup:

muffler should be delivered very soon, gonna fire it up and see how this new deck mows.

Mowed with the new deck, new muffler, new blade setup

oh man, i love this thing!

now i just need a better lawn :/

So I have this thing mowing at the highest possible height, and at 3.25" or so, it still seems like it is on the short side for my saint augustine floratam. Everything I am reading says floratam likes a minimum of 4" height.

My lawn is really struggling so when it comes time to re sod sections I might just get a dwarf saint augustine variety like Seville or sapphire. It seems like most rotary mowers max out at around 3.5" or so.

By the way, has anyone experienced lawn boy height adjusters popping off their intended height and rolling over to the next (lower) height in line? It looks like the paint and casting is not sharp enough, or the adjuster has rounded over with time, causing the offset wheel to pop down a height pretty often.

Perhaps the shim between the wheel adjuster and the deck is too thick. I installed after market wheels on a mower with a deck like yours and had to go with a thicker shim in order for the wheels to work. This wheels rolled fine but the adjusters would slip.

mattology said:

By the way, has anyone experienced lawn boy height adjusters popping off their intended height and rolling over to the next (lower) height in line? It looks like the paint and casting is not sharp enough, or the adjuster has rounded over with time, causing the offset wheel to pop down a height pretty often.

Click to expand...

I've had that problem. My solution was to take the adjusters off the deck -- then bend back the flat spring-steel on the adjuster so the little knob that fits into the deck goes in more squarely. Did I explain that OK?

Sorry for the long delay, I did pretty much that as well as let it ride on the 2nd to the highest setting, and it seems to be working really well.

Hopefully with enough mulching and lawn care, and the fact that my grass is in much better shape this fall than it was last fall, next year will be a great year for the lawn, and a great year for the lawnboy!

Haha update!

The lawn boy was running kind of shoddy. Not breathing so well. I figured i would clean out the muffler.

Holy crap it was clogged almost solid! WIth the torch and some tapping a big pile of carbon later and the muffler weighs 1/4 of what it used to weigh!

The thing screams now!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it will cut down a forest!!!!

Re: Hello, new member Clearwater Florida

hello guy with the 4502 lawnboy what did you do with it did you fix it up im looking for a carb for a 4502 thanks

we bought our 4502 in 1982 new and have cut a million miles of grass and vegatation i love the steel deck with the evenly spaced wheels like 99 percent of the mowers in the world are. ive have used the traditional offset wheeled Aluminium deck lawnboy mowers before and find them to be unbalanced and harder to push especially on uneven ground

My old 7260G that I purchased this last Dec. did not run, yet it was in nearly new condition. The problem?--carbon plugged exhaust ports. I wonder how many perfectly good older Lawn Boys were scrapped over the years, all because of this easily remedied problem.

Well, my lawn boy developed rod knock i have to disassemble it and see what's going on with it.

I guess it's on to ebay for new parts! anybody else have any other ideas for parts? I'm guessing it needs a crankshaft, connecting rod, and piston.

Check Craigs List for a used mower before you drop a lot of cash like I did..

I spent nearly $100 buying small parts and deck to do an deck swap like you..
I just bought a complete model 10515 with whole 4-1 system for the same $100 for the exact same model mower I paid for the 10515 deck.

Check Craigs List for a used mower before you drop a lot of cash like I did..

I spent nearly $100 buying small parts and deck to do an deck swap like you..
I just bought a complete model 10515 mower with whole 4-1 bagger system for the same $100 I paid for a 10515 deck swap...

I don't see any F-series on craigslist right now. ebay still looks cheaper.

That's exactly what I was thinking last week...
You have to check all three spellings on CL
lawnboy, lawn boy and lawn-boy

give it as much time as you can..