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I had another mower come in with a brand name I had never heard of. It is a Pulsar model # PTG12205, with a serial number of PTG1220520090337. The engine data stamped on the back of the case is DV0150 19123092329. I have searched and searched and can't find a single site that has any parts for this thing. I'm not 100% sure, but this thing can't be over 3 or 4 years old, and might even be newer, at least by looking it over. The original, paper, stick on price tag is still on the top of the motor. I'd think that would have been long gone if the mower was older than a few, short years.

It might be an off the wall, cheap push mower, but it has a couple of features that are pretty nifty. First, the handle is shaped with the end turned up, giving taller guys like me a more comfortable handle height to use. Then, there is a really nifty height adjustment system. There is a nice, large handle sticking up on the right rear wheel you use to make the adjustments. The rear wheels are connected by an axle assembly and a rod runs from the left rear wheel to the left front wheel. Another axle assembly connects the two front wheels.

There is a slight problem with the front left wheel. The owner backed a big zero turn over the left front corner. It bent the left front wheel bracket and the rod of the axle assembly. I'm about 99% sure when I take the front end apart I'll be able to straighten things out, but in case I can't for some reason, I'd like to be able to order whatever new pieces I need. I'll also need either a carb rebuild kit or a new carb. I haven't tried tearing things down yet. Before I get armpit deep in this thing I'd like to know for sure that I can get replacement parts.

The only thing I found online is in the link below. You can buy a whole new mower, but they don't list parts. I have sent a message to them requesting info on where I can get parts, but haven't received any reply yet. Any help in locating a parts dealer will be greatly appreciated. Oh, yeah. I managed to find a site to download an Operator's Manual for it and that site also had a parts list diagram. When I downloaded the parts diagram it was so small I couldn't read it and when I tried zooming in things were so blurry I for sure couldn't read it. Heck, I even put my really strong reading glasses on and couldn't see things clearly. LOL!

https://pulsar-products.com/our-products/lawn-mowers/#

Total piece of garbage sold at Menards. I serviced for a period until I started getting emails from them with Trojan viruses. My local store had me scrap their entire stock. a couple years ago. If you bump any of the wheels are anything it will bend the axles.

Try this site. https://mans.io/files/viewer/1886315/1#navigate_bar

ILENGINE said:

Total piece of garbage sold at Menards. I serviced for a period until I started getting emails from them with Trojan viruses. My local store had me scrap their entire stock. a couple years ago. If you bump any of the wheels are anything it will bend the axles.

Click to expand...

I'm guessing that in the few years it has been since I was doing this kind of work, the cheap import stuff has flourished. This is the third really cheap push mower that has fallen into my hands in just a few short months. It's a shame that retailers like Menard's Lowe's Home Depot, Walmart, etc, etc, decided it was good for business to buy a boatload of this stuff, sell it out for minimal profit, then refuse to offer service or stock parts. Just how in the hell is that good for either the consumer OR the overall economy of this country?

You actually got emails from a COMPANY that included Trojans? Now, THAT is pretty sad. Any company worth a hoot should have servers running with extreme security. That's just another reason I'm happy I run Linux - NO viruses, Trojans, or other malware.
.

Rivets said:

Try this site. https://mans.io/files/viewer/1886315/1#navigate_bar

Click to expand...

Bingo! Thanks. I had found those exact images on a different site, but when I tried to zoom in, it was way too fuzzy to read. I have managed to save both of the images in the link you provided as .jpg images and they are crystal clear when zoomed in.

I managed to get in contact with Pulsar directly. I actually even got a couple of return emails from them. Take a look at the screenshot below. Notice the second sentence. It's a bit hard to decipher but what is says is that they don't have ANY local dealers that sell parts. Instead, they sell parts on a "case to case basis". I'm not exactly sure what that is supposed to mean. LOL! All that matters is that I can get the carb for 20 bucks.

Other than that, I wouldn't actually need anything else from them except an air filter. I'm 99% sure I can straighten that bent bracket, either myself or one of our local machine shops. I'm just going to remove the entire front axle assembly with the brackets attached and try straightening it. I won't risk messing it up. If it won't straighten up for me fairly easily I'll let the machine shop do it. I don;t have a press anymore. One more thing I sold when we moved into town that I now wish I had back.

I'm just stupefied by these off the wall, never before heard of, cheap, small engines and mowers. I think what I'm more amazed at is the number of people that thought buying something like one of these was a better choice than buying a well known brand piece of OPE with a well known engine manufacturer that parts can be purchased for. Over the years I have had quite a few opportunities to buy different brands of import cars. I'm not just referring to something nobody has heard of. I mean Porches, Mercedes, and the like. Even though the purchase price was really low, I passed on all of them simply because there just aren't any qualified repair facilities near me. Since I sure couldn't work on one, I had to know there was a fully qualified repair shop that handled that type of car and had repair parts readily available. I can't afford to have a vehicle down for an extended period while parts are shipped in from who knows where.

Oh, well. Like I said. I now know I can get the one part I will HAVE to have to refurb this thing. I guess that's all that really matters. I was hoping to hang a price on it where I can make a good chunk of change, but now knowing the difficulties in getting parts I'm thinking I'd best just price it to move it out of here. LOL!

smhardesty said:

I'm guessing that in the few years it has been since I was doing this kind of work, the cheap import stuff has flourished. This is the third really cheap push mower that has fallen into my hands in just a few short months. It's a shame that retailers like Menard's Lowe's Home Depot, Walmart, etc, etc, decided it was good for business to buy a boatload of this stuff, sell it out for minimal profit, then refuse to offer service or stock parts. Just how in the hell is that good for either the consumer OR the overall economy of this country?

You actually got emails from a COMPANY that included Trojans? Now, THAT is pretty sad. Any company worth a hoot should have servers running with extreme security. That's just another reason I'm happy I run Linux - NO viruses, Trojans, or other malware.
.

Click to expand...

Briggs and Craftsman were involved it also. The Brute products made by Ardisam, which also had incorrect parts list in the owners manual, and Pulsar or Amerisun I don't remember which. The Craftsman products that were made by Dirty Hand Tools, which was out of business the following year, which listed their dealers straight from the Kohler engine dealer site. Or the new Westinghouse generators with no repair parts available.

Briggs and Craftsman? Dang! Yeah, I know, I'm a damned dinosaur, but I think back several years when buying anything with a Briggs or Craftsman name meant you were both buying quality and buying American. I knew guys that had HUGE toolboxes filled with nothing but Craftsman tools. My own granddad had a large set of combo wrenches and a complete set of 1/4", 3/8", 1/2" and 3/4" sockets, ratchets, and breaker bars. I can recall him taking a broken wrench or socket to the nearest Sears store and then either coming home with the replacement right then, or being promptly notified that his replacement was available for pickup. I have several of his old tools and every piece performs like it did the day it was first used. On the other hand, I have a set of the "new" Craftsman combo wrenches. I'd have to look to be sure, but I think it's a 15/16" combo wrench that the teeth stripped out of and then a long handled combo wrench either 1/2" or 9/16" size that I bent into a horseshoe using ONLY my hands - NO cheater bar.

So, I'm just guessing that all these "Chinese import" pieces of OPE are pretty similar to my newer Craftsman wrenches. Is that a pretty fair analogy?
.

Oh, boy. I just got myself a good laugh over this Pulsar mower. I mentioned the slight problem in getting a carb for this thing over on a computer forum I visit regularly. I was ticked that there are no dealers in the US of A that had parts. Well, one of the computer gurus posted a question for me. He said, "Why do you need a carb? Did you run a compression check?"

What do you say to something like that?

The last Murray push mower sold at Walmart was made by a Chinese company with no phone number .No address, and their only contact info was parts@chinesecompany dot com and chinesecompany dot com was a blank page website.

smhardesty said:

I had another mower come in with a brand name I had never heard of. It is a Pulsar model # PTG12205, with a serial number of PTG1220520090337. The engine data stamped on the back of the case is DV0150 19123092329. I have searched and searched and can't find a single site that has any parts for this thing. I'm not 100% sure, but this thing can't be over 3 or 4 years old, and might even be newer, at least by looking it over. The original, paper, stick on price tag is still on the top of the motor. I'd think that would have been long gone if the mower was older than a few, short years.

It might be an off the wall, cheap push mower, but it has a couple of features that are pretty nifty. First, the handle is shaped with the end turned up, giving taller guys like me a more comfortable handle height to use. Then, there is a really nifty height adjustment system. There is a nice, large handle sticking up on the right rear wheel you use to make the adjustments. The rear wheels are connected by an axle assembly and a rod runs from the left rear wheel to the left front wheel. Another axle assembly connects the two front wheels.

There is a slight problem with the front left wheel. The owner backed a big zero turn over the left front corner. It bent the left front wheel bracket and the rod of the axle assembly. I'm about 99% sure when I take the front end apart I'll be able to straighten things out, but in case I can't for some reason, I'd like to be able to order whatever new pieces I need. I'll also need either a carb rebuild kit or a new carb. I haven't tried tearing things down yet. Before I get armpit deep in this thing I'd like to know for sure that I can get replacement parts.

The only thing I found online is in the link below. You can buy a whole new mower, but they don't list parts. I have sent a message to them requesting info on where I can get parts, but haven't received any reply yet. Any help in locating a parts dealer will be greatly appreciated. Oh, yeah. I managed to find a site to download an Operator's Manual for it and that site also had a parts list diagram. When I downloaded the parts diagram it was so small I couldn't read it and when I tried zooming in things were so blurry I for sure couldn't read it. Heck, I even put my really strong reading glasses on and couldn't see things clearly. LOL!

https://pulsar-products.com/our-products/lawn-mowers/#

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https://mowerpartsland.com/?s=Pulsar&post_type=product. I am continuing the qwest I got an owners manual but trying now to do a more in depth search for any real info

Briggs & Stratton is in bankruptcy(was a few months ago), and Craftsman has been split into multiple brand 'channels', and is retailed by a few stores. Likely both produce overseas rather than within the USA as was done previously.
Most people that buy at the low end have little interest in the machine they bought, and MOST will likely never change the oil. They may check the level now and again. To spend more on OPE is not in their wheelhouse as they don't care. If it breaks, they throw it out and buy another. Labor costs as most shops makes repair expensive relative to the purchase price. I doubt there is an shop within 100 miles that will rebuild a lawn mower engine, or even likely replace a head gasket or grind the valves.
Given the above, repair parts are unlikely to be readily available. Not that I like it, those are the facts.

Pulsar, if the same company, makes several lines of portable gas-powered inverter generators. Their support team replied to an email request for valve clearance and an image of the carburetor linkage when I asked. I think they were in MS or AL, FWIW. The generators seemed to be equal in quality to HF and multiple others in the 2000W size.
Back when, K-mart sold mowers that sold below $100, including a B&S 3-ish HP, a stamped deck and a staggered front wheel. You could find them in the trash with the O-ring strangling the intake valve and causing lack of compression. Someone did the 5-cent investigation and decided 'beyond repair', and or course I picked it up and found the problem. Repaired with no parts required. That is just an example of how the low-cost mowers were regarded as cheap, throw-aways. Things have not gotten better.
tom

I've exchanged emails with them a few times now. They are located in Canada. The person I've been emailing told me point blank that they have ZERO dealers that handle parts. The only way parts are sold is via the company, directly, and they decide, on a case by case basis, whether the parts will be sold. They did tell me I can get the parts I'm going to need. I'm just waiting until I get the front axle assembly pulled off to see if I can straighten what is bent or whether I'm going to need a part or two.

I certainly understand the whole throw away mentality. That's one of the reasons I finally got out if the computer business. At one point in time, I could build you a MUCH better computer than you could buy commercially and at a lower price. Then, for a while, my PCs were still better, but at an equal price. Then, the big computer manufacturers went nuts producing low dollar, cheap pieces of crap. Walmart and other big box type stores got into the picture and that market was ruined. People did the same thing they do with mowers. They shopped for the absolute lowest price, with ZERO regard for quality and absolutely no thought of how or where to get it repaired. I was able to buy used computers for next to nothing, take them home and USUALLY doing nothing more than reloading whatever version of Windows had been on it, then resold them for a couple hundred dollars. That's what I'm now seeing with the mowers I'm getting my hands on. Yep, we are living in a throw away society. Mower won't start? Throw it away and buy a new piece of junk. Computer won't boot up? Throw it away and buy a new piece of junk. The same is now true of appliances of all sorts and I just found out that MOST watches are that way. They are also cheap Chinese pieces if junk so if the one you have worn for the last 10 or 12 months stops running, just head to Wally World and buy another of the cheap things. And smart phones have to be at the very top of that heap. There are one hell of a lot of people that absolutely INSIST on buying whatever the newest phone is, as soon as it comes out, even if there is nothing wrong with the one they have. And there is a huge number of people that don't care if they break their phones, drop them in the toilet, or leave them lying somewhere and loose them. That just gives them an excuse to buy the latest version. We have relatives like that. I know of one niece that was almost proud to say she had just gotten the latest and greatest of whatever kind of phone and ONLY had to pay a little over $2500. Yeah, think about THAT. People in this society are eager and anxious to pay $2500 for a stupid phone, but walk through a huge line of new mowers and see only one thing - the lowest price. That's why these cheap pieces of crap are so popular. They can't impress their circle of friends with a new, high quality, brand name mower, but oh my, they can sure impress everybody with a $2000 or $3000 phone. LOL!

tomw0 said:

Briggs & Stratton is in bankruptcy(was a few months ago), and Craftsman has been split into multiple brand 'channels', and is retailed by a few stores. Likely both produce overseas rather than within the USA as was done previously.
Most people that buy at the low end have little interest in the machine they bought, and MOST will likely never change the oil. They may check the level now and again. To spend more on OPE is not in their wheelhouse as they don't care. If it breaks, they throw it out and buy another. Labor costs as most shops makes repair expensive relative to the purchase price. I doubt there is an shop within 100 miles that will rebuild a lawn mower engine, or even likely replace a head gasket or grind the valves.
Given the above, repair parts are unlikely to be readily available. Not that I like it, those are the facts.

