Another OT...sorry guys...gotta share

[billb]

So I'm mowing the lawn last night, grass must be 8" high or so due to all the tropical rain we've seen lately here in North Carolina. I shut off the mower to empty the bag. I go to pull start after emptying the bag, and it starts, but suddenly it sounds as if a valve has let go, or the conrod bearings are gone. Shut it back off. Checked the oil-clean as a pin, just changed a couple of weeks ago. Plug looks fine. Start it up again, and it's running much worse. Shut it off. Try to start again, and it snaps the starter rope out of my hand. Weird. Almost like it's out of time...then it wouldn't start at all. Back inside, start looking at prices of new self-propelled mowers, way too expensive...decide to look at things again.

Pull the head, it's all carboned up, but the valves are working properly, and the piston appears firmly connected to the crank. Put it all back together, and still no go. Decide to dig deeper later in the evening (after a Bud Light)...looks like the flywheel key sheared after 10 years, and it was advancing the timing slightly with each pull, eventually getting it too far advanced.

Picking up new key and head gasket this afternoon, will keep my fingers crossed. Really don't need to drop $400 on a new mower right now...

Wifey's away with the toddler, and when I told her that the mower quit, and that I was looking at a new one, she said "I thought you said you wanted to open a mower repair shop someday."

Incentive enough.

[632 Regal]

unusual for it to snap the key, hit some huge ass rock or something? Cool you saved a ton of cash there :D

[billb]

unusual for it to snap the key, hit some huge ass rock or something? Cool you saved a ton of cash there :D

It's probably just from 10 years of yanking on the starter drive. I'll know this afternoon. Haven't hit anything that I can think of, but I got it used from a neighbor who was throwing it away...5 years ago.

:D

[mikey535im]

Depending on your situation Bill , that might not be a bad idea (Lawnmower repair). Nothing like working out of your own home or garage.
Our local Lawn mower repair guy does very well for himself financially, he has locked up business with most of the neighboring and surrounding Landscaping Company's , and also the repairs on the vacuum machines that are used in Commercial carpet cleaning vans/trucks.
Mike

[winfred]

jeez don't do that, check out the lowes and sears in the area for bring back new mowers, got my 19 horse craftsman $900 off retail because it was dirty from being used a couple times, and got a 6.5 horse troybuilt self propelled pusher for $150 from lowes once again used a couple times


Really don't need to drop $400 on a new mower right now

[Bill R.]

.

[billb]

put it all back together, pull-started, and it knocked and rattled for about 10 seconds. Shut it down, checked the oil again. Good. Started again on low speed, seemed to quieten down and smooth out. Quietened down nicely, ran up to high speed, no knocking or rattling. Shut it off, went to start it again, started knocking, then started laboring to run. Checked key again, sheared again. This time, I may not have torqued the flywheel nut down hard enough, but I'm suspect. I'm going to try a new blade (this one's been on there a while and is pretty beat up), per Jeff's comment of "hit a rock?". I haven't hit one recently, but that's not to say I never have... :p

Starting with simple stuff, before I try to disassemble the motor. It's got a drive pulley on the bottom of the crankshaft that looks to be a b!tch to get off...

[ryan roopnarine]

haw haw haw, threw a rod/bearing. if you had a history of using the world's $hittiest lawnmowers like me, you'd be intimately familiar with jury rigging the flywheel/starting apparatus and sudden apparent engine "seizure". then again, most people wouldn't do hyundai excel repairs to a bmw either. i have my eye on a poulan self propelled that i've borrowed, its a sexy, sexy bitch. 6hp, and uses less gas in self propelled than most mowers use in manual. then again, its not like i have a lawn to mow, so id have to buy it for my mother or such.

[632 Regal]

i had a 3 horse tecumseh on a minibike that did 65 mph, had a lot of little toys and never saw the key get chopped unless something catastrophic happened such as the ol rock trick.

