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

[billb]

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

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.

[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...

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?