Pulsar, if the same company, makes several lines of portable gas-powered inverter generators. Their support team replied to an email request for valve clearance and an image of the carburetor linkage when I asked. I think they were in MS or AL, FWIW. The generators seemed to be equal in quality to HF and multiple others in the 2000W size.
Back when, K-mart sold mowers that sold below $100, including a B&S 3-ish HP, a stamped deck and a staggered front wheel. You could find them in the trash with the O-ring strangling the intake valve and causing lack of compression. Someone did the 5-cent investigation and decided 'beyond repair', and or course I picked it up and found the problem. Repaired with no parts required. That is just an example of how the low-cost mowers were regarded as cheap, throw-aways. Things have not gotten better.
tom

Click to expand...

Last year Briggs filed bankruptcy and was sold. B & D completed the purchase of MTD, and also purchased Excel. Toro purchased Ventrac, and Oregon products was sold to an investment group.

DeadmanRoss316 said:

https://mowerpartsland.com/?s=Pulsar&post_type=product. I am continuing the qwest I got an owners manual but trying now to do a more in depth search for any real info

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Hey, I forgot to mention. That link is to a place that has parts for Pulsar generators. There are no mower parts on that site, at least none that I could find. From what that gal at Pulsar told me, the generator division and the mower division are like night and day. She also said that the generator division doesn't allow a dealer to have access to all parts, only some. This is all new to me and I have to admit I'm a little baffled by it all. How can it be good business for a company to INTENTIONALLY prevent consumers and dealers form having access to repair parts? Are they making that much more on the sale of just the mower? In the past, there was more profit in parts than in new mower sales.

Wheels said:

I have worked on a few Pulsars. And know this is so far the only machines I won't work on anymore. I guess I do not like snow devil, lawn devil, and spirit either.
Before you tear into the Pulsar front, I found out the hard way that the tire bolts are reverse thread. I ruined some and called and got the last two in the country I believe.
I have had issues with the starter recoil also. I thought I had it fixed only to go bad again. I had to replace the whole assembly since the original was deformed.
Carb kits when I was working on these didn't exist either. I do not think I even found a new needle for it.

It's a $120 lawnmower and after my time and parts it was never worth fixing.

Click to expand...

I believe every word based on what I have found so far. Thanks for the tip on the left hand thread. I probably would have done the same thing you did. I'd have gotten the 1/2" drive ratchet and put some grunt into it. LOL!

I was told there is no such thing as a carb rebuild kit for this mower. Not knowing the new carb was only $20, I asked if I could get all the pieces I might need to rebuild the carb and was told, "probably not" and was told there would almost certainly be a few parts that just weren't available. That's just asinine.

I hate to see that about the recoil. This one has about 2" to 3" of cord hanging down on the side of the engine. That, added to the bent front axle assembly, will absolutely keep me from ordering any parts that I actually CAN get until I know I can fix the axle and the recoil.

I guess I'm just an old dog, but I'm not buying a new piece of OPE that has an engine that can't be identified. Yeah, I know. Briggs and Kohler have their troubles too, but at least you can USUALLY get every piece and part you need to fix one. I bought this Craftsman lawn tractor for one specific reason. It has an automatic trans instead of a hydrostat. I have some serious issues with the bones in my right foot. I can't do the toe/heel thing without causing severe pain. I once had a Husqvarna I took in on trade that had the hydrostat control as a lever on the right fender. I would have considered that, except I was unable to locate any brand that had a Briggs motor, a 42" deck, and a hyrdro control on the fender. They just weren't out there when I made my purchase. The Craftsman has the auto trans that is controlled by pressing a single pedal to go, either forwards or back, and a shifter on the left fender to control forward/reverse. I can place the middle of my foot on the pedal without causing pain. That combination just worked better for me with my medical issues. It'll last me until I die, or I have to quit mowing my own lawn. I baby the thing like crazy. If I see any little part, piece, or bolt that is showing wear, I just replace it.

But, yeah, this Pulsar is turning out to be a real turd. When I first saw it, and not knowing a thing about it, I though it was a danged good looking mower. The upturned handle looked like a perfect idea for taller guys like me and the single lever height adjustment seemed to be a great idea. I guess it really is except this one is made with soft, cheap, materials. If I can get the front end fixed and get the recoil working correctly, I'll order the carb and then unload this thing on somebody. What I just can't believe is that I already have three of these cheap, Chinese mowers. All are different makers and all are mostly unmarked, as far as the engine specs. They only carry a stamped number on the case somewhere. Not even a small sticker with the name, HP, displacement, or anything else on it. Are they embarrassed to advertise their own product? LOL!

ILENGINE said:

Last year Briggs filed bankruptcy and was sold. B & D completed the purchase of MTD, and also purchased Excel. Toro purchased Ventrac, and Oregon products was sold to an investment group.

Click to expand...

And the result will be mass production of cheaper, Chinese, or half Chinese, products that won't last more than a few years. When the production of any product is controlled by white shirts sitting in an office in Manhattan (or Beijing), the end result is a cheaper product in order to increase profits. Yes, I know. Every company is profit based. If not, they just go belly up. As long as the masses are happy buying whatever cheaply made product the big box stores have on display, quality will continue to decrease. The powers that be are NOT concerned with the 10% to 20% of people that prefer paying more to get a quality product. They are only concerned with the 80% top 90% that routinely buy the cheapest product they can find. And if that product only lasts 2 or 3 years, the company gets a whole new sale of another cheaply made product. It's w inning combination for those companies.

By the way, I'll admit that I have no idea what mowers are still being produced as high quality machines. Who still exists that make their own product with their own parts ending with a high quality mower? I used to be a die hard Cub Cadet fan. Then they were suddenly made by MTD. I know that my Craftsman is now built by MTD, per Black & Decker's agreement. Just wondering how many high quality manufacturers of mowers still exist. Oh, I'm referring ONLY to push mowers and lawn/garden tractors. I'm not a fan of zero turns. Yes, I'll service one or even repair one, but that's not my preference.

smhardesty said:

Briggs and Craftsman? Dang! Yeah, I know, I'm a damned dinosaur, but I think back several years when buying anything with a Briggs or Craftsman name meant you were both buying quality and buying American. I knew guys that had HUGE toolboxes filled with nothing but Craftsman tools. My own granddad had a large set of combo wrenches and a complete set of 1/4", 3/8", 1/2" and 3/4" sockets, ratchets, and breaker bars. I can recall him taking a broken wrench or socket to the nearest Sears store and then either coming home with the replacement right then, or being promptly notified that his replacement was available for pickup. I have several of his old tools and every piece performs like it did the day it was first used. On the other hand, I have a set of the "new" Craftsman combo wrenches. I'd have to look to be sure, but I think it's a 15/16" combo wrench that the teeth stripped out of and then a long handled combo wrench either 1/2" or 9/16" size that I bent into a horseshoe using ONLY my hands - NO cheater bar.

So, I'm just guessing that all these "Chinese import" pieces of OPE are pretty similar to my newer Craftsman wrenches. Is that a pretty fair analogy?
.

Click to expand...

Anybody can buy a B&S engine and put it on a poor product. Likewise, more China stuff out there than anyone knows. I also learned that some China produced engines made for various US brand names where black marketed to various OEM's without knowledge or valid US serial numbers by China. Get that! China will do anything to overtake the world.

VRR.DYNDNS>BIZ said:

Anybody can buy a B&S engine and put it on a poor product. Likewise, more China stuff out there than anyone knows. I also learned that some China produced engines made for various US brand names where black marketed to various OEM's without knowledge or valid US serial numbers by China. Get that! China will do anything to overtake the world.

Click to expand...

Yep. I agree. I had to laugh when I got these off brand, cheap mowers from folks that let them sit in the shed when they bought a new one. I'm not sure if any of these cheap things existed when I was doing small engine repair work before. If they did, I got lucky and never had one brought to me. I did get equipment in with engines other than Briggs or Kohler, but they were Kawasakis, Tecumsehs (the old ones), Hondas, and other fairly good quality engines. I got a Jonsered chainsaw brought to me by a family friend. I had somehow never in my life heard of Jonsered. It turned out that it was WAY too old and there were no longer any parts available for it, but my searching told me that Jonsered had once upon a time been a good, high quality, saw. From what I now know, Jonsered is no longer and in existence and there are no parts available unless you find some shop that still has parts in the back room somewhere. At least that's what I have been told and have seen in print a few times. If that's not true, one of you guys let me know.

I have one mower sitting under a tree, next to my shed, that has NO markings anywhere on it. The mower, itself, had been severely abused and there are no distinguishing marks on it and nothing on the engine. I was telling the parts guy at our local farm service store about it and he said there HAS TO BE a stamping on the engine somewhere. I loaded the thing up and took it to him. I told him to ID it for me and we'd see if we could get parts to fix it. Well it's sitting under a tree in my backyard. LOL! This is all new to me. I've taken in a couple of mowers that I never should have simply because I had never seen this stuff before. This danged Pulsar is one of them. And I'll tell you that I'm still in disbelief that I have been told BY THE COMPANY that there are no dealers with parts for sale. It still boggles my mind when I think about it. My wife knows next to nothing about a mower or small engine, but when I told her the company doesn't allow any dealers to sell parts, she sure understood that and was as shocked as I was. LOL! Her first remark was, "You're kidding".

I probably shouldn't, but I'm going to post this for you guys to see. Then, I'm going to ask question. This is a response by someone on a completely different forum. Look closely at the sentence that begins with "I used to put a small". Then, my question. How many of you put sand in the fuel tanks of small engines you are servicing? I can only say that if this really IS a common practice among small engine mechanics, I'm probably going to be one that doesn't follow suit. I also thought the very last sentence was a bit odd. If I am reading that sentence correctly, he is advising me to "preferably clean" the fuel filter. What am I missing there? Are there that many fuel filters in use today that require cleaning rather than a simple replacement? It's been a few years since I last did this type of work. Are there new types of fuel filters I'm not aware of? Since he specifically combined servicing the fuel line and the fuel filter, I'm assuming he's referring to an inline filter. I thought those things were an automatic replacement part when servicing a small engine.




.

smhardesty said:

By the way, I'll admit that I have no idea what mowers are still being produced as high quality machines. Who still exists that make their own product with their own parts ending with a high quality mower? I used to be a die hard Cub Cadet fan. Then they were suddenly made by MTD. I know that my Craftsman is now built by MTD, per Black & Decker's agreement. Just wondering how many high quality manufacturers of mowers still exist. Oh, I'm referring ONLY to push mowers and lawn/garden tractors. I'm not a fan of zero turns. Yes, I'll service one or even repair one, but that's not my preference.

Click to expand...

Suddenly as of when MTD purchased Cub Cadet in 1981. And your Craftsman by MTD B-D owned 20% of MTD and now own all of it.

Jonsered is owned by Husqvarna and were selling them through Menards a couple years ago. Trimmers, saws, pushmowers.

And I have never used sand but have used clean gravel or hex nuts to break rust and junk loose.

Who ever posted that on another forum is a DIY guy who shouldn’t be allowed to any equipment which is not his own. Because he used the word PETROL and not gas or fuel I’m going to assume he is from outside the USA. I have used washed stones to remove rust from a tank as a way of cleaning, but the buildup needs to be very bad.

ILENGINE said:

Suddenly as of when MTD purchased Cub Cadet in 1981. And your Craftsman by MTD B-D owned 20% of MTD and now own all of it.

Jonsered is owned by Husqvarna and were selling them through Menards a couple years ago. Trimmers, saws, pushmowers.

And I have never used sand but have used clean gravel or hex nuts to break rust and junk loose.

Click to expand...

So. Jonsered is still being sold? Since they were bought by Husqvarna, I'm just going to assume that the new ones being sold are nowhere near the quality of the old ones. Is that a fair assumption?

Ahhh, I just did a search and found this:

As of September 2022, the product Jonsered will not be available on the market. We will continue to offer the best possible customer service to our Jonsered customers.

Click to expand...

Which came from here:

https://www.husqvarna.com/us/discover/jonsered-products-are-no-longer-available/
.

