My mower repair thread

Vervepipes

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This guy had a Briggs Classic 5.5 HP engine on it. I don't have a great way of keeping track of what's wrong with what as today proved. This guy was missing the carb/tank asssemly, so I robbed a good one. It started right up....and bad rod knock. OK, I vaguely remember this now. I couldn't get the badly rusted bolt for the YardPro's transmission off, so I compromised and put the Kohler engine on the Craftsman deck. End product is a very nice mower, and the deck is much better than the YardWorks deck was.




I also got to work on the KGrow. I got a cable that works on it, and it seems the crank may be bent on it as it vibrates when it runs. Maybe a bent blade, I'll swap it out tomorrow. I really need to tag the condition of things, I lose way too much time to my own foolishness.

I have another 3 self propelled mowers to try fixing in the shed, I hope they all can be salvaged in full functioning capability, they tend to bring home more bacon.
 

Vervepipes

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One of the Craftsman mowers is gone to a new home, the 5HP (for some reason I wrote 6 earlier). Runs like a champ, hope the new owner gets years of good work out of it. What next to work on now... I'm thinking another Craftsman self propelled. The quantum on the one I have in mind is apart, no carb, no engine brake. I have enough Quantums on shelves that I'm certain I can get it going this week.
 

Vervepipes

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Both the YardPro and 4.5HP Craftsman mowers are gone now. With the money from those I bought a used little trailer for the Yaris, it can hold 2 mowers, 3 if they overlap a bit, or one snow blower. The The big ticket here is the snow blower capability now so I can have some extra cash in the winter too. The trailer is very small, something like 3x5 box.

This guy I found on the side of the road. I replaced the engine brake cable and found a bag that fit. It was also missing it's spark plug. I just mowed the yard with it tonight, it is one of the most fuel efficient mowers I've used on my own yard. I don't know why, it's just a 4.5 HP Tecumseh, but it didn't use much gas at all. Hopefully this guy will sell soon, I need to buy some parts.



There are a couple of commercial Lawn Boys not running, plus a Honda powered Craftsman for sale about an hour from here. If they don't sell soon and I make a few more sales I'm going to try to snag them up as a package.
 

Vervepipes

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The Yard Machines mower just sold, now the KGrow has been listed.


Another Craftsman that I thought was good to go had a crack in the oil sump, so it needs some attention before I can list it. It sucks that I filled it with oil and the next day it was all under the mower. I'm tempted to call about this one, about 40 minutes away but with the Yaris the trip won't cost much. lawn boy mower for parts or repair. | lawnmowers, leaf blowers | Dartmouth | Kijiji
 

Vervepipes

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The KGrow is gone. I think I'm going to focus on breaking down my parts machines to make room for the next few days, as well as some home repairs that have been put off.
 

Lawnboy18

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Gotta do those home repairs to keep the wife happy.
 

Lawnboy18

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I cannot believe the views of this thread! 9100 of them!
 

Vervepipes

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What a day, I planned on breaking down parts rigs that are stacked in my under deck shed, but instead I got sidetracked and decided to try to tackle the Chonda again. I used the governor spring from the spare engine I had on a shelf, poked a metal wire vigorously in the main jet, adjusted the idle and fuel screws on the carb and finally, fine tuned the governor bracket and it runs, very well even. I couldn't let that stop me, so I investigated why the Yard Pro from earlier wouldn't go into self propel, as it turns out, the axle gears were removed. I installed a spare set from a deck in worse shape and not it propels. So where does this bring me? I figured the Chonda is would look good on that deck, so I installed a spare pulley/blade mount and set it on the deck. Unfortunately though, I had to destroy the upper belt cover due to a badly rusted screw, and the spares I have don't fit exactly the same. The closest one will need a dremel treatment tomorrow. I also don't have the lower cover which will affect the sale value, and this is the first mower that I don't have a bag for. I think my solution will be to keep it as my own until I get a bag for it.

So now I have a basic deck freed up that originally had the Chonda, so I took a Tecumseh that runs great from a rotten deck, literally held together with about 10 feet of duct tape. Score, another mower almost ready to go. I swapped everything that was good on the cracked Tecumseh from earlier and put together a running motor, although it surges and hunts. It didn't do this with that carb on the cracked engine so I sprayed carb cleaner around all the gaskets with no success. I'll have to investigate that one tomorrow.

Lastly, today I saw a little MTD built mower on the curb, can't remember what it's branded, that looked like it had never spent a night outdoors. Brought it home, it starts. Looked at the build tag and it's only 4 years old. In any case, looks like I may have at least 3 ready to list tomorrow. I didn't do any before-musical-deck pictures, but I'll post a few of the results when I get them cleaned up.

Also, while I was shopping for parts, one of the hardware stores had loads of things on clearance, so I bought the store's worth of Tecumseh filters of various sizes for $2 each and two types of spark plugs for $2 each as well. I'll go back tomorrow on my lunch break at both locations to see if more are on the shelf.
 

Vervepipes

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So here are pics of what I've accomplished in the last couple of days. The red MTD has new spark, filter and oil, it runs well and should be an easy sell. If it doesn't sell in a few days I'll put on wheel adjusters.



This is the deck that the Chonda came on, now with a Tecumseh. I had to clean the carb and do a few adjustments, but with a new spark plug and filter and an oil change it now runs well. Stutters a bit until warm but I've cleaned every hole in the carb, and checked all the manifold seals. I'll list it as a beater mower of sorts, not high end by any means.



The YardPro deck, now with gears on the axles and a (finally)running Chonda. It runs well, propels well, just missing the bag and lower belt cover. Maybe I'll hang onto it until I come across some. I was also thinking of trying on a real Honda muffler to see it the exhaust tome will get nicer... I do have a side discharge chute that fits, so without the bag it isn't the end of the world.



So that's my last few days, minus the ones that I couldn't get running properly. Hopefully I can get a few sales by the weekend and maybe take the family out to dinner.
 

Vervepipes

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The red MTD is getting delivered on my lunch break tomorrow, and the hodgepodge that now has a 4.5HP Tecumseh may be getting sold tomorrow too by word of mouth from one of last year's customers. I love it when mowers sell before they are listed. Today I picked up a Craftsman self propelled mower that wins the "how did you use that and still have both your feet" award, it literally folded in half when I picked it up. I've never seen the engine on it before, a Tecumseh Vector, 6.75 HP. Hopefully it runs, I won't try it on the current deck in fear of losing toes, or worse. If I can get it running, I'll stick it on one of the self propelled decks that I have laying around that needs a motor. New carbs for it are around 25 bucks shipped on Ebay, so it may be worth getting it running, sounds like a beast of an engine although they don't seem to have stellar repair histories. I'll grab a pic tomorrow, it's impressive how this thing is held loosely together.
 
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