ZeroClient
Forum Newbie
- Joined
- Apr 19, 2015
- Threads
- 1
- Messages
- 3
For $100, I picked up a great condition LB 8241ae which wasn't running. The owner demonstrated that starter motor's non-working function. The mower looked great otherwise and came with a TON of other pieces:
Bagger options with good grass catcher
A huge folder filled with service records and the manual (Reminded me of a survivor in Classic Car terms)
Original charger
The owner even sharpened the blade for me on the spot before taking delivery.
So I took it home with the starter motor in-hand and opened up the starter to see what was what. Sure enough, the coil windings had failed over time where continuity was random if at best. If I plugged the motor into a battery, spinning it off with my hand would sometimes get the motor spinning bait poorly. The contacts/brushes were absolutely fine. So I thought to myself - this mower needs a new electric starter or to be converted to pull start. Then I looked closely at the windings, and noticed that I happened to have the same 17ga copper magnetic wire on a reel which I happened to use for another project. I said what the heck - and since the starter was shot anyways - I decided to re-wind the starter motor with fresh/new wire. After about 2 hours of documenting the direction and number of turns and such then re-wrapping with fresh wire - I had the motor back together. Battery tested it and sure enough it was working perfectly. I fixed the starter motor with about $5 worth of brand new magnet wire which I already had on hand!
Back to the mower, I started putting it back together from replacing the fuel line, pulling the carb (Full of Varnish so I cleaned every piece), Cleaned and oiled the air filter, charged the battery (which was flat dead @11.6v but only 2 years old), adjusted some cables and mostly completed the re-assembly.
I ran a compression test on the motor - seeing as I'm accustomed to rebuilding 2-strokes of all kinds power-sport equipment. The engine compression on this lawn boy was low (as I knew it kind of was when purchasing given the ease of hand-effort). The compression peaked at 75psi. so I'm thinking this motor is probably tired but o-well. Theres no was that I see I can remove the cyl head as it looks like one piece from crank base. Needless to say I left the engine alone thinking I might search for other things first. I'm going to check the compression again after I get the engine running just a bit - see if the rings decide to re-seat and help out the situation any.
Ignition has awesome spark so I figured the motor would at least TRY to start. I filled it with 32:1 mixed gas/oil and made sure the carb would not over-flow. Set it up outside, primed the engine with the stock primer about 8 times, and hit the key. The mower started up practically instantly! Amazing. Sitting there it was running just fine on 'turtle' mode. It has been raining so I didn't try 'rabbit' mode.
so I made a quick little video.
Thoughts on my find??
Bagger options with good grass catcher
A huge folder filled with service records and the manual (Reminded me of a survivor in Classic Car terms)
Original charger
The owner even sharpened the blade for me on the spot before taking delivery.
So I took it home with the starter motor in-hand and opened up the starter to see what was what. Sure enough, the coil windings had failed over time where continuity was random if at best. If I plugged the motor into a battery, spinning it off with my hand would sometimes get the motor spinning bait poorly. The contacts/brushes were absolutely fine. So I thought to myself - this mower needs a new electric starter or to be converted to pull start. Then I looked closely at the windings, and noticed that I happened to have the same 17ga copper magnetic wire on a reel which I happened to use for another project. I said what the heck - and since the starter was shot anyways - I decided to re-wind the starter motor with fresh/new wire. After about 2 hours of documenting the direction and number of turns and such then re-wrapping with fresh wire - I had the motor back together. Battery tested it and sure enough it was working perfectly. I fixed the starter motor with about $5 worth of brand new magnet wire which I already had on hand!
Back to the mower, I started putting it back together from replacing the fuel line, pulling the carb (Full of Varnish so I cleaned every piece), Cleaned and oiled the air filter, charged the battery (which was flat dead @11.6v but only 2 years old), adjusted some cables and mostly completed the re-assembly.
I ran a compression test on the motor - seeing as I'm accustomed to rebuilding 2-strokes of all kinds power-sport equipment. The engine compression on this lawn boy was low (as I knew it kind of was when purchasing given the ease of hand-effort). The compression peaked at 75psi. so I'm thinking this motor is probably tired but o-well. Theres no was that I see I can remove the cyl head as it looks like one piece from crank base. Needless to say I left the engine alone thinking I might search for other things first. I'm going to check the compression again after I get the engine running just a bit - see if the rings decide to re-seat and help out the situation any.
Ignition has awesome spark so I figured the motor would at least TRY to start. I filled it with 32:1 mixed gas/oil and made sure the carb would not over-flow. Set it up outside, primed the engine with the stock primer about 8 times, and hit the key. The mower started up practically instantly! Amazing. Sitting there it was running just fine on 'turtle' mode. It has been raining so I didn't try 'rabbit' mode.
so I made a quick little video.
Thoughts on my find??