Rivets said:

Who ever posted that on another forum is a DIY guy who shouldn’t be allowed to any equipment which is not his own. Because he used the word PETROL and not gas or fuel I’m going to assume he is from outside the USA. I have used washed stones to remove rust from a tank as a way of cleaning, but the buildup needs to be very bad.

Click to expand...

Yep. You hit the nail on the head. This was a post he put on a Linux forum I belong to. And yes, I believe he is in Australia.

I've never used stones, rocks, or gravel, but I did use a handful of clean nuts and bolts to clean the inside of a metal gas tank for a Cub Cadet Model 73. We owned that thing for years and years. The original tank developed a lot of cancer and I found a decent one that had just a slug of surface rust inside it. Being an old farm boy, once I rattled the nuts and bolts around for awhile I then resorted to using gas, over and over until nearly everything was cleaned out. Why not? We had a big, old, overhead tank on the farm that we put gas in for lawnmowers, tillers, and the A/C Model Gs that we used in the watermelon fields. I'm sure I filled my car up a few times out of it as well. LOL!

I just thought using a handful of sand on ANYTHING related to a small engine was a really bad idea, but that's just my opinion. I just have to wonder exactly how much sand remained in that tank and what the carb did when it started eating grains of sand.

What about the filter thing? Are there now filters that you simply clean and replace? Am I that far behind?

OK, guys. Did I ask a question so stupid nobody will respond, or has my question just gone unnoticed. I'm really curious about this filter that the Aussie said I needed to "preferably clean". Are there now such filters in use versus the inexpensive, replaceable filters I'm accustomed to?

Are we getting a little impatient? Answers to your questions not coming fast enough? Do you realize that most of the experienced techs on this site either own their own businesses or work for a business. We get to replying to threads as time allows. Many of us also have families which require our attention and they come first on the weekends. To answer your question to the best of my ability, I know of no fuel filters which cleaning is cost effective. Many DIY guys do think they can do so, but no reputable tech would clean instead of replacing, we have warranties which we stand behind, not worth the risk.

Rivets said:

Are we getting a little impatient? Answers to your questions not coming fast enough? Do you realize that most of the experienced techs on this site either own their own businesses or work for a business. We get to replying to threads as time allows. Many of us also have families which require our attention and they come first on the weekends. To answer your question to the best of my ability, I know of no fuel filters which cleaning is cost effective. Many DIY guys do think they can do so, but no reputable tech would clean instead of replacing, we have warranties which we stand behind, not worth the risk.

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Ahh, yeah. My bad. I guess I was a little impatient. I'm used to computer forums where there are literally hundreds of people, all around the world, online at any one given time. I'm very aware of being a full time professional with few hours to spend online. I spent 30+ years in the computing industry. It wasn't uncommon for me to literally spend 48 straight hours, or more, working on a network glitch. At one point, I spent 14 months working 13 hours a night, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights getting a local area Walmart distribution center up and running. I then spent anywhere from 10 to 16 hours a day, Monday through Friday, building a computer network at a local area college. I left the DC at 7:30 Monday morning and drove straight to the college, where I'd spend 10 hours or more. The same thing then happened on Fridays when I worked 10 hours or more at the college, drove home for a bite to eat, then drove to the DC and began that 13 hour tour. So, yeah, I'm fully aware of what being a professional is. I started the whole small engine biz years back as a means of decompressing from all the hours working as a computer and network tech. When I did that, I spent a 10 to 12 hour day working on computers, then spent 4 hours or so each night working on small engines, plus most all day on Saturday or Sunday. I can pretty much say that the hours I spent in the computing industry were a whole lot longer than any hours spent working on small engines. I'm just guessing there aren't a whole lot of small engine techs that spend 48 to 72 hours straight working on a system glitch. I sure never found any that worked like that. And yes, I have a family. Whether I liked it or not, my profession required me to be absent from a lot of family gatherings and affairs. That was just the nature of the profession. I never had the luxury of simply deciding to take a weekend off to do what I wanted. I was on call 24/7. Way back, when I was still working mainframe computers, there were NO holidays. If you happened to draw Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's AND Easter, you just worked. There was no other option.

With that aside, I again apologize for being a bit anxious. I just thought with as many members as the forum seems to have, that one or two guys might have had an opportunity to reply. Thank you for your reply to my question. I was confused and thought that maybe I had missed a new kind of fuel filter that did away with the less expensive, replaceable filters I am used to. I'll now assume that the Aussie might not know exactly what he is talking about. I was pretty sure anyway, but responses from guys on here seem to verify that.

There are cleanable fuel filters but the ones I have seen are more pushed to the auto industry. And then things get lost in translation like the owners manual for my tractor says to clean the hydraulic filter every 400 hours. It has a spin on filter.

Most people look at the number of forum members and think as you did, some many members, lots of techs. On this forum there are less than a dozen experienced techs who frequently respond to problems. Then come about two dozen who have minimal experience, Most, about 50% of the posters are DIY guys who had a similar problem 5 years ago, don’t fully read the thread, and offer solutions which won’t help with the OP’s problem. The rest are those who no longer are around. On top of that we have the guys, 29-30 years old, who expect a working solution in 24 hours, but never bother to post relevant info because we are the experts with ESP.

ILENGINE said:

There are cleanable fuel filters but the ones I have seen are more pushed to the auto industry. And then things get lost in translation like the owners manual for my tractor says to clean the hydraulic filter every 400 hours. It has a spin on filter.

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I did just a quick search for fuel filters that can be cleaned as opposed to being replaced. I think the cheapest one I ran across was $27. That could buy quite a few replaceable filters. I'm sure the ones that are to be cleaned are relatively easy to clean, but can they be cleaned as well as a brand new, replaceable filter will be? I'm guessing they are at least supposed to be that clean, but I'd worry about contamination left in the cleanable filter. On the other hand, if there was suddenly no other choice, I'd have to get used to cleaning the fuel filter.

It seems funny that in a world where so much is now "throw away", they'd introduce a cleanable fuel filter. I expect those filters have a real use in some application, somewhere, but I can't see them as being a reasonable alternative to the inexpensive, replaceable filters in use on most small engines. But, now I know.

I am finally over that step throat that hung around for a lot longer than I expected. I'm headed to the shop to see if I can get that bracket straightened on this wonderful Pulsar mower. Hopefully I can. Then, I'll get the parts ordered to get it up and running.

I should probably start a new thread for this question, but since it still pertains to the Pulsar, I'll ask it here. Assuming I get the bracket straightened and then get the mower running as it should, what kind of price should I hang on it? I feel stupid for even asking this question, but I have no history with these Chinese products. I have only dealt with mowers carrying Briggs, Kohler, and Honda engines, with a few Tecumsehs thrown in. I have two thoughts. One, it's a really cheap, Chinese product that has NO replacement parts available anywhere except directly from the home office. With that thought in mind I'd have to say it's a $75 mower, give or take. But, then there is the fact that it still carries the original $149.99 price sticker on it and it has only been used two seasons. If I get it running like it should, and get it cleaned and shiny like I'm sure I'll be able to, is it a mower worth hanging a $100 to $125 price on? What is the market for something like this? I haven't managed to turn up another used mower like this for sale anywhere on the 'Net, so that didn't help me.

Rivets said:

Most people look at the number of forum members and think as you did, some many members, lots of techs. On this forum there are less than a dozen experienced techs who frequently respond to problems. Then come about two dozen who have minimal experience, Most, about 50% of the posters are DIY guys who had a similar problem 5 years ago, don’t fully read the thread, and offer solutions which won’t help with the OP’s problem. The rest are those who no longer are around. On top of that we have the guys, 29-30 years old, who expect a working solution in 24 hours, but never bother to post relevant info because we are the experts with ESP.

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I understand. I did try to find a complete list of members, but only found the page that shows the most active members, etc, etc, etc. A lot of the forums I have been on have a complete list of members that also shows when they signed up and the last time they were online. That gives a really good idea of how many guys are available to respond.

My Aussie friend (not really) on the other forum is a prime example of someone offering advice who had no business doing so. I still grin when I read that post he made. I wasn't sure if he was being serious or posting some kind of joke. When it turned out he was very serious I was kind of taken aback.

Now that I no longer really work and my wife has finally retired, I'm a whole lot more reserved and laid back than when I was still doing the all nighters on some computer network somewhere. I've had this Pulsar sitting on the bench for about a week. I suppose I'd be a little more enthusiastic if it was a customer's mower that he wanted repaired, but since it's just a mower I'm refurbing for resell, I'm not quite so enthused. LOL!

I am starting to get a few responses to my meager means of advertising. I've got a couple of mowers coming in sometime this week and one guy asked if I'd work on a really old Troy-Bilt tiller. I told him I would, but until I see it and know what it is, we can't be sure that replacement parts are still available. He wasn't too sure but thought it was from the 60s or 70s. He said the gear box made some really strange noises, then the thing stopped running and gear oil started running out of it. That really doesn't sound too good. LOL!

smhardesty said:

I did just a quick search for fuel filters that can be cleaned as opposed to being replaced. I think the cheapest one I ran across was $27. That could buy quite a few replaceable filters. I'm sure the ones that are to be cleaned are relatively easy to clean, but can they be cleaned as well as a brand new, replaceable filter will be? I'm guessing they are at least supposed to be that clean, but I'd worry about contamination left in the cleanable filter. On the other hand, if there was suddenly no other choice, I'd have to get used to cleaning the fuel filter.

It seems funny that in a world where so much is now "throw away", they'd introduce a cleanable fuel filter. I expect those filters have a real use in some application, somewhere, but I can't see them as being a reasonable alternative to the inexpensive, replaceable filters in use on most small engines. But, now I know.

I am finally over that step throat that hung around for a lot longer than I expected. I'm headed to the shop to see if I can get that bracket straightened on this wonderful Pulsar mower. Hopefully I can. Then, I'll get the parts ordered to get it up and running.

I should probably start a new thread for this question, but since it still pertains to the Pulsar, I'll ask it here. Assuming I get the bracket straightened and then get the mower running as it should, what kind of price should I hang on it? I feel stupid for even asking this question, but I have no history with these Chinese products. I have only dealt with mowers carrying Briggs, Kohler, and Honda engines, with a few Tecumsehs thrown in. I have two thoughts. One, it's a really cheap, Chinese product that has NO replacement parts available anywhere except directly from the home office. With that thought in mind I'd have to say it's a $75 mower, give or take. But, then there is the fact that it still carries the original $149.99 price sticker on it and it has only been used two seasons. If I get it running like it should, and get it cleaned and shiny like I'm sure I'll be able to, is it a mower worth hanging a $100 to $125 price on? What is the market for something like this? I haven't managed to turn up another used mower like this for sale anywhere on the 'Net, so that didn't help me.

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Need to determine what the going price for push mowers are in your area. My area I have issues with people selling used equipment in their front yards, so in my area that is a $15-25 mower.

ILENGINE said:

Need to determine what the going price for push mowers are in your area. My area I have issues with people selling used equipment in their front yards, so in my area that is a $15-25 mower.

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Dang. That's pretty sad. I was kind of afraid that was the situation.

But, as to the Pulsar, I spent an entertaining afternoon. Note I said entertaining and NOT enjoyable. First, I got the front axle assembly with the bent bracket on it removed. I put it in my vice, grabbed a 10" Crescent that has a hole for hanging it up, placed it over the spindle, and was able to bend that bracket any way and in any direction I wanted to. I was amazed at just how weak that bracket is. So, that didn't sit well.

Next, I put the whole thing back together, and those little bolts and nuts that hold the assembly to the deck are a pain in the butt. Knowing I'm not as sharp as I once was, I made sure to put a nice, yellow, crayon mark on the bracket that needed bent, just to be sure I got it back together correctly. Once I got it in place, I tried connecting the adjustment link bar to the axle assembly. There was just no way. The hole on the bracket was forward of the spindle and the link bar lacked about 3" to 4" of being able to bolt together. The first thing I did was check for my crayon mark. It was where it was when I disassembled. After looking at things for a few minutes I took the axle back out, reversed it and,,, lo and behold,,, things went together correctly. The previous owner never bothered to tell me he took it apart, but it was obvious that he had.

Then, I went to put the front wheels on.Tthe thread on the spindle on the side that was bent was all boogered up. I had to chase the thread to get the locking nut to start and thread. It was turning into a wonderful afternoon.

Once I finally got the whole front end fixed and made sure the adjustment worked as it should, it was time to see if the thing would fire. I pulled the plug and it looked fine. I cleaned it off with carb cleaner and checked the gap. Then I shot a healthy dose of Seafoam in the cylinder. I pulled the air filter and gave the carb a healthy does of Seafoam, as well. Pulled the engine break lever and gave the starter cord a good, healthy pull and the thing blew OIL out the exhaust, all over the shop. I opened the door and took it outside to continue. No matter how many times I pulled, it never stopped blowing oil. I removed and reinstalled the plug about a half dozen times and each time the plug was dripping with oil. I kept cleaning things out and shooting Seafoam in it, but it never stopped blowing oil. I put it back on the bench.

