Mastercraft Yard Beetle issues

[lawnbugger]

The seller told me it just needs a solenoid and shift cable. I asked how many hours are on it,he never knew,then I asked when it was run last,he said a couple weeks ago to do his lawn,I said how did you run it if it doesn't run,he said jump straight to the starter but never had jump cables and battery and said it's out of gas or he would fire it up to show me. He listed for $100 so I said I will give you $50 and he jumped at it. I got it home and the gas in it was years old and the carb bowl was jammed full of gel,not some,but packed,no way anyone had the thing running a few weeks ago,it was last run years ago. The guy probably got it for free in a scrap metal pile on someones curb. Thankfully at $50 bucks and few more bucks and some time on it it will be worth a few hundred running. I want it cause it's more compact to store and it's getting harder every year for me to walk my lawnmower around the yard. So far I have $38 into it for a new solenoid and not sure when the cables get here. After a battery and cables I should have over hundred something more into it. Not sure what the no neutral issue will run me at this point. I may have to pull the axel and check the gears and fork inside,but I need to get it running and see if moves in forward and reverse right now,the neutral is a hard spot to get by hand in the middle of forward and revers,so it may just need to move a bit again to get fork into place???? Don't know this is the first I've ever worked on one of these models.

 

[lawnbugger]

I got the carb soaking in a can of seafoam now. Hopping it will clean it out and get the carb working again,I will probably toss some in the gas to clean out the engine after also.

 

[lawnbugger]

Update,I found neutral. In my case I took a slot screwdriver and placed it on the shift linkage and lightly hammered it back and forth about 7 times and in between pushed the machine back and forth,rocked it as hard as I could and tapped the srewdriver with a hammer light,seems the shift fork and or gear was froze from sitting for years and not for weeks as the seller said, anyway the shift fork now moves into Neutral,reverse and forward. So no neutral is solved also. To recap,I can now turn it over by the key and start it with quick start and it stalls and I have neutral. The sad set back is the starter gear shaft broke off,seems the seller 3D printed a new starter gear and it was tight and needed to be slid up by flathead to the flywheel to spin. Now I have to order a new starter gear assembly. In the meantime,I shaved down the 3D printed gear so it slides properly and put the gear spline back together with JB weld,so far it's holding but I have not tried to put the starter back on yet. The carb has been soaking since yesterday afternoon in seafaom,all the seafoam has turned to yellow and the gelled gas that was stuck inside the chambers is floating around and the trash that has come out is thick,mass amounts of dirt,rust and particulate's have filled the bowl. I filtered out what I could and stuck the carb back in the seafaom to soak more. At this point I have not got it running on other than fire it with quick start and I need new shift cables and now new starter gear assembly. I might just order a new carb also. At least I know what I'm dealing with now. I will update after more progress is made,I will try to run it with the starter fix and carb cleaned tomorrow and fill anyone in.