Posted on 03/29/2016 1:41:46 PM PDT by tumblindice
Spring has sprung, the grass has riz, I wonder where my flowers is. There aren't any because I was too lazy to plant bulbs. I've been here ten years and decided maybe it was time to post a thread. And that some of you might be able to use my five years experience working in a small engine repair shop. I just gave mine the spring thing, and am smelling faintly now of the tang of gasoline.
OK, there's your lawnmower in your garage, shed, barn--or maybe you left her with gas in the tank sitting out in the freezing rain and snow all winter. (You may have a problem later.) First make sure she's not loade--I mean, make sure the spark plug pigtail is pulled off the plug before you start putting your hands under the deck, unless you want a new nickname: "Lefty". Make sure the pigtail is nowhere near the plug. I'm assuming you have a standard lawnmower, mine is a self-propelled with a Briggs & Stratton engine, but the same principles apply if you have a Tecumseh or whatever. Tip her on her side and let the handle rest on something solid. Make sure it's not going to fall over on you. (From here on I'm going to assume common sense.) I don't have everything in place because there are steps I follow in changing the oil. Do the oil second, after the blade, especially if you haven't run the mower to warm up the oil. Find a socket that fits the blade bolt (the metal thing over or under the blade is called the blade clutch), and you may have to horse it off or spray it with WD-40. Oil change. There's an oil plug close to the blade clutch on the sump underside. You may have to clean the area to find it. My Briggs uses a 3/8" square holed plug. Your 3/8" extender should fit. Position a drain pain under the mower. `Lefty loosey. (This isn't an AK-47 muzzle thread.) `Right is tight, lefties are loose.' When you get the plug out, lower the mower. Now, go find a spark plug socket that fits your spark plug. (After you're done, label it, 'mower socket' so you don't spend 15 minutes next year finding one that fits.) Put the socket securely on the plug and hit the socket driver with the heel of your hand. Stick the plug in your shirt pocket. After the oil drains, make sure the oil plug is clean along with the area around the drain hole and hand start it. Just snug it up, no need to horse it on. Your engine housing is probably soft aluminum. Add a little 10W-30 weight oil. If all you have is left over 10W-40 from your car, that's better than nothing but it was designed for cold weather. Look at the little CJ8 plug to make sure it's not burned. Prolly easier to just replace it, but I use a brush on mind and make sure the gap is OK (.30), and then put compressed air in it to make sure nothing but the business-end of the plug is going into the combustion chamber All right back to the mower blade. Take the blade either to your grinder or where you plan to file it. Wear gloves. Scrape off the dried grass crust with a screwdriver or putty knife. There's no need to put a razor edge on it. That will just curl under with time. Try to center it on something thin to see if it balances. You left the spark plug unhooked, right? Hand-tighten the blade bolt. (Is the shiny side of the blade `up'? Is it secured correctly to the blade clutch?) Almost there. Check your oil, add a little more. Next, take out your accordion fan air filter. If it's in bad shape, replace it. Otherwise give it a good cleaning with an air gun or soft brush and put it back in the air filter housing. Add more oil carefully up to the mark. If you over-fill and don't have a suction gun, you get to repeat removing the drain plug. Your little engine is air cooled and depends on enough clean oil so it doesn't meld it's piston rings to the cylinder wall, an ugly thing to see. Hand screw your new, cleaned, correctly gapped--you can get a plug keychain spark plug gapper for about a buck at the Advance Auto counter--spark plug into the cylinder head (spark plug hole). Again, there's no need to horse it. Just hand tight, then snug it up. The cylinder head is also aluminum. Push the pigtail firmly onto the spark plug. Add fresh 87 grade gas. Especially if you left her out for Old Man Winter to ravage you filthy swine! Or you forgot to add Stabil to the gas tank or to run it until it ran out of gas. If not, try to get that gas out before adding new. If you have a primer give it a couple more pumps than you do when you're wearing a tank top this summer. Here we are: pull on her tail. Mine started first time, HA! No go? Problems in starting are usually 90% fuel. If you can see spark between the plug electrodes. the problem is fuel. You can try taking the filter out and dripping gas into the carburetor. (Pull the plug) If that starts it, it may try to die so keep priming until it is running regular and let it run until it flushes out what may be fuel gums that were blocking your fuel line or carb orifices. Still won't run? This is mower maintenance, not repair but I'll check back in a while to see if there are any questions or comments. And I hope this is helpful to those of you, like me, who mow your own dam lawn.