Tomorrow I'll pull the engine off that deck and throw it in the dumpster. I have a good, 4.5 HP Briggs Quantum sitting in one corner of the shop. The deck it was on was toast, but the engine still started and ran perfectly. It only needs a good tune up and a thorough cleaning and it'll make a good mower for somebody. I have no idea if this Chinese made deck has the same bolt configuration as other motors, but I'll give it a shot. Cheap, Chinese junk!

smhardesty said:

I had another mower come in with a brand name I had never heard of. It is a Pulsar model # PTG12205, with a serial number of PTG1220520090337. The engine data stamped on the back of the case is DV0150 19123092329. I have searched and searched and can't find a single site that has any parts for this thing. I'm not 100% sure, but this thing can't be over 3 or 4 years old, and might even be newer, at least by looking it over. The original, paper, stick on price tag is still on the top of the motor. I'd think that would have been long gone if the mower was older than a few, short years.

It might be an off the wall, cheap push mower, but it has a couple of features that are pretty nifty. First, the handle is shaped with the end turned up, giving taller guys like me a more comfortable handle height to use. Then, there is a really nifty height adjustment system. There is a nice, large handle sticking up on the right rear wheel you use to make the adjustments. The rear wheels are connected by an axle assembly and a rod runs from the left rear wheel to the left front wheel. Another axle assembly connects the two front wheels.

There is a slight problem with the front left wheel. The owner backed a big zero turn over the left front corner. It bent the left front wheel bracket and the rod of the axle assembly. I'm about 99% sure when I take the front end apart I'll be able to straighten things out, but in case I can't for some reason, I'd like to be able to order whatever new pieces I need. I'll also need either a carb rebuild kit or a new carb. I haven't tried tearing things down yet. Before I get armpit deep in this thing I'd like to know for sure that I can get replacement parts.

The only thing I found online is in the link below. You can buy a whole new mower, but they don't list parts. I have sent a message to them requesting info on where I can get parts, but haven't received any reply yet. Any help in locating a parts dealer will be greatly appreciated. Oh, yeah. I managed to find a site to download an Operator's Manual for it and that site also had a parts list diagram. When I downloaded the parts diagram it was so small I couldn't read it and when I tried zooming in things were so blurry I for sure couldn't read it. Heck, I even put my really strong reading glasses on and couldn't see things clearly. LOL!

https://pulsar-products.com/our-products/lawn-mowers/#

Click to expand...

Here is some info that may help :
For parts, service and warranty request, please contact us at 1-866-591-8921 or email us at support@pulsar-products.com. Our support center hours are Monday-Friday, 7:00am-4:00pm pacific.

Sales & General inquiries​

Email: info@pulsar-products.com

I also learned that some China produced engines made for various US brand names where black marketed to various OEM's without knowledge or valid US serial numbers by China. Get that! China will do anything to overtake the world.

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Really ?
it is not those nasty evil communist Chinese that are the problem
It is the excessively greedy USA companies looking for cheaper & cheaper supply lines plus cheapskates customers who think they can have whatever they want a t a price they can easily afford because the universe revolves around them.
Just like if no one baught stolen goods their would be no property theft, if no one bought cheap useless mowers then this problem would not exist.
As dad used to say
"he who buys cheap pays thrice "
When customers come in with trash products they get told honestly that they are trash throw away products that are destroying the planet & our economy.
If they want me to fix them then they will have to pay for all of my time including time spent trying to find parts that fit .
Usually I get sworn at but I am a big boy & I can take it .
When I first kicked off I would take on any repair but I very quickly found out that repairing trash was costing me money big time and even worse was annoting my customers with quality brand name products because I was always busy chasing my tail trying to fix "temporarly diverted land fill ".
I regularly get people coming in saying that the salesman said "parts are no problem because Honda / Briggs / Kohler parts fit it"
Now days when that happens I tell them to go back and get the Honda / Briggs / Kohler part number for the Honda / Briggs / Kohler part that fits & I will order the parts for them
They never come back & I am glad that they do not .
I am not in business to loose money so some slease bag can make a fortune flogging stuff without supplying any customer support because it is the warehouse full of parts and the corrosponding service information that costs all the money .
I can buy lawn mowers from China for as little as $ 25 US if I buy them by the thousands and for another $1 or $ 2 I can get them branded with any name I like then add another $ 1 or $ 2 for custom paint colours .
Then add $ 5 for freight and they land for some where between $ 25 & $ 35, sell them via Amazon for $ 100 and make a killing, literally .
And this is what companies like Pulsar are doing .

And yes I have no doubt that the long term aim of the Chinese government is to destroy every democratically elected government on the planet and achieve world domination.
But they are not doing it with a master plan, they are using the inate greed & selfishness of the now unregulated capitalist economies to facilitate the greed of their populations to destroy their own countries and from what I can see the plan is working very very well .

bertsmobile1 said:

When I first kicked off I would take on any repair but I very quickly found out that repairing trash was costing me money big time and even worse was annoting my customers with quality brand name products because I was always busy chasing my tail trying to fix "temporarly diverted land fill ".
I regularly get people coming in saying that the salesman said "parts are no problem because Honda / Briggs / Kohler parts fit it"

Click to expand...

I have had pretty much the same issues. I'd spend more time chasing down parts via the web than I was diagnosing and repairing a machine. I'm done working on Chinese machines. I have one more Chinese machine in my shop, a DuriFuel generator, and when it is gone there will be no more. It needs internal engine parts, specifically an exhaust valve spring, the retainer, and the 2 retainer locks. It has been a miserable task just finding the part numbers and then finding a retailer that had them in stock. If it looks like a Honda but doesn't say Honda on it anywhere, take it to someone else because I'm not working on it.

Uses Honda parts they say. What the don't say is to repair the carb you need a gasket set from two different engines because you need the bowl gasket from one and the base gasket from the other and the float valve from a third engine

smhardesty said:

It's a shame that retailers like Menard's Lowe's Home Depot, Walmart, etc, etc, decided it was good for business to buy a boatload of this stuff, sell it out for minimal profit, then refuse to offer service or stock parts. Just how in the hell is that good for either the consumer OR the overall economy of this country?


.

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First of all, over 90% of the product these retailers sell is from overseas. Second, Did you ever wonder why they would choose to buy from another country and not the USA? Other countries can make products for pennies on the dollar, plus with the cheap child labor that they enjoy, it's still cheaper to have these companies make the product and ship it than it is to buy American. Americans did it to themselves. Always looking for cheap cost of buying something, that's why manufacturing for a lot of companies moved overseas, then of course we have all the Gov't taxes and all the EPA and OSHA regulations in this country. Manufacturers here can barely breath, while in other countries Gov't officials turn their heads the other way. Bottom line, it's all about profit. You buy a cheap throw, you get what you pay for. Now days, try to find a pure 100% American made and manufactured anything.

DeadmanRoss316 said:

https://mowerpartsland.com/?s=Pulsar&post_type=product. I am continuing the qwest I got an owners manual but trying now to do a more in depth search for any real info

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Home depot has some parts search briggs with that model number it should come up.

Found this maybe it will help for part numbers its exploded view of mower and eng.

I have had a couple come through my shop and they are disposable for sure. The other Menards product that I see a lot of is their FVP batteries. People think that they are getting a good deal but I replace half a dozen per year that were bought just a few months before. Menards = Chinese garbage.

Found this site selling used parts. Maybe you will get lucky.
Maybe eBay too.

AntiqueMan76 said:

Here is some info that may help :
For parts, service and warranty request, please contact us at 1-866-591-8921 or email us at support@pulsar-products.com. Our support center hours are Monday-Friday, 7:00am-4:00pm pacific.

Sales & General inquiries​

Email: info@pulsar-products.com

Click to expand...

Have already been in touch with them, but thanks.

Richard Martin said:

I have had pretty much the same issues. I'd spend more time chasing down parts via the web than I was diagnosing and repairing a machine. I'm done working on Chinese machines. I have one more Chinese machine in my shop, a DuriFuel generator, and when it is gone there will be no more. It needs internal engine parts, specifically an exhaust valve spring, the retainer, and the 2 retainer locks. It has been a miserable task just finding the part numbers and then finding a retailer that had them in stock. If it looks like a Honda but doesn't say Honda on it anywhere, take it to someone else because I'm not working on it.

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I hear ya. What I'm really amazed at is how many of these cheap things have entered the US market in just the few years since I last did small engine repair. Maybe it was because of my location and the fact that the majority of work I got was from area farmers. I just never saw this stuff back then. Now, I've managed to get three of the things in already and I've only been looking for stuff for 3 months, give or take. And I'm still just blown away by this crap Pulsar is pulling with NOT allowing any parts to be stocked by any dealers in the entire US of A. It's baffling to me.

ILENGINE said:

Uses Honda parts they say. What the don't say is to repair the carb you need a gasket set from two different engines because you need the bowl gasket from one and the base gasket from the other and the float valve from a third engine

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I'm thinking that is why they told me they did NOT sell any carb rebuild kits and I couldn't even buy the parts individually. It was buy a complete carb or do without, Period. Granted, the carb is only $20, but that's not the point here. What if ALL I need was a new bowl gasket and nothing else? Seems like it's still - buy a $20 carb. Stupid.

kjonxx said:

Home depot has some parts search briggs with that model number it should come up.

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I'm confused by this. Where and how would I search for a repair part for a Pulsar on a Briggs parts site? What am I not understanding? How would I plug in a Pulsar model number on a Briggs site?

kjonxx said:

Found this maybe it will help for part numbers its exploded view of mower and eng.

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Already have that. It was provided to me several posts back, but thanks. And that's not the real problem. The real problem is that the parts can only be ordered directly from Pulsar's home office in Canada. That's per Pulsar, themselves. I received that in an email I got from them. They told me that they will not allow dealers to stock parts and they only sell parts direct from them. I think I posted a screenshot of that statement from the email I got from them. I'd have to look back to be sure, but I sure think I did. Here it is again, anyway.

donslawns said:

I have had a couple come through my shop and they are disposable for sure. The other Menards product that I see a lot of is their FVP batteries. People think that they are getting a good deal but I replace half a dozen per year that were bought just a few months before. Menards = Chinese garbage.

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My best local choices are the FVP Menard's batteries with the 6 month warranty or the 1 year old still on the shelf Walmart batteries with the 30 day warranty. Throw in the Rural King batteries that will get exchanged 3-6 times in the first 90 days before getting a good one.

dwzkd said:

Found this site selling used parts. Maybe you will get lucky.

Welcome to mower-atvparts.com - If we don't have it, and if we can't find it, then they don't make it!!

Maybe eBay too.

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Yeah, I already found that site too. They don't have any of what I thought I was going to need.

It's all moot anyway. I posted a legthy explanation of what I ran into yesterday. In that post, I said that the engines is blowing oil through the exhaust when trying to start it. Not just a speck or two of oil, but I huge blast of it on every pull of the starter. I intend to pull that cheap engine and put a Briggs 4.5HP on it. I have a good one sitting in the corner of the shop. I'm just hoping bolt patterns line up.

I bought a Brute walk behind trimmer from Menard's with a three year warranty. On about my 5th use, it wouldn't start. I did the usual testing on something under warranty, no luck.
I called Pulsar and they recommended a local shop. Three weeks later, I go to pick it up and it takes maybe 8 pulls. The warranty says first on second pull. I asked the shop guy and he said it hasn't been run in a while. By the time I got home the service guy calls and says Pulsar rejected the warranty service. When I called Pulsar they said I didn't get approval for repair. I had two other conversations with Pulsar they said they were discussing. I was planning on negotiating the bill with the shop suggesting they call me if they received no payment. Never heard another word.

Welt to use the trimmer a week or so later, no go....

Ohioguy said:

I bought a Brute walk behind trimmer from Menard's with a three year warranty. On about my 5th use, it wouldn't start. I did the usual testing on something under warranty, no luck.
I called Pulsar and they recommended a local shop. Three weeks later, I go to pick it up and it takes maybe 8 pulls. The warranty says first on second pull. I asked the shop guy and he said it hasn't been run in a while. By the time I got home the service guy calls and says Pulsar rejected the warranty service. When I called Pulsar they said I didn't get approval for repair. I had two other conversations with Pulsar they said they were discussing. I was planning on negotiating the bill with the shop suggesting they call me if they received no payment. Never heard another word.

Welt to use the trimmer a week or so later, no go....

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Yeah, the more I see and hear about this Chinese stuff, the worse it gets.

I just got home from picking up a pretty decent Honda self propelled mower. I never even bothered trying to start it until I got home. I made a stop on the way so the total time from when I loaded it up until I got home was in excess of 2 hours. I unloaded it, pulled the engine brake, pulled the cord ONE TIME, and it fired and purred like a kitten. Just a quick once over seems to indicate all it needs is 4 new wheels, a service job, and a really good cleaning and it's ready to sell.

The guy had three other pieces of equipment and he said if I wouldn't dicker on the asking price for the mower, he'd throw the stuff in. Well, I hadn't intended on dickering on the price to begin with. If he had been asking more I would never have made the trip to begin with. Two of the other pieces are identical Craftsman hedge trimmers. One runs as is, but has a broken blade and the other doesn't run yet, but has a perfectly good blade. I'm not even going to try making both worthwhile. I'll just make one out of two and let it go.

