hanyoukimura
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jun 19, 2011
- Threads
- 23
- Messages
- 382
Hello everyone,
I'm rekindling my childhood hobby of tinkering with mowers and thought I'd share my progress and ask a couple questions.
This spring I put a good amount of time and effort into transforming our backyard from literally dirty and some weeds to lush grass. It's not perfect, yet, but compared to what it was it's a massive improvement. So with a nicer lawn I need a mower, since we don't have one besides my uncle, who is possessive over it.
Being on a budget, and looking for a project, I went to Craigslist to see what there was. I came across an ad for a Brute 22" Self Propelled 3-in-1 mower. Right away I wanted it because
Guy wanted $45 originally but I talked him down to $35. Came with all of the parts and accessories, including the broken, completely disassembled motor in a Briggs box. He said it was a year old, stopped working, and the manufacturer wouldn't replace it under warranty, so he got a new one. He claimed he never hit anything, but one I inspected it at home, sure enough, I found the blade bent, flywheel cracked around the crankshaft hole, and damage to the crankshaft.
That's ok, my plan was to get a motor anyway off CL, but as luck would have it my neighbor had a free mower he'd been beating the snot out. It was very dirty and the deck's in poor shape. The air box had long been broken off and had no filter, but it fired right up anyway after sitting in his yard for a year.
So I cleaned off my Brute, gave it a nice coat of wax. Then I unbolted the motor from the donor deck and test fit. Perfect. Put back on the old deck for cleaning. Put the air box from the Brute's engine (which is very similar but has Ready Start whereas the donor has a primer), and hit it with engine degreaser and my pressure washer. Cleaned up quite well! I'll probably clean it by hand in the little nooks, then do an oil change, new spark plug, and new air filter when the proper air box mount (with primer) I have on order comes in.
Onto photos!
The day I brought it home.
Cleaned and waxed.
Parts of the Brute's Briggs and Stratton 675 Series engine.
The carnage.
The donor mower.
Test fitting the engine.
After a round of degreasing and pressure washing.
Love how the engines are so similar save Ready Start (and sadly the air box mount). Lots of year-old spare parts. Already made use of them, as swapped the dipstick tubes because the donor's leaked. Even the engine cover fits on.
Next up is to finish cleaning the engine, change the spark plug, oil, replace the fuel line to the tank. mount the drive belt pulley, and then mount it to the Brute.
So that's the project so far. Now I have a few of questions:
First and foremost: is the mounting plat for the blade supposed to just slide off? The one on the donor won't. I'm guessing rusted onto the crankshaft. Tried hitting it with PB Blaster, but is threr a trick to get it off? I need to get it off so I can slide on the drive belt pulley.
Next, off is the blade. The Brute's is bent and the donor's is in poor shape. I was wondering if anyone has any thoughts on the Max Power 22" Universal Mulching Blade?
Also, do these engines have a fuel filter? I tried looking for one but didn't see it. I was thinking of adding one in.
Thanks for looking!
I'm rekindling my childhood hobby of tinkering with mowers and thought I'd share my progress and ask a couple questions.
This spring I put a good amount of time and effort into transforming our backyard from literally dirty and some weeds to lush grass. It's not perfect, yet, but compared to what it was it's a massive improvement. So with a nicer lawn I need a mower, since we don't have one besides my uncle, who is possessive over it.
Being on a budget, and looking for a project, I went to Craigslist to see what there was. I came across an ad for a Brute 22" Self Propelled 3-in-1 mower. Right away I wanted it because
- It had big wheels
- It had a bag
- It was black
- It looked cool (big rear wheels on a long slender body just looks awesome to me and reminded me of my favorite mower I had as kid)
Guy wanted $45 originally but I talked him down to $35. Came with all of the parts and accessories, including the broken, completely disassembled motor in a Briggs box. He said it was a year old, stopped working, and the manufacturer wouldn't replace it under warranty, so he got a new one. He claimed he never hit anything, but one I inspected it at home, sure enough, I found the blade bent, flywheel cracked around the crankshaft hole, and damage to the crankshaft.
That's ok, my plan was to get a motor anyway off CL, but as luck would have it my neighbor had a free mower he'd been beating the snot out. It was very dirty and the deck's in poor shape. The air box had long been broken off and had no filter, but it fired right up anyway after sitting in his yard for a year.
So I cleaned off my Brute, gave it a nice coat of wax. Then I unbolted the motor from the donor deck and test fit. Perfect. Put back on the old deck for cleaning. Put the air box from the Brute's engine (which is very similar but has Ready Start whereas the donor has a primer), and hit it with engine degreaser and my pressure washer. Cleaned up quite well! I'll probably clean it by hand in the little nooks, then do an oil change, new spark plug, and new air filter when the proper air box mount (with primer) I have on order comes in.
Onto photos!
The day I brought it home.
Cleaned and waxed.
Parts of the Brute's Briggs and Stratton 675 Series engine.
The carnage.
The donor mower.
Test fitting the engine.
After a round of degreasing and pressure washing.
Love how the engines are so similar save Ready Start (and sadly the air box mount). Lots of year-old spare parts. Already made use of them, as swapped the dipstick tubes because the donor's leaked. Even the engine cover fits on.
Next up is to finish cleaning the engine, change the spark plug, oil, replace the fuel line to the tank. mount the drive belt pulley, and then mount it to the Brute.
So that's the project so far. Now I have a few of questions:
First and foremost: is the mounting plat for the blade supposed to just slide off? The one on the donor won't. I'm guessing rusted onto the crankshaft. Tried hitting it with PB Blaster, but is threr a trick to get it off? I need to get it off so I can slide on the drive belt pulley.
Next, off is the blade. The Brute's is bent and the donor's is in poor shape. I was wondering if anyone has any thoughts on the Max Power 22" Universal Mulching Blade?
Also, do these engines have a fuel filter? I tried looking for one but didn't see it. I was thinking of adding one in.
Thanks for looking!