I have a couple comments for you here,

when you have the flywheel off check the inside, the magnets and such. make sure they dont look like they were hammered and clean it up real good to prevent tracking and misfire. then check out the coil pickup assembly, these are somewhat adjustable and could have "adjusted" itself to an advance position.

if this happens again after you Tighten the flywheel back up I would suspect the tapered hole in the aluminum (?) flywheel is out of round and not conforming to the crankshafe and being a press fit as designed.

the last thing I can say is since i have no clue what mower and crap you got im going to say if this is one of them mowers that shut down very fast when you let go of some safety device that you disconnect that safety deal. My dad had one like that and in using it one season it basicly beat the **** out of the piston lands cause the way it works is it redirects the spark to the compression stroke in an effort to stop its rotation in a second...complete crap. If that is hooked up maybe it is messing up and causing the problems?

[winfred]

oh nice, sorta like a cordless drill


My dad had one like that and in using it one season it basicly beat the **** out of the piston lands cause the way it works is it redirects the spark to the compression stroke in an effort to stop its rotation in a second...complete crap. If that is hooked up maybe it is messing up and causing the problems?

[George M]

sheering a flywheel key on a lawnmower and several mini bikes I used to build is common. First job I ever got in college was working for a machine shop owner after I fixed his kid's minibike with 5 hp Briggs with the same issue....you get spark but out of time. I used to buy used lawnmower engines when I was a little kid to build go karts and minibikes that only thing was wrong with them was a sheered key. Lawnmower shops would sometimes replace the whole engine because of that...things haven't changed much....and I would go there and buy them for a few dollars.

[JR'Z 525]

MORE POWERRRR!!!
Man I hate to work on lawn mowers for some reason. I've got 3 Snapper riding mowers(2 are 1960's vintage) and 1 low mileage push mower. Seems there is always one needing something....
John R

[Elekta]

great thing about sears is they have a drop off repair shop in most cities. They've rebuilt my 5.0 about 3 times in 7 years. largest repair was $90, and it was damned near new again...pull string, blade, carb etc.

They've also rebuilt my 18 yr old kenmore W&D a couple times too. New dryer belt, new hot water valves for the washer.

go sears

[billb]

haw haw haw, threw a rod/bearing.

Pulled it all down tonight, it's all bushing surfaces, no bearings to speak of. Very cheaply built motor. The only thing I saw of interest is one of the valve tappets is showing a stress fracture circle around the stem. The valves looked good, the rod "bearing" is fine, crank looks okay. I think I just didn't tighten the flywheel nut enough when replacing it the first time, as Isince read it's supposed to be 65 ft-lbs and I just went "pretty snug".

Gasket set, some o-rings, new tappet, and a new blade, and we'll see what we get. Oh, and a new pulley for the belt drive...had to Dremel the old one off...

Thanks for indulging me this outlet of frustration.

[Jeff N.]

Pour a bunch of Marvel Mystery Oil in it - it'll be fine.

[tim s]

easy to start & runs perfectly.
tim s.

[ryan roopnarine]

i've always found the laserprinter and electronics series of faqs by this guy to be useful, perhaps this will be of some use to you

http://repairfaq.ece.drexel.edu/sam/lmfaq.htm

[Rigmaster]

Picking up new key and head gasket this afternoon, will keep my fingers crossed. Really don't need to drop $400 on a new mower right now...



C'mon Bill, I know you well enough to know that you are too cheap to fork out $400 for a new push mower :)

They still sell your basic no-frills pushmower for ~$120-130, maybe even less if you catch one on sale, or a season end clearance. Hell, I saw an ad for one today that had a rear bagger attachment for $159!

Barring that, you could find a used motor for a good price I'm sure- try some of the lawn mower repair shops around- they always seem to have a pile or two of dead mowers out back. There's a guy right near me that has a bunch of mowers neatly lined up next to the shop- and then he has the "junk pile" out back- all manner of small engine equipped machinery!!
(but sadly, No go-carts or minibikes- that's what I've been looking for!!)


