My Lawn Mower Repair Thread (56k warning)

[hanyoukimura]

Well it took what seemed like forever, but this problematic Craftsman is finally done. It came it not running. I cleaned out the fuel system and rebuilt the carburetor. Then it yanked the rope out of my hand. I check the blade, which was not aligned, bent, and had sheered the alignment tabs of the adapter. Since the adapter was stuck so well on teh crankshaft that it actually broke my puller, I drilled out the holes and installed bolts to keep the blade aligned. Then I checked the flywheel key, which looked fine at the time. It still kicked back. Then I checked the spark plug, which was some E3 plug that wasn't even the correct cross to the OEM plug. So I picked up an NGK equivalent plug, gapped it to .20 and tried it.

Fired up this time but didn't idle smooth. Cleaned the carburetor again. No luck. next day I try to start it and it yanks the cord out of my hand. This time the flywheel key was sheered. I have no idea how, but it was. Then I had to fight with the flywheel, which, like the blade adapter, would not come off. I finally got the flywheel off at least though. Replaced the key, put it all back together, starts right up. So well in fact that you barely have to pull it, and it runs awesome. Cleaned up well too. Glad its done.

When I got it:

As of today:

 

[afoulk]

I've got a snapper with that same engine on it that i'm trying to get running. I've been told that if the valve lash becomes real loose on these, the compression release doesn't work and makes it real hard to pull over. Might be something you want to check yet, unless you're happy with the way it runs now. Taking the carb and tank from mine into work today to clean up. I don't think gas us supposed to be brown;-)

 

[64vdub]

When I got it:

As of today:

What do you clean your mower deck with to get that shine?
looks great!

 

[hanyoukimura]

What do you clean your mower deck with to get that shine?
looks great!

I start with spraying the deck with Simple Green, letting it soak, then using a pressure washer to clean the muck off. The condition of the paint depends on how much I use the pressure washer. Then I use a brush and car wash to give it a good scrubbing, rinse, and dry. At this point the deck will be clean, but a lot of times there will be dull spots from where gas may have gotten on the deck, gasoline is bad for paint finish, especially single stage paint. At this point I use rubbing compound and a combination of a small buffer pad attached to my drill, and towels for the hard to reach areas. If it were a car or my own mower I would use microfiber towels, but paper towels work fine anything I'm not OCDing on. The rubbing compound will remove scratches that don't go to the metal, oxidation, and bring the shine back to gasoline damaged areas. At this point the finish is looking quite good, far better than it did originally, but sometimes, like with my machines and this mower, I go a step further and use polishing compound, applying and removing the same way. The polishing compound removes fine swirls and really brings the luster to the paint.

If anyone's interested, I could do a comprehensive writeup/how-to on the next mower I clean up.

 

[afoulk]

That red engine cover would look good on my snapper:thumbsup:

 

[hanyoukimura]

That red engine cover would look good on my snapper:thumbsup:

Yeah, I like the way the Intek engine covers look.

 

[afoulk]

I like the Briggs professional series covers, have a nice clean look to them the way the air cleaner fits up beside it

 

[mmanter]

Wow that was a lot of posts to read but awesome! Looks like you do good work & has me interested in working on getting my mowers running. I have 4 Craftsman, all of which are far from perfect. Your posts make me want to fix them all up & sell the ones I don't need as well as attempt to try my hand at saving broken down lawn mowers from the scrap pile. I have heard they are fairly simple to work on & since I have a 2 car garage & think it would be interesting to see what I can do, especially since there is a curb alert for an older Snapper mower with what looks like an older B&S engine. Total inspiration you are!

 

[afoulk]

It has inspired me to start fixing up and selling mowers. Since I joined this forum in april, I've bought two snapper mowers and got them running for my own personal use, besides my lawn boy I already had, and I've had 5 other mowers given to me that don't run and need various repairs. Sadly, the first snapper I bought ( a 1978 model) I think needs an engine rebuild as its hard to start, even after rebuilding the carb ( I think it needs a valve adjustment), and it gets a lot of metal in the oil after using it a few times, so I think the rod may be going out. Looks like it needs an engine rebuild. I have trouble finding the time and money to work on these things right now, so I think that one is either getting sold as is to help fund the repair of one of the other mowers, or its getting pushed back in a corner of my garage until I can afford to, and have the time to restore it. I have my dads old lawn boy sitting out at my moms house waiting to get restored as well.

 

[hanyoukimura]

Always nice to see others giving mowers a new lease on life!

I've been pretty busy with other things, but I did finally get some time to do a little mow work. I've decided that its finally time to sell the ServiStar. I've used it many times in the year or so I've had it, since it wasn't so pretty that I felt bad about using on tall weeds and stuff and that it runs awesome. Plus, besides replacing the broken throttle body I haven't had to do anything to it. I had been putting it off because the back tires are shot and new ones are like $30 each! However, I discovered that a local junkyard has some a few lawn mowers, critically one just like this one, and because all wheels are the same, I snagged the two front wheels off of it. Getting the rears off mine proved to be a pain, since it uses gears mounted on spindles to drive the wheels, and the gear on one side did not want to come off. A little gentle persuasion and one mangled wheel later and it was off though! These are what they look like, the ones on mine aren't rusty like that though.

Before I replaced the wheels, I decided to confront the other issue that had kept me from selling it: the paint. The deck is slid, but the paint was flaked off or loose in a lot of areas. I cleaned all of the loose paint and rust off and then primed the areas that were bare metal. I had wanted to remove the engine t make painting it easier, but the way its put together that would have been a real PITA, so instead I masked off the engine itself. I managed to remove the "ServiStar" sticker intact, and I removed the sticker b the chute from the mower in the junkyard since the label on mine was in bad shape. After that I removed the wheels and gave it several coats of Rust-Oleum. I chose that because of the rust inhibitors in the paint, the fact that it would be easy to retouch should a future owner want to do that, and that it was $3.77 for a big can! Today I put it all back together and she's now ready for a new home.

And now for the obligatory before and after photos!