It's the third piece that again has me scratching my head. I don't know how popular the things are, but this is a Badger trimmer unit. All that is here is what I'll call the top end. It's the engine and the top half of the shaft. There is supposed to some sort of coupler to add the rest of the shaft with the head and is supposedly able to accept different kinds of tools. I haven't even begun to search for stuff. I did find the Badger site and it doesn't look promising. I really never expected to make this thing usable. It kind of reminds me of the Chinese mowers I have on hand and I don't need any more of that crap. LOL!

Ohioguy said:

I bought a Brute walk behind trimmer from Menard's with a three year warranty. On about my 5th use, it wouldn't start. I did the usual testing on something under warranty, no luck.
I called Pulsar and they recommended a local shop. Three weeks later, I go to pick it up and it takes maybe 8 pulls. The warranty says first on second pull. I asked the shop guy and he said it hasn't been run in a while. By the time I got home the service guy calls and says Pulsar rejected the warranty service. When I called Pulsar they said I didn't get approval for repair. I had two other conversations with Pulsar they said they were discussing. I was planning on negotiating the bill with the shop suggesting they call me if they received no payment. Never heard another word.

Welt to use the trimmer a week or so later, no go....

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Those were made by Ardisam. Never any warranty payment issues with them.

MikeH62 said:

First of all, over 90% of the product these retailers sell is from overseas. Second, Did you ever wonder why they would choose to buy from another country and not the USA? Other countries can make products for pennies on the dollar, plus with the cheap child labor that they enjoy, it's still cheaper to have these companies make the product and ship it than it is to buy American. Americans did it to themselves. Always looking for cheap cost of buying something, that's why manufacturing for a lot of companies moved overseas, then of course we have all the Gov't taxes and all the EPA and OSHA regulations in this country. Manufacturers here can barely breath, while in other countries Gov't officials turn their heads the other way. Bottom line, it's all about profit. You buy a cheap throw, you get what you pay for. Now days, try to find a pure 100% American made and manufactured anything.

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Yes it is all about GREED
Greed of the companies to make the biggest possible profit
Greed of the customer who want everything but does not want to pay for it
Greed of the politicans who ignore the breeches of competition laws to carry favour with their financiers.

People regularly ask me for my recommendations & then when they get them they get angry because my recommendations all end up being at the most expensive end of the market .

smhardesty said:

I had another mower come in with a brand name I had never heard of. It is a Pulsar model # PTG12205, with a serial number of PTG1220520090337. The engine data stamped on the back of the case is DV0150 19123092329. I have searched and searched and can't find a single site that has any parts for this thing. I'm not 100% sure, but this thing can't be over 3 or 4 years old, and might even be newer, at least by looking it over. The original, paper, stick on price tag is still on the top of the motor. I'd think that would have been long gone if the mower was older than a few, short years.

It might be an off the wall, cheap push mower, but it has a couple of features that are pretty nifty. First, the handle is shaped with the end turned up, giving taller guys like me a more comfortable handle height to use. Then, there is a really nifty height adjustment system. There is a nice, large handle sticking up on the right rear wheel you use to make the adjustments. The rear wheels are connected by an axle assembly and a rod runs from the left rear wheel to the left front wheel. Another axle assembly connects the two front wheels.

There is a slight problem with the front left wheel. The owner backed a big zero turn over the left front corner. It bent the left front wheel bracket and the rod of the axle assembly. I'm about 99% sure when I take the front end apart I'll be able to straighten things out, but in case I can't for some reason, I'd like to be able to order whatever new pieces I need. I'll also need either a carb rebuild kit or a new carb. I haven't tried tearing things down yet. Before I get armpit deep in this thing I'd like to know for sure that I can get replacement parts.

The only thing I found online is in the link below. You can buy a whole new mower, but they don't list parts. I have sent a message to them requesting info on where I can get parts, but haven't received any reply yet. Any help in locating a parts dealer will be greatly appreciated. Oh, yeah. I managed to find a site to download an Operator's Manual for it and that site also had a parts list diagram. When I downloaded the parts diagram it was so small I couldn't read it and when I tried zooming in things were so blurry I for sure couldn't read it. Heck, I even put my really strong reading glasses on and couldn't see things clearly. LOL!

https://pulsar-products.com/our-products/lawn-mowers/#

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I've only have two of these come in so far and I believe they're sold at menards. Gray with a decent deal of plastic on them and from what I remember black and white logo with a green or blue stripe or something like that but the name does ring a bell.
Hopefully you'll be able to bend things back into place as I don't know of a source for parts for these nor would I really want to bother.
We need to stop buying these complete Chinese pieces of equipment.
I guess you could say it's bad enough that so many of the engines are Chinese ones by Loncin or whoever else but I don't have as big of a problem with the engines being made in China as I do the whole machine.
It does create a certain problem like much less availability for parts.
And don't think just the off brands or Chinese brands do it. Anything that has a Chinese built engine can be in the same way as far as engine parts. I have a high-end aluminum deck dealer only Toro mower here that had one of two or three different variations of the Toro brand engine which is obviously just another Chinese clone version.
You can tell the difference at least in the main two variations by looking at the valve cover. One is stamp steel and one is thicker aluminum.
The stamp steel one is more common and probably many of the parts from other engines you would find on machines with Chinese engines will fit but the thicker aluminum one like I have is not nearly as common.
This one wiped out a valve guide after it slipped and continued to run long enough to destroy the head.
It needs a replacement head but they are not available.
The Toro dealer has already been through this many times and your only options are a short block or if you happen to have a good used one sitting around.
So the problem is lots of times Parts aren't available for these engines or they're not available in anything but complete replacement parts like an entire carburetor when that's just absurd.
I say it's absurd because even if you can get that cheap carburetor shipped to your door for $14 it's still ridiculous to replace the whole carburetor when all you want is a needle valve or a float.
I keep all used parts so normally I will have something that will fit but it's just a shame they don't sell individual Parts like Briggs & Stratton or Kohler would do.
Luckily, most of the bigger brands and USA brands of mowers all have parts available for the machine itself just not the engine.

This works out well because on any thing but very minor engine issues it's just not worth repairing anyways!
If you're in love with the thing and it's yours and you're not paying for labor and you want to waste the time then sure but it's still not the best or most cost effective or efficient way.
Even something that's fairly simple like a head gasket would still take you longer than popping the blade off taking off the three bolts and swapping another good engine onto that deck and you wouldn't have the expense of the head gasket.
You could say it's a shame to be part of that disposable mindset and stuff but most the time it's the best approach for everyone involved.
It is never cost-effective to replace an engine on a mower with a new engine and it's never cost-effective to pay the extreme labor to do internal engine repairs like a camshaft and often even a head gasket.
The only way you can consider it cost-effective is if you considering buying a brand new mower instead of the repair but that's not an accurate comparison
The accurate comparison would be to buy a used mower of the same age and condition of the one you have with a bad engine which would be considerably cheaper than a new one.
When you put a new engine on a mower it is now not equivalent to a brand new mower so it might be cheaper than buying a new one but you also monetarily have something less than the new mower.

Back to the original post, you said it needs a carburetor or something and my question is if it's just not running or not running right or won't start then it probably just needs the carburetor cleaned out.
We really need to stop replacing carburetors for these no starts!
Hardly any mower ever wears out a carburetor or even damages it. It would take 15 or 20 years of heavy use to actually wear out a carburetor and sometimes not even then.
Carburetors just get clogged up or dirty and need to be cleaned out so even though you can get a new one shipped to your door for between 12 and $20 please don't do it it just makes the situation worse with them not providing individual small parts etc.

I do this commercially and my ratios on replacing carburetors versus just cleaning them out stands currently at only 2-3 carb replacements for every 1000 that I clean out.

A real weird thing happened in the industry 3 years ago at least in my area..
All the shops who for decades had been doing carburetor rebuilds or carburetor overhauls stop doing that. They all started just replacing the carb.
I see a couple of reasons for it but not sure why they did it because they make less money this way most of the time.
Anyway, stop replacing carburetors. Clean them out and make them run properly.

TobyU said:

So the problem is lots of times Parts aren't available for these engines or they're not available in anything but complete replacement parts like an entire carburetor when that's just absurd.
I say it's absurd because even if you can get that cheap carburetor shipped to your door for $14 it's still ridiculous to replace the whole carburetor when all you want is a needle valve or a float.

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Because that cheap carb is less than the parts to repair it. IE, $24 float valve in $17 OEM Honda carb.

TobyU said:

I keep all used parts so normally I will have something that will fit but it's just a shame they don't sell individual Parts like Briggs & Stratton or Kohler would do.
Luckily, most of the bigger brands and USA brands of mowers all have parts available for the machine itself just not the engine

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Kohler and Briggs are both in the complete component market, ie Briggs complete blower housing with starter assembly because replacement starter spring not available separately. Kohler has a few items in the category with the SH series engines. Then there are the Briggs engines were everything but 1/2 dozen parts are greyed out on the IPL

TobyU said:

.

Back to the original post, you said it needs a carburetor or something and my question is if it's just not running or not running right or won't start then it probably just needs the carburetor cleaned out.
We really need to stop replacing carburetors for these no starts!
Hardly any mower ever wears out a carburetor or even damages it. It would take 15 or 20 years of heavy use to actually wear out a carburetor and sometimes not even then.
Carburetors just get clogged up or dirty and need to be cleaned out so even though you can get a new one shipped to your door for between 12 and $20 please don't do it it just makes the situation worse with them not providing individual small parts etc.

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Would you prefer I replace your $20 carb and $30 labor or repair your carb using a $30 carb kit and $70 for labor. And those are real world numbers. And keep in mind the customer may pay the $50 for the repair not the $100.

TobyU said:

I do this commercially and my ratios on replacing carburetors versus just cleaning them out stands currently at only 2-3 carb replacements for every 1000 that I clean out.

A real weird thing happened in the industry 3 years ago at least in my area..
All the shops who for decades had been doing carburetor rebuilds or carburetor overhauls stop doing that. They all started just replacing the carb.
I see a couple of reasons for it but not sure why they did it because they make less money this way most of the time.
Anyway, stop replacing carburetors. Clean them out and make them run properly.

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Because it is more profitable in the long term of instead of using the time to clean and repair a carb than to replace when that time can be put toward a much larger repair that will cost in the hundreds. Small repairs are not conducive to shop efficiency.

.
TobyU, I have found that the Pulsars were sold by Menard's, Lowe's. Walmart, and our local farm service store, Rural King. I'm sure they were sold by many more retail outlets across this country. As for parts. You can get parts from Pulsar directly as I have stated before, but according to them, on a "case to case basis".

I think I have understood you to be saying that as a whole, all of us that do repairs on small engines, for whatever reason, should band together and refuse to buckle to the engine manufacturers by refusing to buy a complete carb when all we really need is a few parts of the carb. That is a grand idea, in theory. I say, in theory, for two reason. First, the manufacturers could care less if we refuse to buy a carb to make the necessary repairs on a small engine. Refusal to buy a complete carb doesn't mean a thing to them. All it does is prevent us from returning a piece of OPE to useful status. With outfits like Pulsar and all the other Chinese built equipment, that's actually playing right into their hands. They do NOT want us to repair any of their products. What they want is more sales of the complete product. They WANT to sell more new mowers. Period.

The second reason that theory will never fly is simply because you'd never be able to get even 5% of people repairing small engines to go along with that program. The reason is that all of us, including non-professionals like me, are doing this to make money. Whether we are talking about a true professional that either owns a full blown repair facility or works for one, or a small time operator like me that does this to keep busy and make a few dollars on the side, we all need to make a profit on our repairs. Very few can truly afford to refuse to repair a piece of OPE simply to make a point.

I have taken just a few minutes to check on parts availability for this Honda mower I picked up yesterday. One of the first things I checked for was carburetor parts. There is NO carb rebuild kit. There are only a couple of parts that can be purchased individually. I can, however, purchase a complete, ready to bolt on, new carb for only $24. When I started this thing up yesterday, it ran smoothly and sounded great. I would have no real reason to attempt to disassemble the carb, but since I am refurbishing these mowers to resell, one of the things I'd LIKE to be able to do is remove the carb and clean it all up, inside and out. That is the reason I look for carb rebuild kits for the carbs on every piece of equipment I refurb. None of us are perfect, especially a guy like me. It's too easy to accidentally tear a gasket or even lose a small piece of the carb when disassembling for cleaning. No, it doesn't happen every time or even often, but accidents do happen. If my plan was to simply disassemble and clean, but in the process I tear a gasket, I'll have NO CHOICE except to go ahead and buy a new carb. That's kind of frustrating, but it is what it is.

I agree that things should not be the way they seem to be in this business anymore. What I don't see is any change being made simply because small engine techs think things should be different. I still can't believe what has happened in the few years since I last did repairs. It's been said a few times in this thread already, the real story is nothing more than the bottom line for engine manufacturers and equipment sellers. Whether or not small engine repair shops survive or even profit is of little to no concern to the big companies. All we can do is the best we can to satisfy our customers. If that means we have to buy complete carbs instead of a carb rebuild kit or just a few pieces, then that's what we have to do. Deciding to either work on certain brands of equipment or not is an individual decision.

