My Lawn Mower Repair Thread (56k warning)

[hanyoukimura]

You do good work. Gives me hope for my Dad's mower. A 6 or 7 year old Toro Recycler mower. Once I had a good loaner mower for him I took his mower home so I could start repairs. Seeing your hard work fixing and restoring mowers makes me hope I can get his mower back in good usable shape.

It's amazing what you can bring back from the brink with a little TLC and some spare parts!

The 911029 looks much better now with a fresh coat of paint on it.

Today after work I mowed my own lawn for a change using the Ariens. I've yet to figure out why it shakes so badly when the blade is not spinning most of the time, but as long as the clutch is engaged it works mint. Thus, its become my daily mower. Starts first pull every time runs awesome with no smoke or anything. After mowing the lawn I changed the oil, my least favorite part, since the only way to do it is to tip the heavy machine forward at a 95 degree angle and hold it there so it can drain out of the dipstick. At least it drains fast when hot! Now its ready for the season, or a sale I suppose. However, I doubt I'll list it with that vibration issue. Defeats the selling point of a blade clutch if you can't use it.

 

[hanyoukimura]

Good day today!

Cleaned out the Grand Prix's carburetor and fuel tank, put it all back together, connected the coil's wire to the throttle linkage, and put some oil in. After three years in the back of my garage plus however long it didn't run before that, it fired up in 3 pulls. No smoke and its sounds great.

With confirmation that the engine's good, I drained the oil out and proceeded to remove it from the deck. The most stubborn bolt was the blade retainer, but mercifully it came free and didn't sheer off. I wire brushed the the ends of the engine mount bolts under the deck and they came loose easily.

This mower is going to get a pretty thorough makeover. I'll remove the paint from the top of the deck, which is about 70% done and repaint it. The underside I probably won't, but its actually not bad, especially for its age. Maybe a coating of bed liner or black Rustoleum. Looking forward to seeing it complete.

 

[hanyoukimura]

Now we're moving along, and at last, some photos!

Wire brushed the rest of the paint off of the deck, primed it, and with the sun setting, painted it.

Once that's dry, I'll give the underside a shot of black paint, paint the engine, and most likely the wheel adjusters. Then I'll try to see if the chrome will come back on the handlebars.

 

[Vervepipes]

Nice. Hope my Lawn Boy and Toro look as good.

 

[hanyoukimura]

Nice. Hope my Lawn Boy and Toro look as good.

It's all about the prep work!

Only had about 20 minutes to work on it today, but in that time I repainted the block and managed to get the rusty old muffler out completely intact. Now there's a nice, bright silver one in its place.

I'll need to take the shroud and recoil off to clean up and repaint those, then the engine is done. When I get a chance I'll get some new mounting hardware, paint the wheel adjusters and underside of the deck, and it'll be ready to go back together

 

[mmanter]

Nice job on the Ariens. Really looks sharp. Never heard of a Grand Prix mower before your thread but the paint job looks really sharp.

 

[hanyoukimura]

Nice job on the Ariens. Really looks sharp. Never heard of a Grand Prix mower before your thread but the paint job looks really sharp.

Thanks! The Ariens is a great machine, and while its not as durable as the original powder coating, the Chevrolet Orange engine paint matches well and makes it easy to touch up as needed.

I've had that Grand Prix sitting around for three years now, it was an early acquirement from when I first started this hobby back up. Never seen one before. Glad to finally be working on it though.

 

[Vervepipes]

As far as I know, Nomas were Canadian marketed Murrays. I've seen quite a few, and a lot of Noma snow blowers up here.

 

[hanyoukimura]

Finally, some activity!

The little black Yard Machines sold late last night. Today while my new tires were being delivered the scrap guy finally showed up and took away the carcasses, and in exchange brought me a couple of mowers. The up is a Yard Man and the other is a Husqvarna I've never seen before.

The Yard Man is pretty new. It's got a plastic front end like all of the cheaper mowers of the last couple years seem to have now. Swapped the carburetor and tank for one I had already cleaned and put in a new spark plug. In 10 minutes I had it running! Tomorrow I'll make it look pretty and list it.

The Husqvarna is a different animal altogether. It looks like the deck is primarily plastic but the lower edge is metal. It's RWD and overall quite a beast. It look like its all there save the decorative engine cover and the drive engagement cable. The speed cable appears to be seized by the other two are ok. It'll be interesting to see if I can get this one going.

Finally, I had a chance to work on the Grand Prix. Didn't get as much as I wanted done, but I did scrape off the loose rust and crud, pressure wash it, and then paint it.

I still need to paint the wheel hardware and engine show before it can go back together, but I picked up some new nuts and axle bolts to make it all nice and pretty when complete.

 

[Vervepipes]

I've seen that Husqvarna before if it's what I think it is, almost got my hands on one last year, missed it by a few minutes.