Stuck Blade Nut after breaking blade free with leverage bar

[FuzzyDriver]

Wow. That's the worst muffler I've ever seen. I'd say that, besides the muffler, you also need a new collar/plate, blade, and nut. I guess I'm stating the obvious. Twice I've had nuts so tight that I broke the weld holding the collar/plate together trying to pry the blade and collar/plate off (mowers I bought from sales). Now it's religious use of anti-seize and torque wrench - 50 ft-lbf (never an impact wrench for tightening). Doing this, I've actually had a collar/plate FALL OFF the shaft when removing the blade for sharpening!

It's just me, but I wouldn't put that fan back on.

Keep up the good work!

 

[Fish]

Use an impact wrench without removing the spark plug. Easy job.
Stuffing crap into the spark plug hole just ends in trouble.

 

[Nessuno]

Wow. That's the worst muffler I've ever seen. I'd say that, besides the muffler, you also need a new collar/plate, blade, and nut. I guess I'm stating the obvious. Twice I've had nuts so tight that I broke the weld holding the collar/plate together trying to pry the blade and collar/plate off (mowers I bought from sales). Now it's religious use of anti-seize and torque wrench - 50 ft-lbf (never an impact wrench for tightening). Doing this, I've actually had a collar/plate FALL OFF the shaft when removing the blade for sharpening!

It's just me, but I wouldn't put that fan back on.

Keep up the good work!

Totally agree. I wasn't planning on reusing the old fan or blade and probably not the collar/plate or nut if I can help it. Now you now what I meant when I said it was rusted underneath. The deck is pitted from rock and debris, but no rust. Too bad the guy left it sit outside for 2 years. Omaha BTW. Forgot to answer an earlier question about where I am at.

 

[Nessuno]

Use an impact wrench without removing the spark plug. Easy job.
Stuffing crap into the spark plug hole just ends in trouble.

That would've been my first choice if I had one; now I know it is an essential tool to have and will get one.

 

[Fish]

That would've been my first choice if I had one; now I know it is an essential tool to have and will get one.

I am thinking about one of those battery powered ones.

 

[Nessuno]

My brother-in-law has one of those Kobalt ones. The battery switches out to his Kobalt trimmer and leaf blower too. He likes it. But I would have to see how they do mulching heavy spring grass or bagging, and how well it pulls itself doing that. Wonder how long the battery lasts. He lives down in Wichita so the grass doesn't get real thick down there.

I am thinking about one of those battery powered ones.

 

[Nessuno]

Got it running. It ran well for several minutes then started surging to the point of almost stalling completely. I could play with the throttle and it would rev back up, pull itself well, then repeat the surge. I rechecked the compression before starting, got 120 out of it this time. I pulled 5 times, last time I only pulled 3 times and thought it had peaked out; guess not. I verified spark at the spark plug. I did mix 32:1 with low-ash 2-cycle oil from ACE Hardware. I confess, the gas I used was getting old. Also, I did replace the ignition coil with one of the cheap ones off of Amazon. I know others have had this surging problem before and I will do some research. I attached pics of the mower (you can see how the paint peeled and left a white-glue like substance all over the deck). You can see the parts I bought for $30.00 (I already installed a muffler, square plate, blade, and mulch cover that is not included in the pic): 2 plastic carbs, 2 air filter housings, 2 more blades, 1 more muffler (I chose the lightest one to install; figured less carbon build-up), 3 large orange bearing wheels with grease fittings, 1 more square bracket, 2 ignition coils, a whole mess of misc bolts, a primer bulb, a gas shut-off, and other items. I'm going to check the ignition coils with an ohm meter and I may replace the China one with one of these original LawnBoy coils.

But it does run, and when it did, the drive train pulled itself quite well with no adjustments. Need to work on the surging.

Edit: The parts came from 2 mowers. I believe some of those parts are from a Model: 6211 . If anyone can use something let me know. I'm going to keep the extra muffler and the blade that will fit and the ignition coils if they fit. I can't use the other parts.

 

[Nessuno]

Cold weather with rain and possible snow flurries coming today/tomorrow. My backyard needed to be mowed. Long, thick Kentucky Bluegrass holding moisture (see pic). I was going to use my 21" Gravely with the Kawasaki FJ180V (converted to push-mower because the plastic gears stripped out), but I thought I would give the Lawn-Boy another chance. It ran flawlessly. Never surged. Good power. Did bog down in the thick grass and even stalled a couple of times when I was trying to go to fast, but fired back up with one pull. If I had gone slow enough in neutral, it wouldn't have stalled. I absolutely LOVE the 3-speed transmission; I was practically trotting behind it in 3rd at times (I went over some of the yard twice) while the 1st gear is slow enough to get through most of the heavier stuff. The deck did get bogged down with wet grass clippings, but it made through okay. I'm very pleased with it. The mulch plate is only held on with the one (butterfly?) screw for now. I need to bolt it all the way down. I think it was part of the reason the side-chute was getting plugged up. I think I mulched the yard more than side-chuted it.

As far as the surging, I'm thinking there may have been some moisture in the tank from when I flushed it and now any moisture is gone. I'm still curious if anyone thinks I should try the used Ignition Modules I picked up over the new Chinese one I bought.

In a week or so, I'll have my 14yr old daughter (5' nothing and <100 lbs) paint it up and I will post a pick. It's actually going to be her mower to make some money (mine was just too heavy for her). I'd like to paint it original LawnBoy colors, but I think she is going to go LA Lakers colors. So you might see a pic soon of a Lakers 2-cycle LawnBoy. (-;

 

[FuzzyDriver]

Glad to hear it's running well. Automotive "Grabber Green" is just about the perfect match for Lawn-Boy green, if you can talk her into it. The two bolts you are missing are special shoulder/built-in washer bolts that thread into nylon square pop-in nuts. The threads are the only thing normal about them (1/4-20 NC). If you are careful, you can squeeze the tabs together and push the nuts through from another mower and re-use them in yours.

 

[dougmacm]

The 3-speed trans is obsolete and parts are getting expensive. Since it sat outside for two years, you really want to open up the transmission and give it a good cleaning / rebuild.

I picked up 2 3-speed mowers last year (1 $10 / 1 FREE) the 1st one's trans had water in it, but thankfully no parts were worn out ... so I was REALLY GLAD I opened it up, cleaned everything up and re-greased it !!

2nd one was dry inside but had water in it at one point as one gear was corroded and a couple of teeth were bad. The main drive shaft and 2 bushings that ride on it were bad too and these 4 parts were just under $118. It is really strange in that the bushing on the left looks ok, but the shaft is chewed up where it rides. Vs. the bushing on the right is trashed and the area on the shaft where it rides is no where near as bad as the other. The bushings are not that much $$ and if the shaft was evenly worn at both spots I would have saved $84 and done just bushings and reused the shaft. The replacement gear I got was used and was $10~15 cheaper than new. Other areas where the drive shaft can be worn out is at the the end bushings at the height adjusters.

Doug