My Lawn Mower Repair Thread (56k warning)

[hanyoukimura]

Thursday was a good day. I got the MTD finished and returned to its owner. Its a chocke system not a primer system, so it takes several pulls to get going when cold, but after that it'll start first pull and it runs great. All of the cables are in good shape and the drive system works too. The whole mower is in pretty good shape actually. Cleaned it up a bit before the sendoff.

I also finally got the Yard Man running. Narrowed the problem down to the carburetor after swapping the Craftsman's (which originally belonged to the Yard Man), after several attempts, I swapped out carburetors with another, and a few more cleanings later it was finally running. Took a while but now both it and the Craftsman start first pull and run really well. Just need to put the plastic shroud back on it, clean it up, and it'll be ready to go.

I was originally going to sell the Husqvarna for only $100 due to the nonfunctional drive system, but I listed it for $134 just to see if I got any bites. Within a few hours I had a hit, and its currently pending sale on Sunday.

 

[primerbulb120]

Thursday was a good day. I got the MTD finished and returned to its owner. Its a chocke system not a primer system, so it takes several pulls to get going when cold, but after that it'll start first pull and it runs great. All of the cables are in good shape and the drive system works too. The whole mower is in pretty good shape actually. Cleaned it up a bit before the sendoff.

I also finally got the Yard Man running. Narrowed the problem down to the carburetor after swapping the Craftsman's (which originally belonged to the Yard Man), after several attempts, I swapped out carburetors with another, and a few more cleanings later it was finally running. Took a while but now both it and the Craftsman start first pull and run really well. Just need to put the plastic shroud back on it, clean it up, and it'll be ready to go.

I was originally going to sell the Husqvarna for only $100 due to the nonfunctional drive system, but I listed it for $134 just to see if I got any bites. Within a few hours I had a hit, and its currently pending sale on Sunday.

I have owned one of those engines before with the choke system, and it always started on the first pull. I ended up converting it to primer bulb to do away with the choke cable. It still starts on the first pull. I don't think that cold start problem you've got is the choke's fault.


In addition, you could save yourself time and money by learning to make gaskets. The Advance Auto Parts in Athol carries gasket material for $6 per roll. Out of a roll you can probably make 50-150 gaskets.

A roll of material looks like this:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31CGHS9D8BL._SX425_.jpg

You will need scissors and a hole punch like this one:

http://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a471/IronBoss23/HolePunch2_zps2cb6177f.jpg


Here is the process:


2. Using scissors, cut out a square of gasket material the right size for your gasket.
3. Apply a light, even coating of motor oil to one of the gasket mating surfaces (e.g. the throttle end of the carburetor.)
3. Press the square of gasket material down onto the oil-covered mating surface. Make sure that you press down wherever the gasket contacts the surface.
4. Remove the gasket material. You should now have a stamp of the mating surface on the material. If the smaller holes are distorted or don't show up, you had too much oil on the mating surface. If the stamp is too light to see, you didn't have enough. Be patient, it can take a while to get this right.
5. Punch out the small holes with your hole punch. You can cut the big ones out with a utility knife, punch around their perimeters with your hole punch, or try to cut them out with scissors. Any of these ways will work, but I tend to use the first method.

I have made lots of gaskets with this method. They aren't as exact as the professional ones, but they cost less and work just as good.

If you can't follow my instructions, just tell me and I will post pictures.

 

[hanyoukimura]

I have owned one of those engines before with the choke system, and it always started on the first pull. I ended up converting it to primer bulb to do away with the choke cable. It still starts on the first pull. I don't think that cold start problem you've got is the choke's fault.


In addition, you could save yourself time and money by learning to make gaskets. The Advance Auto Parts in Athol carries gasket material for $6 per roll. Out of a roll you can probably make 50-150 gaskets.

A roll of material looks like this:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31CGHS9D8BL._SX425_.jpg

You will need scissors and a hole punch like this one:

http://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a471/IronBoss23/HolePunch2_zps2cb6177f.jpg


Here is the process:


2. Using scissors, cut out a square of gasket material the right size for your gasket.
3. Apply a light, even coating of motor oil to one of the gasket mating surfaces (e.g. the throttle end of the carburetor.)
3. Press the square of gasket material down onto the oil-covered mating surface. Make sure that you press down wherever the gasket contacts the surface.
4. Remove the gasket material. You should now have a stamp of the mating surface on the material. If the smaller holes are distorted or don't show up, you had too much oil on the mating surface. If the stamp is too light to see, you didn't have enough. Be patient, it can take a while to get this right.
5. Punch out the small holes with your hole punch. You can cut the big ones out with a utility knife, punch around their perimeters with your hole punch, or try to cut them out with scissors. Any of these ways will work, but I tend to use the first method.

I have made lots of gaskets with this method. They aren't as exact as the professional ones, but they cost less and work just as good.

If you can't follow my instructions, just tell me and I will post pictures.

I have owned one of those engines before with the choke system, and it always started on the first pull. I ended up converting it to primer bulb to do away with the choke cable. It still starts on the first pull. I don't think that cold start problem you've got is the choke's fault.


