My Lawn Mower Repair Thread (56k warning)

[hanyoukimura]

Just saying I love what your doing. 1 hobby is enough for a man. If more than 1, the enjoyment is not nearly as much.

I gotcha. It's not my only hobby though, just my most profitable hobby. :laughing:

Today I finally got around to mowing my own lawn, for which I selected the trusty Ariens. It remains my go to mower as its a very nice machine that's not so pristine I'm afraid of a few small sticks hitting it or of a scratch here and there, since I can easily touch it up. That and its one of the few mowers that has a mulch plug, plus I like the variable speed drive system on it. I'd love to use the Suzuki powered Toro but I still need to buy the wear plates for it. It's on the list for next time I need to order parts from Jack's.

The Rally is almost ready to go. It's got a nice, new starter rope, fuel line, spark plug, AND handlebar bolts. I swapped mufflers with the Husky since that was only eyesore on that whole mower and the Husky's was actually in very good shape. It runs awesome and everything works on it. It may even have a buyer. Guy finally came buy to pick up his recoil I fixed and commented on how nice the Rally looks. Wanted me to let him know when I list it for sale. At this point the only problem is that it didn't come with a bag or mulch plug, and the bags I thought would fit had the wrong style frames. I'll have to find one for it. In the meantime, here it is all cleaned up. It looks quite exceptional.

Meanwhile the Weed Beater is finally back at the house. I through it together for the shop next door for mowing the shop's yard and the island that separates the properties. Smokes like a steam engine but ran well. He took it to his house over the winter and the gas likely went bad in it. Needs the carburetor and gas tank cleaned up and it should be ready for action again. The areas it gets used for are full of easy to miss rocks and stuff, which is why I won't use any of my mowers for it. If this mower smacks a rock, its not a massive loss....although I haven't (severely) hit anything yet!

I think the Husqvarna may end up going up for sale cheap. That friction disc is really tough to find and the only place I've found so far that can get it is for $45 and will take weeks to arrive. Between that and having to disassemble the axle which is all held together with irritating roll pins, and the fact that its missing covers and would need a speed control cable, I'm thinking of just listing it as a good running composite deck push mower with throttle control, one leaver height adjust, and and that can bag or rear discharge. I'm going to at least get an engine cover for it so it looks presentable.

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I figure if everything was working and properly cleaned up this would go for a couple hundred all day long, but I'm thinking with a good cleanup and an engine cover to make it look complete, around $100 is reasonable, I think.

I discovered another issue with it though. In addition to the muffler bolts being loose, at least one of the engine mounting bolts is loose. This is annoying because the engine mounts to a bracket which is then bolted to the frame. There's room to fit a wrench under the bracket to grab the bolt to tighten it, BUT the stupid bolt is a rounded head, probably a hex bolt. I will have to get that sorted out tomorrow.

With all that said, I decided to give the Husky a try anyway. With the Weed Beater out of commission for the moment, I decided to give see if the Royal 53 S was any good. The underside of the deck is interesting, as it only has a small channel the width of the blade cutting surface for grass. I didn't sharpen the blade, I just fired it up and gave it a whirl. I have to say, for such a heavy machine its really easy to push. I think at least part of that is due to the ergonomic and padded handlebar. Even bigger of a surprise is just how well it cuts! The grass was pretty tall, probably at least a foot high if not more in some spots. Where other mowers would bog down or even stall (the Weed Eater would stall and the Ariens would bog down), this beast powered right through without breaking a sweat. I only ever had to stop when the discharge chute occasionally clogged. This wouldn't have happened with the bag on or if the grass wasn't overgrown, but because it travels up the chute and then straight down (the door acts as a rear discharge chute when closed), all of those greens sometimes bottlenecked where the chute meats the door. Still, very impressive overall. DAT QUANTUM.

 

[Vervepipes]

That cleaned up very nicely. Looks like an AYP manufactured deck? I had to sell one today without a bag for less than I wanted to, but there are several types for the same style of deck and I couldn't wait forever to find one.

 

[hanyoukimura]

That cleaned up very nicely. Looks like an AYP manufactured deck? I had to sell one today without a bag for less than I wanted to, but there are several types for the same style of deck and I couldn't wait forever to find one.