I would more than likely have gone ahead and bought the new carb for this Pulsar if the thing had not blown so much oil out the exhaust. I have nothing in this thing. Zero dollars to acquire it. A $20 carb and another $15 to $20 in a couple of other parts would have left me with a running mower I could have put out for sale. My profit margin doesn't need to be quite as much as you full time, professional repairmen. However, I do require at least a profit. My primary reason for doing this is to keep a pair of retired hands busy doing something, but I have no intention of refurbishing a mower, then selling it for a loss. I'll take up needlepoint first.

Don't misunderstand me. I am in no way attempting to refute your statements, nor am I attempting to argue. It's quite the opposite. I agree with you that what is happening with parts in this industry is not right.
.

Don't know about the USA but down here every thing has a government mandated 12 month warranty period.
Nearly every retailer has a totally BS price parity guarantee so they get the suppliers to use model numbers ( or even brand names ) specific to the one that they sell thus an identical unit with a different model number will not trigger the price guarantee .
All of the big retailers send their buyers to third world countries to source the goods then put out a supply contract on a local importer which allows another BS claim "most products are locally sourced " to be stated with impunity .
The supplier is then responsible for warranty and as here is zero parts back up they just over order and cover warranty by stripping parts off another new mower or just replacing your duff one with a new one , noting that the replacement is only warranted for the balance of the time remaining.
Once the last mower sold is older than 12 months the remaining stock is sold usually as a single line by auction so it is "as is where is' with no warranty.

Thus parts on a "case by case" basis will depend upon the wholesaler having a mower they can strip for parts or replace .
When Lowes & Woolworths combined to launch the Masters chain of hardwear stores ( Westfarmers PL owns 85 % of all hardwear retailers & wholesalers down here ) the local shop used to "donate" all of the lawn & garden equipment that was returned under warranty ( probably claimed full retail value ) to the local Mens Shed on the grounds that they could repair them and give them away but not resell them .
The original purchaser either got a full refund or replacement .
Most of the mowers just needed a simple repair ( like a fresh spark plug ) but the supplier was the one who footed the bill .
Needless to say Masters lost millions for each of the 4 years of operation till it was abandoned .

The simple fact is the highest profit to cost ratio is obtained by purchasing cheap junk and selling for the highest price you can get .
Executives get paid bonuses on profit to equity ratios so under that system wholesaling cheap junk sourced from a third world country will always be dominant .
Those who have not been involved in logistics have no idea about just how expensive it is .
The last warehouse I was involved in running had a fixed cost of $ 2.50 / week for each & every pallet space and we had 20,000 pallet spaces .
A pick cost $ 3.20 for a trolly pick or $ 6.80 for a fork lift pick.
Invoicing ran to around $ 2.00 a hit and then there was freight added to that.
This is why a bolt from a dealer is $ 9.00 where as the exact same bolt from a bolt shop is $ 2.50

This is the reason what Bezos treats his warehouse staff like slaves ( which your government fully endorses ) to cut down those costs.
Now look at your mower and consider that each different part , or assembly of parts is at least one pallet space and you will see why retailing with no support is so profitable and providing parts back up is so expensive .
One of the factors in B & S demise was the massive inventory of basically obsolete slow moving parts which was fine while they were the dominant supplier of engines so the new sales to manufacturers could subsidise the after sales support.
However when they were forced to match the prices of imported engines that had no parts back up their profits dropped drastically.
And when the actual sales numbers fell, the writing was on the wall and B & S will eventually vanish leaving only Vanguard behind .
I have no sympathy for B & S ( or any other manufacturer ) who ceased to manufacture in favour of simply assembling from outsourced parts which actually reduced the total profit in favour of obtaining a higher profit to equity ratio to get bigger onuses and increase the perceived value of the company thus increasing the share price .
Down here we call it " bonus farming "

DeadmanRoss316 said:

https://mowerpartsland.com/?s=Pulsar&post_type=product. I am continuing the qwest I got an owners manual but trying now to do a more in depth search for any real info

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I appreciate the help, but you do realize that nearly every part on that site is for a Pulsar generator. Right? And they aren't exactly Pulsar parts. As I understand it, those parts are aftermarket parts that will "replace" the actual Pulsar parts. I'm sure they will do what the vendor says they will do, but I don't think they are selling actual Pulsar parts.

I have spoken with Pulsar's home office, or headquarters, or whatever it is. They told me they don't allow any parts to be sold by anyone OTHER THAN the Pulsar company. All parts are sold directly by Pulsar and not by any dealer.

I'm not trying to dampen your enthusiasm, but I also don't want you or anybody else to waste time trying to find parts for this mower. First, I can promise you I'll never take another one in for any reason. Even though I do this mostly to keep myself busy, I don't need the headaches associated with trying to find parts for them. Also, I'll not be attempting to do anything further with the engine. It's blowing oil out the exhaust in huge quantities. I'll be putting a Briggs engine on the Pulsar deck, IF the bolt pattern is typical. The only part I'll be ordering from Pulsar will be the rear rock guard and that's ONLY if I get the Briggs engine mounted on the deck. I'm sure there are alternate Rick guards from another brand that will easily fit or that can be adapted to work.

So, don't let me discourage you if you're just up for a challenge, but also don't think that I'm in need for more info. I just don't want to cause anybody to go to any great trouble for me on this thing.

Bert, that's an excellent explanation of the whole picture. More and more manufacturers of all sorts of different products are following that "bottom line" plan for profiting from sales. That's why we are now living on a "throw away" society. Consumers have conformed and are perfectly happy with the whole, "buy cheap and if it breaks, throw it away and buy a new one" way of thinking. Sad, but very true.

ILENGINE said:

Because that cheap carb is less than the parts to repair it. IE, $24 float valve in $17 OEM Honda carb.

Kohler and Briggs are both in the complete component market, ie Briggs complete blower housing with starter assembly because replacement starter spring not available separately. Kohler has a few items in the category with the SH series engines. Then there are the Briggs engines were everything but 1/2 dozen parts are greyed out on the IPL

Would you prefer I replace your $20 carb and $30 labor or repair your carb using a $30 carb kit and $70 for labor. And those are real world numbers. And keep in mind the customer may pay the $50 for the repair not the $100.

Because it is more profitable in the long term of instead of using the time to clean and repair a carb than to replace when that time can be put toward a much larger repair that will cost in the hundreds. Small repairs are not conducive to shop efficiency.

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Yes, shop efficiency. I believe I mentioned part of that. I think that's why they stopped rebuilding carbs or overhauling them and just started putting new ones on because it was more efficient. Quicker so they could get on to the next one. As I said they make less money from it but they can move on to bigger jobs like you said.

The same for your example above on $20 carb and $30 repair versus cheaper carb kit and $70 labor.
I was just pointing out that it's odd that the shop started doing this because they actually make more money on the car rebuild/overhaul than they do on the new carburetor because they're not making any killing at all and only a very small markup on the parts themselves.
I think it was all about getting on to the next one because they have well over a hundred lined up to fix at any given time and as you said get those little ones out of the way so you can prioritize and get to the bigger money-making jobs.

Most of my above comments though were not directed towards a shop doing the work. I thought this was a private individual working on their own machine.
My theory for those people is to stop by and replacement carbs and clean out what they have.
That way it's zero money out of their pocket.

You are correct about the further we go in the present and future the parts are becoming more and more complete assemblies and not individual small parts.
Color over the past few years has really gotten bad about selling like a basic and then a more complete carburetor kit and often that's the only way you can get the part you need. So they're getting 15 to $30 when you really only want something that cost $3.50.
I wasn't talking about recoil starting at spring assemblies but internal carburetor parts for the brakes. You can still buy most of the needle and seat and even these come as two separate parts.
I guess it's a good thing and I'll just wish it stays this way because it keeps each individual little part more likely to be available but in reality they should sell the needle and the seat as a complete unit on the cards that have the brass seat pressed in.
Too many people don't even know they're supposed to replace this and they run around slapping a needle valve in and acting like it's a proper fix. It could be it could last for years, it could also last for a day. And of course we have the seat polishers whether it's toothpaste, metal polish, etc.
Not saying it doesn't work but it's still not the right repair.
Just spend the extra 3 minutes, which actually is probably less time than it takes to polish and then clean the seat off again and build you a little tool to remove those seats and just replace the darn thing.
Honda would be an exception or at least different. Briggs will sell you afloat for five or $6 as well to come see. Honda you're right, you can buy a complete card ship to your door for under 20 bucks but try to buy just a float or a needle valve spring etc and you'll probably have 13 to 25 in it.
Kind of like those old Toro Suzuki engines. 15 years ago they wanted $17 for a needle valve!
Just like Kawasaki they think their parts are gold-plated. I mean, they are good.. but still.
I do think we always have to make the distinction whether this is a commercial shop operation with a line of work behind something charging a pretty high hourly rate for labor or if it's somebody fixing their own equipment.
Also, and many of these instances if it's your own equipment especially or if you work on a lot of them, you can maintain a good selection of used parts that will work just fine for what you need.

smhardesty said:

Bert, that's an excellent explanation of the whole picture. More and more manufacturers of all sorts of different products are following that "bottom line" plan for profiting from sales. That's why we are now living on a "throw away" society. Consumers have conformed and are perfectly happy with the whole, "buy cheap and if it breaks, throw it away and buy a new one" way of thinking. Sad, but very true.

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That is the reason why Global Warming & environmental degregation have become a major problem right now.
The embedded pollution in a throw away product is around 90% of that in a long life product and the logistical costs of getting it to your door are identical if not higher.
Thus we are generating a massive amount of pollution and destroying the planet in order to create land fill, does not make sense to anyone other than an economist .
At one time B & S made parts for the automotive industry, the avaition industry & the defence industry.
Now days I don't think they make a single part of their engines.
I had a college mate who ran a press shop.
They geared up to make automative seat frame pressings
Their customer rejected the first 3 batches before he found out that the board had decided to source from China.
The reason was "in case the market thinks we have missed the China boat and our share price drops"
So naturally they got sued and they happily paid out the full value of the contract which was around $ 2,500,000 , just to keep the share price up.
They also got sued by the car company because the Chinese products regularly failed the QC tests.
My friends press shop closed because they had spent $ 3,500,000 for the new 5 stage press & tooling to do the job , rented the 2 adjoining buildings & employed 8 more staff .
While they had almost enough work to cover costs not enough to guarantee a profit long term and if they ran out or lost a single client ( which in hind sight they would have ) then they would be running at a big loss .
Their closure meant there was now 5 vacant factories in a 12 factory complex which became 6 when the lunch shop closed down as there were now 100 fewer working at the site . This snowballed and the landlord went to the wall , the new owners upped the rent for the remaining 6 units and they all either closed down as the press shop was their biggest customer or moved and eventually the site was bulldozed to become a block of low rent apartments in the middle of an industrial area.

TobyU said:

Yes, shop efficiency. I believe I mentioned part of that. I think that's why they stopped rebuilding carbs or overhauling them and just started putting new ones on because it was more efficient. Quicker so they could get on to the next one. BIG SNIP

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TobyU said:

You are correct about the further we go in the present and future the parts are becoming more and more complete assemblies and not individual small parts.
Color over the past few years has really gotten bad about selling like a basic and then a more complete carburetor kit and often that's the only way you can get the part you need. So they're getting 15 to $30 when you really only want something that cost $3.50.

Honda would be an exception or at least different. Briggs will sell you afloat for five or $6 as well to come see. Honda you're right, you can buy a complete card ship to your door for under 20 bucks but try to buy just a float or a needle valve spring etc and you'll probably have 13 to 25 in it.
Kind of like those old Toro Suzuki engines. 15 years ago they wanted $17 for a needle valve!
Just like Kawasaki they think their parts are gold-plated. I mean, they are good.. but still.
I do think we always have to make the distinction whether this is a commercial shop operation with a line of work behind something charging a pretty high hourly rate for labor or if it's somebody fixing their own equipment.
Also, and many of these instances if it's your own equipment especially or if you work on a lot of them, you can maintain a good selection of used parts that will work just fine for what you need.

