Scrap yard Lawn Boy find

[gearnoggin]

Last Saturday I while I was at the scrap yard I spotted this 1987 8243AE. It was getting ready to be thrown into their breakage trailer when I asked about it. I ended up buying it for $15. The motor is really hard to turn by hand so I'm gonna remove the spark plug and spray some pb blaster into the cylinder and let it soak for a while. It's also missing the big black ring on top of the shroud and the air filter and cover. I'm pretty excited to see if it will run as I've been wanting to find a cheap self propelled lawn boy for a while. Anyways thanks for looking!

 

[Vervepipes]

Nice save

 

[d_sharier]

The 8243AE is an awesome mower. If memory serves, electric start only, no pull start. I had one a year or two ago and loved it ( had a few more, but a few years ago) It has been my experience (with the 3 or so that I had) that fuel delivery issues or air/vac leaks lead to hard starting conditions. Instead of correcting the issue the previous owners just cranked on the key longer and longer. This resulted in a failed pinion gear on the starter. 2 of the ones I had needed the pinion gear replaced and a fuel system overhaul. The last one needed a pinion gear and some crank seals. Of course all 3 needed batteries. In my area we have a Batteries Plus that offers a very reasonable replacement battery that fits nicely into the battery tray. I think they were around $25-$30.

Electric start, cast deck, self propelled, F-series engine, Walbro Carb ( If I remember correctly) truly a nice mower. They clean up nicely. Here is a pic of the last one I had. If memory serves me I sold this to a gentleman in Jefferson Missouri. He had purchased a brand new one in 1987 and loved it. It finally died in 2012-2013 ish. By "died" I mean that it had several smaller issues with it and he did not repair his own equipment. The cost from the repair shop would have been close to what he paid for mine. I had went threw if from top to bottom. He had just happened to my CL ad for it around the same time he was making a trip to Columbus OH. So from Jefferson City to Columbus OH by way of Barberton, he had found his replacement. I will remember that one for awhile.


Congrats!

 

[gearnoggin]

The 8243AE is an awesome mower. If memory serves, electric start only, no pull start. I had one a year or two ago and loved it ( had a few more, but a few years ago) It has been my experience (with the 3 or so that I had) that fuel delivery issues or air/vac leaks lead to hard starting conditions. Instead of correcting the issue the previous owners just cranked on the key longer and longer. This resulted in a failed pinion gear on the starter. 2 of the ones I had needed the pinion gear replaced and a fuel system overhaul. The last one needed a pinion gear and some crank seals. Of course all 3 needed batteries. In my area we have a Batteries Plus that offers a very reasonable replacement battery that fits nicely into the battery tray. I think they were around $25-$30. Electric start, cast deck, self propelled, F-series engine, Walbro Carb ( If I remember correctly) truly a nice mower. They clean up nicely. Here is a pic of the last one I had. If memory serves me I sold this to a gentleman in Jefferson Missouri. He had purchased a brand new one in 1987 and loved it. It finally died in 2012-2013 ish. By "died" I mean that it had several smaller issues with it and he did not repair his own equipment. The cost from the repair shop would have been close to what he paid for mine. I had went threw if from top to bottom. He had just happened to my CL ad for it around the same time he was making a trip to Columbus OH. So from Jefferson City to Columbus OH by way of Barberton, he had found his replacement. I will remember that one for awhile. Congrats!

Thanks for the info! I think mine is gonna make me a good mower. It doesn't seem to have been used to much. I think it was left outside for years though judging by the faded plastic and paint. But the wheels are nice and tight, there's still some green paint on the bottom of the deck, and it's just overall very solid looking. I took the carb off for cleaning today. It's not to bad just some gunk in the bottom of the bowl. I have access to a hydro sonic cleaner at work so I'm gonna get it cleaned on Monday. It seems to have very good compression. After I put the carb back on I'm gonna try starting it. I don't know what condition the starter is in yet since I haven't tried it. Is there any way to put a pull start on this model? And what kind is fuel delivery issues do these usually have? Thanks!

 

[d_sharier]

Fuel delivery issues are anything that involves getting the appropriate amount of emulsified fuel into the combustion chamber. I usually start at the tank and work my way down.

Flush the fuel tank to clean out anything that shouldn't be there
Check the vent in the gas cap and repair as necessary
check integrity of fuel shut-off and fuel filter inside the tank- repair as necessary
check integrity of fuel line, replace as necessary- good time to add an inline fuel filter
remove and clean or replace the air filter
clean and overhaul the carburetor as necessary, re-install (new gaskets are always a plus)


Some other things that I tend to do are:

install a new spark plug
Check and clean exhaust ports ( this is a big one that should be done, if the engine can't "exhale" it won't run appropriately)

Add fresh fuel and fire it up. let the engine warm, dial in carb if applicable. Then check and adjust the RPM. I thing 2900 +/- 300 is what the book says for that engine.

As far as the recoil starter, I am not sure. I know that the shroud has a "knockout" for a pull rope, but I have never tried to retrofit a recoil starter. I don't know if the case is set up to mount one. Maybe someone with more experience can answer that and fill in if I missed anything.

 

[gearnoggin]

Thanks for the additional info! Another thing I've been wondering is are there any threads or pages that show a time line of year to year changes in lawn boy mowers. I haven't been able to find one and I'm curios to see how they evolved over the years. I've also got a 76 model 7226 I bought a yard sale back in the summer. It's got low compression and I think it may need new rings.