Yep, its AYP/Husqvarna, probably the fourth I've had. I had two Poulan Pros that were identical except one wasn't sell propelled. I still have the self propelled Poulan Pro. The other was an old rusted out Craftsman with a blown, backwards mounted Tecumseh. They're nice decks and pretty sturdy, which is why I have yet to get rid of one! :laughing:

I'll probably wait a few day to try and track down a mulch plug or bag, they are pretty common. There's someone on CL wanting a to trade a super nice Ariens for a lighter duty mower...I may try it!

 

[Vervepipes]

Can't go wrong with that trade. Last year I traded a seed spreader, electric whipper snipper, and garden shears for a 3KW generator. Those AYP decks are very common here too, but most of them have rusted away to nothing. The more expensive versions that have been garage kept tend to survive, but 90% of them are biodegrading. I think I've actually scrapped a half dozen of them in the past week and still have 2 or 3 in my basket case pile left to scrap. Most of them came with bags, but none fit the YardPro deck.

 

[hanyoukimura]

Can't go wrong with that trade. Last year I traded a seed spreader, electric whipper snipper, and garden shears for a 3KW generator. Those AYP decks are very common here too, but most of them have rusted away to nothing. The more expensive versions that have been garage kept tend to survive, but 90% of them are biodegrading. I think I've actually scrapped a half dozen of them in the past week and still have 2 or 3 in my basket case pile left to scrap. Most of them came with bags, but none fit the YardPro deck.

I guess while you're lucky in that mowers seem to be far easier to come across in your area, severe rust is far less common. Ironic since I live in the rust belt, but that applies to winter! Off the top of my head I've had that Craftsman, and an Ariens parts mower that had rust holes, and then four or five really rotted mowers, but most decks I've gotten are solid.

That the Rally is in such good shape belies the lack of care considering it was fairly dirty and the starter rope had been "fixed" by being tied in a knot. It must have been kept in a garage at least.

I started up the Grand Prix, 3 pulls and it fired right up. Its like clockwork. Not sure if I want to use it since its all redone though!

 

[OutdoorEnvy]

I can't wait to see the Snapper!

Nice work though. some of those look really amazing after you are done.

 

[hanyoukimura]

I can't wait to see the Snapper!

Nice work though. some of those look really amazing after you are done.

Snapper is on the list. Nice that its running and the drive system, though weak, works.

 

[hanyoukimura]

Just saying I love what your doing. 1 hobby is enough for a man. If more than 1, the enjoyment is not nearly as much.

I also do a podcast, am an admin a car forum, detail/mod my cars. So much to do, so little time!

 

[hanyoukimura]

So while I was tinkering with the Husky yesterday a guy from one of the auto shops stopped by and said I should stop by as they had some mowers they wanted to get running. I stopped there today. They had four of them. A mower identical to the ServiStar I had, an early 80's basic push mower, and two similar high wheel push mower. Basically the guy wanted to get the gray high wheel and the ServiStar lookalike running. I can have the other two and he'll pay parts/labor. Not a bad deal.

I brought the two high wheels home today. Both are MTD products with the same decks and wheels, separated by engine.

He claimed the gray one would run, it just needs a starter rope he says while I can small the bad gas a foot away from the mower. Sure enough, the gas is nasty in there, as is the air filter and likely spark plug. Its also overfilled with dirty oil. I did replace the rope this evening. I'll call and let him know before I proceed further.

The green on is missing its gas tank (more on that later), and it looks like they tried to make the Tecumseh recoil work on the Briggs engine...right...

Its got compression and I've got the parts to make it whole again. It came with the big ugly yellow Yard Man engine cover. I'll put it on to make it complete but honestly it looks better without it.

Talked to my neighbor this evening. he said I can have the bag back that I gave him for a Craftsman he got, along with the mower. That bag will fit the Rally, so as soon as I get it, up for sale it goes!

 

[hanyoukimura]

I got a bag and a mulch plug with the Craftsman, neat.

I will put the Rally up for sale advertising both but that if they only want the bag or the plug I'll take some off, since that would leave the Craftsman with nothing.

Honestly, I would rather have the mulch plug since those older bags are pretty slow capacity, but that's me.