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I think you missed what I was saying about logistics
No sense in selling you a $ 3.50 part if it costs them $ 20 to get it to the dealer who has to cover their own cost of sales & make a profit .
Low volume part have higher warehousing & logistical costs which is even higher if they are good quality and last a very long time.
And FWIW Suzuki used Mikuni carbs on most of their mowers which rarely required any service parts because they are 3 times higher quality than a Walbro or Nikki carb
You can not post a part coast to coast for $ 3.50 let alone invoice & truck it .
That is the same reason why when you go into a hardwear shop you have to buy a packet of screws and not just the number that you need.
And in case you have not noticed that pack size is getting larger every year because the cosy of sales increases every year
For the same reason carb kits come with all of the parts for the entire series to cut down the inventory.
Walbro is now making "one size fits all" diaphragm kits for their cube carbs for the same reason
Either a single diaphragm has to cos $ 30 or you have to buy a volume pack or complete assembly for $ 30 to cover the logistical costs .

bertsmobile1 said:

I think you missed what I was saying about logistics
No sense in selling you a $ 3.50 part if it costs them $ 20 to get it to the dealer who has to cover their own cost of sales & make a profit .
Low volume part have higher warehousing & logistical costs which is even higher if they are good quality and last a very long time.
And FWIW Suzuki used Mikuni carbs on most of their mowers which rarely required any service parts because they are 3 times higher quality than a Walbro or Nikki carb
You can not post a part coast to coast for $ 3.50 let alone invoice & truck it .
That is the same reason why when you go into a hardwear shop you have to buy a packet of screws and not just the number that you need.
And in case you have not noticed that pack size is getting larger every year because the cosy of sales increases every year
For the same reason carb kits come with all of the parts for the entire series to cut down the inventory.
Walbro is now making "one size fits all" diaphragm kits for their cube carbs for the same reason
Either a single diaphragm has to cos $ 30 or you have to buy a volume pack or complete assembly for $ 30 to cover the logistical costs .

Click to expand...

I was just talking about the fact that you can go in to any dealer and buy a Briggs & Stratton needle or Briggs & Stratton seat in the individual little bags for five or six bucks a piece.
I've always appreciated that about briggs. As I said Kohler used to be better than they are now now it's a little bag for 15 or $18 at minimum.
Tecumseh does the same thing with their basic needle valve and gasket kit.
I think it's number 63201. Then they have a more complete kit that has needle valve seals and additional gaskets and welch plugs.
The basic one is under 6 bucks pretty much anywhere and that's for the brand name one. You can get aftermarkets for under $4 but you have to be careful with most of the ones floating around on eBay and Amazon because the top bull gasket is way too skinny and won't seal it all.
The needle valve is actually too Short too but that can all be adjusted.
It's a shame because I thought the Chinese were much better at copying and reproducing parts but they did a very poor job on these.
So I'm not sure about all the logistics you're talking about and stuff and I don't really know that it matters. I've been buying individually bagged Briggs & Stratton small internal carb parts for decades and they're still pretty cheap.
My original complaint was that you can't buy that for most of the newer cheap carburetors.

The Chinese Tecumseh rebuild kits fit the Chinese aftermarket Tecumseh carburettors
The Chinese manufacturers do not "copy" anything they manufacture to order, often to the sample provided by the US businessman .
If dealers would tow the line and order the needles in wholesale quantities of say 20 to 50 at a time then they would just sell you the jet for a reasonable price.
However only fools like Star & myself carry a large inventory
I have just taken delivery of 50 Nikki rebuild kits , 10 intek head gaskets ,10 Wabro twin rebuild kits etc etc etc $ 2,000 all up
The local dealers do not stock any of these parts ( so I found out the hard way ) and just order them in as required ( minimum inventory thus minimum capital ).
Because they are run by accountants not techs
When DC spares were happening I used to put a $ 1000 order on them for cube carb & victa carb parts every year .
B & S made the mistake of having no minimum order value and free overnight delivery so naturally it got abused

bertsmobile1 said:

The Chinese Tecumseh rebuild kits fit the Chinese aftermarket Tecumseh carburettors
The Chinese manufacturers do not "copy" anything they manufacture to order, often to the sample provided by the US businessman .
If dealers would tow the line and order the needles in wholesale quantities of say 20 to 50 at a time then they would just sell you the jet for a reasonable price.
However only fools like Star & myself carry a large inventory
I have just taken delivery of 50 Nikki rebuild kits , 10 intek head gaskets ,10 Wabro twin rebuild kits etc etc etc $ 2,000 all up
The local dealers do not stock any of these parts ( so I found out the hard way ) and just order them in as required ( minimum inventory thus minimum capital ).
Because they are run by accountants not techs
When DC spares were happening I used to put a $ 1000 order on them for cube carb & victa carb parts every year .
B & S made the mistake of having no minimum order value and free overnight delivery so naturally it got abused

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I'm sure this is all true in some instances but not always. Generalizations always tend to end up that way.
I was kind of making a joke as to the old days for Japan did the same thing like taking a us-made Zippo lighter and then copying it and then selling their cheap copy at a third of the price. China started doing that decades later but it just became more widespread.
I'm sure that in today's age if you send somebody the cad file for something they can give you a price on making it.
Then it gets into all those logistics that you mentioned but that's not really of concern to me and nor should it be to you or anyone else.
I don't think we can change the way the world's working now and we're left to just gripe about it and then to be proactive and once we find parts that work for us to buy large quantities so we will always have them like you just did.
I also do the same. I buy little gaskets sometimes 50 and 100 at a time but almost always 10 to 30 at a time. I bought a dozen head gaskets the last time I bought them.
So whoever's fault it is, I don't know, but they need to get with the program because those Chinese Tecumseh carb gaskets aren't even close to the original.
I could measure with my $6 set of harbor freight dial calipers that aren't even digital because they're real dial calipers and could give a better dimension than they ended up with.
Another weird thing that's kind of frustrating is who decides what the Chinese companies start Mass producing and export and whatever so it becomes available to us??
Just like a few years ago when there were no Kawasaki small push mower engine carburetors available but Kawasaki brands.
Then all of a sudden they pop on eBay and Amazon for $36.
No, they're not nearly as good as the Kawasaki carb but I have 100% success rate so far with installing them and pulling the rope usually only one time and they're firing right up and running perfectly.
For 36 versus 136 plus I'll gladly take those all day long.
But my point is for a number of years I wanted them but they weren't available.
I understand mostly it goes by once there becomes a big demand for things.
For instance the 31xxxx head gaskets were only available from Briggs for a long time and then all of a sudden here they were on eBay not just one but two and other gaskets with it for super cheap compared to just the one Briggs gasket.
Same way with the camshafts but when the new brakes came out the new plastic camshaft that little blue one with the little metal top hats on it because they were just mostly stupid but they did realize that they couldn't just stick the plastic end into the engine cases but it still a piece of junk...those weren't available from anywhere but Briggs and maybe the last I checked a couple months ago it was still this way.
But we all know that soon enough there will be aftermarket replacements. Possibly by oregon, stands or rotary which are the big three that make fairly quality stuff but they will also be no name ones just like those camshafts all over eBay and Amazon flooding the market for a third the price.
Now, I gave up on those camshafts because even though the factory ones are pretty bad, the aftermarkets were even worse and after having one only last 4 months and about 8 mows I can no longer spend even the small little $37 to buy one because the time involved to fix.
Now with the plastic Briggs camshaft and the smaller ones, the factory one is such junk that a Chinese built generic could actually be an improvement!
But my point was how do we get a direct line to these people to build what we want? Actually I guess it's the other way around like you mentioned at first you have to have some us companies or businessmen contact them and contract them to build it for you.
That's the big mess and only works when they know they have a market to sell lots of them from the mass production required to buy them anyways. Can we say Alibaba? Yes, I would like to order 10,000 units of this part that I need one of.

You need to brush up on your commercial history
Post WWII Japanese factories did doe the copy & dump bit and there was a massive back lash
They also built under license and bought developement rights.
Mikuni bought the developement rights to the Amal concentric carburettor for their first post WW II new carb .
In most cases as they were setting up a new production line it was vastly superiour, higher volume & more automated than Zippo's old factory that had been making lighters for 50 years using the same machines which was inefficient thus making the lighters expensive.
I recall videos of the BSA & Triumph factories from the 60's, machines all over the place with operators taking parts out of stillages doing what machine did them tossing them in another stillage.
Footage from the Lilac factory in Japan showed machines arranged in direct lines with the operators on one machine passing it to the neighbouring operator, far more efficient which let to transfer arms which led to direct feed from one machine to the next thus they made bikes based on the BMW boxers for 1/4 of the BMW price .

China on the other hand is in the situation where their currency is kept artifically low against other world currencies.
Thus they pay more for raw materials and get paid less for what they make.
This means the manufacture & dump method would not work so Chinese factories are very much demand controlled , ie they only manufacture to order so 100% of what is made is sold at a predetermined price .
What we see being sold really cheap is the overproduction to cover factory defects or more often the factory defects themselves .
So it is LCT ( Tecumseh sucessors ) who went to China & asked for the carbs ( and complete engines ) to be made.
Same thing with Harbour Freight, Lowes, Walmart & even B & S
Now B & S have 3 factories in China, Kohler have 2 , Nikki have 2, Toyota have 5 etc etc .
All of these factories have suppliers and these suppliers have overproduction & factory defects all of which end up as on line sales .
But not a one of them decided to make chap copies of any part & flood the USA with them.
We always like to find some one else to blame
Be they a different country, different race , different religion or different political ideology to us because nothing is ever "our" fault .

bertsmobile1 said:

You need to brush up on your commercial history
Post WWII Japanese factories did doe the copy & dump bit and there was a massive back lash
They also built under license and bought developement rights.
Mikuni bought the developement rights to the Amal concentric carburettor for their first post WW II new carb .
In most cases as they were setting up a new production line it was vastly superiour, higher volume & more automated than Zippo's old factory that had been making lighters for 50 years using the same machines which was inefficient thus making the lighters expensive.
I recall videos of the BSA & Triumph factories from the 60's, machines all over the place with operators taking parts out of stillages doing what machine did them tossing them in another stillage.
Footage from the Lilac factory in Japan showed machines arranged in direct lines with the operators on one machine passing it to the neighbouring operator, far more efficient which let to transfer arms which led to direct feed from one machine to the next thus they made bikes based on the BMW boxers for 1/4 of the BMW price .

China on the other hand is in the situation where their currency is kept artifically low against other world currencies.
Thus they pay more for raw materials and get paid less for what they make.
This means the manufacture & dump method would not work so Chinese factories are very much demand controlled , ie they only manufacture to order so 100% of what is made is sold at a predetermined price .
What we see being sold really cheap is the overproduction to cover factory defects or more often the factory defects themselves .
So it is LCT ( Tecumseh sucessors ) who went to China & asked for the carbs ( and complete engines ) to be made.
Same thing with Harbour Freight, Lowes, Walmart & even B & S
Now B & S have 3 factories in China, Kohler have 2 , Nikki have 2, Toyota have 5 etc etc .
All of these factories have suppliers and these suppliers have overproduction & factory defects all of which end up as on line sales .
But not a one of them decided to make chap copies of any part & flood the USA with them.
We always like to find some one else to blame
Be they a different country, different race , different religion or different political ideology to us because nothing is ever "our" fault .

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Well, actually, none of that really makes any difference because the facts of what has occurred in the past really doesn't mean what will happen now or in the future as the further we go in in the present and the future things do seem to change and often quite bizarre from what would make sense or the way we think things should be done.
I'm not claiming that the Zippo thing I mentioned were the exact specific facts of the situation. It's more like an urban legend that I have heard three or four times over the years.
Of course Japan did not just copy everything and provide cheaper substitutes for them regardless of quality. Many of the things that came out of Japan around the same time or slightly thereafter was of the utmost best quality.
Cameras, other electronics were top of the line and set the world standard at least for quite a while and in quite a few areas.
The wise and how's are fairly unimportant to me but I do know that certainly happened.
Sony, and Hitachi made some of the best TVs out there.
I don't know who invented the TV and I don't care. I think zenith was the number one manufacturer at one time or at least in the US but by this time they couldn't hold a candle to picture quality or durability of some of the other brands let me not forget Toshiba also.
I don't think I was blaming anyone particular people about the Tecumseh clear little plastic baggies of car parts.
I might have in my very first post by calling them cheap Chinese copies and then you said they only made them to the specs they were given so then I said whoever ordered them would be at fault.
My point, like in my last post was why didn't whoever did this measure the gasket properly and even possibly the needle valve because this is something I could do with a measuring tape and get it closer than they did.
So who do I blame for these gaskets being too thin?
The newly produced ones in the Tecumseh branded bags are just perfect. Of course those cost more and this is only because that company can charge more because they are correct.
I just want the lower quality rubber ones from China but I need them made a little bit thicker. Lol
See, I have loved the fact that over the past 20 plus years we have been able to get tons of cheap stuff manufactured in China mostly because they weren't trying to maximize the profit on each one or charge what they thought they could get. They were simply making their money off of volume.
I loved it.
Cell phone car chargers for 3.99 shipped vs a brand name from phone store for 29.99.
Sure it was better quality but not enough to make a difference. Maybe he to replace it sooner due to cable cracking and no connection but I had one in every car and 2 extras so each one got used fewer times so use was spread among several. More convenience and still smaller cash outlay.
I can buy Huayi rubber carb bowl gaskets 5 or more at a time for .65-.85 cents but a Honda looking flat fiber/paper one is at least 4.00 usually at least $5+.
Doesn't make sense other than poor choices or the right need for a part getting to the right person who says make it.
No harder or more expensive to make one than the other and you could put it on the same cargo barge the other ones come on.
So I don't care the reason..I want it fixed.
Instead of telling me why or what happened in the past, please tell me how I can get this changed now. Lol

Note I am mostly being facetious.

I think I'll just make me two sharp tubes to cut my own Honda gaskets from sheet material. That should make them about .08 each. Then I'll save the largest middle part to make carb bolt gaskets etc because I'm that cheap.