In addition, you could save yourself time and money by learning to make gaskets. The Advance Auto Parts in Athol carries gasket material for $6 per roll. Out of a roll you can probably make 50-150 gaskets.

A roll of material looks like this:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31CGHS9D8BL._SX425_.jpg

You will need scissors and a hole punch like this one:

http://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a471/IronBoss23/HolePunch2_zps2cb6177f.jpg


Here is the process:


2. Using scissors, cut out a square of gasket material the right size for your gasket.
3. Apply a light, even coating of motor oil to one of the gasket mating surfaces (e.g. the throttle end of the carburetor.)
3. Press the square of gasket material down onto the oil-covered mating surface. Make sure that you press down wherever the gasket contacts the surface.
4. Remove the gasket material. You should now have a stamp of the mating surface on the material. If the smaller holes are distorted or don't show up, you had too much oil on the mating surface. If the stamp is too light to see, you didn't have enough. Be patient, it can take a while to get this right.
5. Punch out the small holes with your hole punch. You can cut the big ones out with a utility knife, punch around their perimeters with your hole punch, or try to cut them out with scissors. Any of these ways will work, but I tend to use the first method.

I have made lots of gaskets with this method. They aren't as exact as the professional ones, but they cost less and work just as good.

If you can't follow my instructions, just tell me and I will post pictures.

See, I've never had a choke system that started on first pull besides a couple Ready Start engines. Both of my older Briggs 4-cycle engines take exactly 3 pulls to cold start, and both the Suzuki and the Briggs 2-cycle engines take multiple pulls. IIRC the Suzuki takes 3 or so, while the 2-cycle Briggs take like 5.

The guy was happy it was no logger a piss poor cob job and said he didn't mind that it took a few pulls to cold start. Funny thing is when I brought it back to him later in the day it did start first pull.

I always forget about that stuff, and although I bet it would be a pain to make the newer Briggs air filter housing gaskets, that gasket roll would be good to keep in mind for the older style flange gaskets like the one I replaced, thanks!

 

[primerbulb120]

My four-stroke engines with chokes always start on the first pull. On the other hand, I have had endless trouble trying to start Tecumseh engines with primer bulbs.

 

[hanyoukimura]

My four-stroke engines with chokes always start on the first pull. On the other hand, I have had endless trouble trying to start Tecumseh engines with primer bulbs.

They can be a real pain, but I've found once the carburetors are super clean and have good primers they'll start first pull. All three of the ones currently in my stable start first pull.

 

[hanyoukimura]

...and the Husqvarna is gone.It arrived in the bed of a pickup and it left in one too. This time instead of being bound of the scrap pile its going to a new home to what it was made for!

 

[hanyoukimura]

It was pouring earlier, but by 3pm the rain had stopped, the sun was out, and the ground was dry. It was and is still very humid, and I had already planned to take the day to just relax for once, but I couldn't help myself and decided to finish the Yard Man up. Its come a long way from the mess I was given.

I've decided I'm going to do something about the Craftsman's paint issue. It should look much better and therefore be worth more. I' toyed with teh idea of a full repaint, but I just don't feel like taking it all apart. Instead I have another idea, which I will share with you all once its done.

 

[hanyoukimura]

This evening after work I decided to tackle the Craftsman. originally I was just going to sell it as is, but while perfectly functional the deck, while solid, had pretty bad paint issues and I just couldn't leave it alone. The paint on the carburetor side hadn't shine up well, and sanding it would have resulted in more paint flaking off. Plus, there was quite a lot of paint missing around the belt cover and bubbling on the front of the deck.

Once I started grinding, I found that quit ea lot of the paint was no longer bonded to the metal. Now, I didn't plan on this being a showroom quality paint job, but I did take some time to sand the bare metal and surrounding paint to make it more level.

Primed.

...and out of daylight.

Instead of Rust-Oleum Hunter Green, I decided to try some Duplicolor Perfect Match automotive touch up paint. I brought the shroud into the store and picked the one that looked closest. By the time I got done painting, it was dark. FPhotos taken with the flash show the paint has more blue in the hue than it looked on the cap, but not bad overall. We'll see how it looks tomorrow.

 

[hanyoukimura]

Well the hue is definitely off, more blue than the Polo Green or whatever Sears calls it. Next time I will try another color, but its not too bad since almost the entire deck ended up being repainted anyway. I think it looks better than the Hunter Green Rust-Oleum paint does.

 

[hanyoukimura]

Now that the weather is cooperating, some photos of it all done!

And now its gone! Good thing I took the photos before I changed the oil!

I had a guy coming to look at the Yard Man. While I was waiting for him to arrive, I changed the oil on the Craftsman, the last item on its list before being declared ready to sell. Moments after I got done, the guy arrives. He asked about the Craftsman and what I wanted for it. I told him $130 and he snapped it up. So from a mower in rough shape that had been sitting outside full of gas in the engine and a flooding carburetor to a respectable looking machine, it didn't even make it to Craigslist!