Nothing? I just thought of something while scrubbing taters. Check the wires from your starter switch to the starter and the battery wires for shiny copper. Lift them up and carefully examine them with a flashlight if you need it. It may be a bare wire making contact with metal, an electrical short. Maybe you’ve got mice.
Back to din-din.
“Stick the plug in your shirt pocket. “
I was going good till I got to this point.
Loved your thread. My husband and my sons (all engineers) know all this stuff, but I printed it off anyway. Not sure about my daughters — they both do the lawn mowing for their families. As for myself — we share the duties, and I have a ride on Hustler Zero Turn monster. It’s more complicated, especially changing the blades.
But, I saved it and printed just because your instructions are just so d-—ed funny! Kudos.
“I have been mowing my lawn for over a month now. “
We mow all year around here.
Prestone starter spray. Get it. It’ll start anything.
Faster too. In addition to not having a fixed (slow) forward speed, you can drag it backwards saving the time to turn it around all the time.
It also helps around the garage. No mowers to trip over.
I don’t understand. At the end of a row I have to turn it around and go back just like someone would with a power mower.
ah, Un-powered push mower. Reel mowers don’t like rocks and bricks too much....
The ignition switches are not very durable if left in the weather. Often see the leads on the plug on the back corroded.
Do you need a safe room? :-D
Did you purchase the new battery and solenoid because it would not crank? Rather than shotgunning replacing parts it it usually cheaper to take it to someone with knowledge of mower repairs. A no crank issue is sometimes very simple to remedy. Many times no part replacement is necessary
Start by making sure it will crank by jumping the large posts on top of the solenoid. You can do this with a screwdriver, make sure that it is out of gear and brake is on. If it cranks when jumped it means the starter, battery, battery connections, are ok and the motor is not seized up. If it does not crank start by checking the battery connections to make sure they are clean. Check engine to see if it turns, using palm of hand on the screen on top of single cylinder motors. If it does crank then there are many things it could be. Make sure the blades are not engaged, a safety switch will prevent it from cranking if they are. Make sure you are sitting on the seat. If not the safety switch under the seat will not allow the mower to crank. Did you leave the mower out in the elements over the winter? If so it is common for the the ignition switch to be bad, moisture ruins them. Good luck at getting it going, hope it is something simple.
I always had problems with kill switches on riding mowers. There was one under the seat that shut the mower off if you got off while it was running. Check that. Make sure the blade is not engaged,up or down etc....
I live in Florida, stop mowing in November, start again in April.
I have a ten-year-old Black & Decker Lawn Hog, and a hundred-foot extension cord. In the fall, I slip the handle out of its insert in the platform, hang the mower base up by its back wheels on the wall, and put the handle on a hook by the base..
In the spring I take it down, insert the handle back into the base, plug in the cord, and - Voila! - instant start.
Just be careful not to mow over the cord.
Maintenance - replaced the blade once, replaced the on-off switch, replaced the wheels (hubs on those plastic wheels wore out). Oh, and replaced two cords.
Cost of oil changes - zero.
Cost of gasoline - zero.
I got a push mower, then found I don’t have the stamina for that anymore. Not wanting the headaches of maintaining a gasoline powered mower or hauling around electrical cord while mowing, I opted for lithium ion battery power ... a cordless electric mower.
Amazingly quiet and light weight, the mower doesn’t have the torque of a motorized unit, but excels in everything else. I think I’ll stay with it.
I have tall fescue out front but the back is a mix of Bermuda and fecus and St Augustine plus various weeds.
Be sure your blades are not engaged and be sure your parking brake is on..
Big bird population in your area?
I actually use less energy than most Greenie hypocrites. And I wash my own car.
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