Way back when I was a freshly minted metallurgist I went to my very first international conference feeling very adult.
The first speaker was from the government and told the delegates that Australia was the perfect place to set up manufacturing industries.
We had a moderate climate so heating & cooling costs were low, we had abundant supplies of energy ( still do ) and abundant supplies of raw materials & minerals plus a well educated &very capeable work force.
The second speaker was from industry and he told the delegates that Australia was a horrid place to set up a manufacturing plant as we were too far from major markets , had militant unions with high union membership plus our workers were paid far too much for too little production. However he agreed with the first speaker that our work force was highly educated so well suited to do their research & developement for production in places with cheap labour that was not capeable of the highly skilled design work like Japan.
Remember we were on the winning side of WWII so naturally those on the loosing side were all hopeless idiots .

Since that day I have heard almost the same identical speech and the only thing that has changed is the identity of the country that was too stupid to design a sheet of toilet paper from Japan , to Singapore, to The Phillipines to , to Korea , to Indonesia and then China with a hint of India .
all this proves is the senior management here is just as racists & elitist as they were back in the 50's and still presenting the same myths in order to hide their own inadequicies .
The truth of the matter is everyone has to make a buck.
The current unrest in the USA is largely due to mass underemployment which the statistics carefully circumvent so the citizens of the USA can walk around with their heads in the clouds, till they get sacked .
We would be in exactly the same position if it was not for the dumb luck that we have the cleanest coal , iron ore & nickel on the planet combined with a small population .
Ever since WWII the hard right capitalist have been pushing the myth that we can have it all and we can get it for next to nothing without paying the real price .
And now all this is biting us on the bum as 1/2 of the USA is freezing to death while the rest are drowning apart from those on the Colarodo river who are dying of thirst as the river slowly vanishes in the middle of the longest drought in Arazona's history.

All of this was predicted way back in the 60's but it did not suit the millionirs so the poo pooed it , used the same tactics as the tobacco industry till now when it is too late.

I am expecting to hear of Civil war breaking out in the USA at any moment and this is exactly what China has created , using the unfetted greed of Americans to destroy the country from within.
Much more efficient that sending in the troops and no need for post war reperations .

So China keeps on supplying the USA with very cheap goods so Wall street makes a motza while factories close down and lay off millions who either have to get social security or turn to crime because there are fewer & fewer blue collar jobs The establishment does not care because their kids go to university and get high paid white collar jobs while politicans like President Trump fan this fire .
The USA has a smaller population than China but a bigger jail population than China ( if you believe the Chinese figures )
The life expectency of US citizens has dropped by 3 years where as in every other country it has gone up and the USA has dropped way down on the quality of life tables ( if you believe them ) from No 3 post WWII to number 47 in 2020

bertsmobile1 said:

Way back when I was a freshly minted metallurgist I went to my very first international conference feeling very adult.
The first speaker was from the government and told the delegates that Australia was the perfect place to set up manufacturing industries.
We had a moderate climate so heating & cooling costs were low, we had abundant supplies of energy ( still do ) and abundant supplies of raw materials & minerals plus a well educated &very capeable work force.
The second speaker was from industry and he told the delegates that Australia was a horrid place to set up a manufacturing plant as we were too far from major markets , had militant unions with high union membership plus our workers were paid far too much for too little production. However he agreed with the first speaker that our work force was highly educated so well suited to do their research & developement for production in places with cheap labour that was not capeable of the highly skilled design work like Japan.
Remember we were on the winning side of WWII so naturally those on the loosing side were all hopeless idiots .

Since that day I have heard almost the same identical speech and the only thing that has changed is the identity of the country that was too stupid to design a sheet of toilet paper from Japan , to Singapore, to The Phillipines to , to Korea , to Indonesia and then China with a hint of India .
all this proves is the senior management here is just as racists & elitist as they were back in the 50's and still presenting the same myths in order to hide their own inadequicies .
The truth of the matter is everyone has to make a buck.
The current unrest in the USA is largely due to mass underemployment which the statistics carefully circumvent so the citizens of the USA can walk around with their heads in the clouds, till they get sacked .
We would be in exactly the same position if it was not for the dumb luck that we have the cleanest coal , iron ore & nickel on the planet combined with a small population .
Ever since WWII the hard right capitalist have been pushing the myth that we can have it all and we can get it for next to nothing without paying the real price .
And now all this is biting us on the bum as 1/2 of the USA is freezing to death while the rest are drowning apart from those on the Colarodo river who are dying of thirst as the river slowly vanishes in the middle of the longest drought in Arazona's history.

All of this was predicted way back in the 60's but it did not suit the millionirs so the poo pooed it , used the same tactics as the tobacco industry till now when it is too late.

I am expecting to hear of Civil war breaking out in the USA at any moment and this is exactly what China has created , using the unfetted greed of Americans to destroy the country from within.
Much more efficient that sending in the troops and no need for post war reperations .

So China keeps on supplying the USA with very cheap goods so Wall street makes a motza while factories close down and lay off millions who either have to get social security or turn to crime because there are fewer & fewer blue collar jobs The establishment does not care because their kids go to university and get high paid white collar jobs while politicans like President Trump fan this fire .
The USA has a smaller population than China but a bigger jail population than China ( if you believe the Chinese figures )
The life expectency of US citizens has dropped by 3 years where as in every other country it has gone up and the USA has dropped way down on the quality of life tables ( if you believe them ) from No 3 post WWII to number 47 in 2020

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No doubt the US has done a lot of stupid things and the future is not looking nearly as good as it was or as it should. MOST of these bad decisions and problems have been due to the lousy mentality of more recent generations or younger people.
Those heads in the clouds you mentioned or sand as I say.... is certainly part of what they do.
They figure on the I've thing they want or we've to do or fix BUT they are oblivious and don't seem to care what that will do in the future. They deny and rationalize or won't even address it.

Just for an official FYI, the Pulsar is a complete and total loss and waste of time. I tried a compression test today and couldn't get the needle to budge, regardless of how many times I pulled the starter cord. I was already 99.9% sure the engine was toast, but before I kicked it to the curb I thought I'd try a compression test. There was still oil coming out of the exhaust as I did the compression testing.

I then decided to try setting that Briggs 4.5 HP Quantum on the Pulsar deck. WaaHaaaHaaaa!!! What a joke! There is no way to even get the Briggs set in the hole. The drain plug on the Briggs caused the engine to have to set back too far. I though maybe I could drill new holes to mount it on there. CAN'T be done. Period. It's not even close. The last thing I tried to salvage was the gas cap. I have another Briggs engine that I'll be refurbishing sometime soon that is missing the gas cap. It's just a plastic tank and so was the one on the Pulsar. No way that would work either. Not even close.

The bottom line? I salvaged ZERO from this Pulsar. I also will NEVER again take a Pulsar in, not even to service it for somebody else. There is nothing interchangeable between Pulsar and Briggs or any other mower manufacturer. Nothing at all. And you can;t get parts without contacting the home office. Nope, no more Pulsar crap for me.

I did manage to actually get some work done today. I built a couple of 2"x6" engine stands for engines I have pulled off junk decks. I cleaned a whole bunch of stuff out of the shop and made a little room. I then got a couple of string trimmers diagnosed and also a chainsaw. I need to order just a few parts and all three of those pieces will be ready to go. I'm slowly getting back in the saddle. The more junk I tear apart and either fix or label as junk, the more I'm settling into the old routine. It's amazing how out of touch I got in a few, short years.

​

Now you fully understand why most of us will not touch off brand throw away equipment
You could have made $ 1000 in the time you have been frigging around with this piece of land fill
With the price of scrap metal now days they go into the scrap bin

Over the last few years I have probably scraped 20 Pulsar mowers. Some that would start on the first pull. Every single one had either bend axles or deck frames

bertsmobile1 said:

Now you fully understand why most of us will not touch off brand throw away equipment
You could have made $ 1000 in the time you have been frigging around with this piece of land fill
With the price of scrap metal now days they go into the scrap bin

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You've got that right, Bert. The only thing I managed to do was waste time, bust a couple of knuckles, and learn a good lesson. I guess the lesson was worthwhile, at least.

It's still amazing that this has happened to the OPE industry. I hope all those dingbats that thought buying a no name, piece of crap, cheap, Chinese mower are happy. Sure, they saved maybe a hundred bucks up front, but when they have to buy a whole new one every two or three years because there are no parts to repair it, how much did they REALLY save?

On a positive note, I sold my first refurbed mower. I got it for nothing. I put 62 dollars and change into it, and sold it for $145. I'd like to do that about a half dozen times a month. That would keep me busy and make me an extra few bucks each month. As a retiree, $400 to $500 a month would be just fine with me.

Tomorrow I'll finish this little Remington mower and get it photographed and listed for sale and get started on the self-propelled Honda I picked up a week ago. It should end up being a really nice mower for somebody.

ILENGINE said:

Over the last few years I have probably scraped 20 Pulsar mowers. Some that would start on the first pull. Every single one had either bend axles or deck frames

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I'm still shocked by just how flimsy the axle rods and brackets on that Pulsar were. How in the world they thought that cheap metal was good for use on a lawn mower is way beyond me.

Yep, lesson learned, guys. If it ain't got a Briggs, Honda, or Kohler on it, I'm just going to pass. We'll, I might consider a Tecumseh, but I won't pay a dime for one. If somebody wants me to haul it off and the deck is solid, I might drag it home. If nothing else, I can probably set a Briggs on it and make a halfway decent mower out of it.

Crap, I forgot. I also sold the first Frankenmower I put together. It took parts from 4 pieces of junk to come up with a half decent mower. I had less that $35 in it and got $65 out of it. That's not much profit, but then I'm not trying to raise a family on my work. I'm just staying busy. My wife thinks I'm nuts, but turning wrenches is somehow satisfying. Weird, ain't it? LOL!

Your government & your big businesses have been brain washing the entire population from the end of WW II that a free market & competition will mean that they will be able to have anything they want at a price that will get cheaper every day.
So no surprise that all of the paper pushers & office Jonnies now believe this with the resolve of a religion
So I want a new lounge , washing machine, dry vacuum, wet vacuum, car, truck, mower, hedge trimmer , weed wacker , blower etc etc etc and I want it yesterday .
Slowly my customers are coming around .
But it has been a long hard road over the past 11 years during which time I have been on the recieving end of all sorts of abuse, verbal & physical .
Even now I still get people asking me " is the $ 200 self propelled mower on special at Aldi this week any good "
My fairly well universal answer is
"Find their web site and see how much a service would cost in parts & labour ".
I even had one ( now banned ) customer try to sue me because I refused to service his ebay chain saw so the chain broke and made a mess of his hand & left leg and this was my fault because I refused to sharpen or replace the blade .

The best thing we can do do is simply refuse to work on the off brand ones.
If shops all tell people the same thing that "They just aren't worth putting the time and money into due to limited parts availability and non compatibility with the other mainstream brands"
People will eventually catch on and even if not enough of them do.... Doesn't matter. No one needs to waste their time or more time or work harder when they have lines of people bringing an oversupply of OPE to get repaired.
Don't be afraid to pick and choose what you work on...just make up a good (or good sounding) reason for it.

bertsmobile1 said:

I even had one ( now banned ) customer try to sue me because I refused to service his ebay chain saw so the chain broke and made a mess of his hand & left leg and this was my fault because I refused to sharpen or replace the blade .

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That's another sad thing in our society. It's sue, sue, sue, every chance they get. Considering that you can sue McDonald's for the coffee you just bought being hot, I'm no longer surprised by some of the ridiculous and frivolous lawsuits I hear about. LOL!

Even though I'm doing this small engine repair on a very small scale out of my garage, I have considered buying a liability umbrella policy, just in case. My homeowner's policy should cover pretty much anything that comes along, but in this day and age an extra liability policy is probably a smart thing to have.
.

smhardesty said:

That's another sad thing in our society. It's sue, sue, sue, every chance they get. Considering that you can sue McDonald's for the coffee you just bought being hot, I'm no longer surprised by some of the ridiculous and frivolous lawsuits I hear about. LOL!

Even though I'm doing this small engine repair on a very small scale out of my garage, I have considered buying a liability umbrella policy, just in case. My homeowner's policy should cover pretty much anything that comes along, but in this day and age an extra liability policy is probably a smart thing to have.
.

Click to expand...

Don't even think about doing any work without public liability insurance .
While I have a first name relationship with my customers, when he can't work and the bills start coming in she will not be so friendly.
I have had people try to sue because they tore their trousers on a folded down mower handle .
Another idiot grabbed his chain saw by the bat & chopped up his hand because "I had not applied the chain brake"
I lost that case because I did not have an "authorised persons only past this point sign " at the door .
I do now .
Even if it means for the first couple of years all you make covers the policy .
In town you should get away with installing a sump oil burner heater for the workshop and that will get rid of the old dirty diesel .
An old sink outside is a good idea.
I do all my degreasing outside the only washers inside are the 2 I use for carbs.
And what a lot of people have passed over, a simple dishwasher will do an excellent job any tyou should be able to pick up one from the local dump .