Bret.

[billb]

C'mon Bill, I know you well enough to know that you are too cheap to fork out $400 for a new push mower :)


Trying to spend the least amount on a "free" mower I possibly can. Surprisingly simple motors, no bearings, very few moving parts.

And maybe by the spring driver's school, I'll have the A/C working in the E30...

:p

[billb]

lying in bed watching TV last night, and notice that when the upstairs A/C shuts down (airhandler is in 3rd floor attic, above our bedroom), I hear about 10 seconds of grumbling from the blower. Trudge upstairs with various nutdrivers, and begin tearing stuff out.

Side note: I may have found my calling-I was actually enjoying working on the A/C unit...

Anyway, it appears the bottom bearing/sleeve in the motor has failed, allowing the motor shaft/armature to slip down. The end of the armature has raised legs, and when the motor spools down slow enough, they are hitting the endplate on the motor. Gotta be inefficient as well.

First HVAC guy quotes $225 for the motor. Grainger can't quite match the motor. GE says they can't sell one since it's a Carrier part (even though it says GE all over it). Call the good ol' boys at Newcomb here in Raleigh, and they have the OEM for $158, or a general purpose that they'll stand behind for $115.

Guess I've really got to make the mower work now...no budget for a new one anymore. I test-fire it today (was too late last night when I got it all back together).

sighs

Even so, these matters are trivial compared to what's about to hit FL. Stay safe folks!

[632 Regal]

I do printing for them and they closed their service centers or at least job it all out. The days of inexpensive repirs to save face are long gone up here in Michigan for sure.

[Bill R.]

johnstone supply's site. (http://www.johnstonesupply.com/main/StoreLocations.asp) They are much much more reasonable than graingers. I pick up most of my hvac stuff here.. and repair parts for washers ,driers,dishwashers etc are much cheaper than just about anybody else... You have to have a company name though to purchase from them. You can usually figure a way around this if you don't have one.












lying in bed watching TV last night, and notice that when the upstairs A/C shuts down (airhandler is in 3rd floor attic, above our bedroom), I hear about 10 seconds of grumbling from the blower. Trudge upstairs with various nutdrivers, and begin tearing stuff out.

Side note: I may have found my calling-I was actually enjoying working on the A/C unit...

Anyway, it appears the bottom bearing/sleeve in the motor has failed, allowing the motor shaft/armature to slip down. The end of the armature has raised legs, and when the motor spools down slow enough, they are hitting the endplate on the motor. Gotta be inefficient as well.

First HVAC guy quotes $225 for the motor. Grainger can't quite match the motor. GE says they can't sell one since it's a Carrier part (even though it says GE all over it). Call the good ol' boys at Newcomb here in Raleigh, and they have the OEM for $158, or a general purpose that they'll stand behind for $115.

Guess I've really got to make the mower work now...no budget for a new one anymore. I test-fire it today (was too late last night when I got it all back together).

sighs

Even so, these matters are trivial compared to what's about to hit FL. Stay safe folks!

[ryan roopnarine]

heh....i can't imagine doing that as an occupation anywhere that REALLY relies on their ac for most of the year....when an evaporator drain leaks on a top floor unit and starts f'ing with the drywall on the floors below, that's always fun....even funner is when the leak up top seems to manifest itself as a localised leaking unit downstairs. r-22 seems to have a fill lifetime of about 6-9 months in florida, then some poor clown has to come fill it up and hope that fixes things. my mother's 4.5 year old taurus has already started to leak r134 (thankfully it aint 12 like helga is).


lying
Side note: I may have found my calling-I was actually enjoying working on the A/C unit...

Even so, these matters are trivial compared to what's about to hit FL. Stay safe folks!

[billb]

and A/C retrofit was a breeze...heh heh.

Now I get to play all day tomorrow...first State game of the season (against Richmond Spiders no less).

Have a safe and happy holiday!