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lawnmower repair

Posted by mitchell under Lawn Mower Repair



Some summer small engine checks and lawnmower repair you need to perform on your briggs, kohler,honda,or any 3 to 22 hp is the oil needs to be changed, if you havent already, since these engines are air cooled, the oil will get thin so to speak in the summer heat.Since small engines are air cooled mainly from the flywheel fins and being funneled around engine with various engine shrouds, the fins on the cylinder as well as the shrouds need to be cleaned,since dirt and dust and sometimes grass clippings will accumulate.Also if your small engine is powering a mower deck, check the blades for sharpness, replace or sharpen, it will reduce some of the load on your engine, plus give you a better cutt for your lawn.Keep an eye on your air cleaner, by now in the middle of summer, it will have picked up quite a bit of dust.Clean or replace as needed.It really would not hurt to change spark plugs in the middle of summer, since heat will affect most spark plugs to a degree, and small engines being air cooled, spark plugs catch a lot of heat through the summer months.Any batteries that start your small engine, probably need little maintenance since most today are maintenance free in regards to adding water or electrolyte.Good maintenance regarding your oil,spark plug, air filter and the components your small engine is powering in the middle of summerwill let you make it through the rest of the summer months.

Published on Wednesday 8th of February 2012 02:30:54 PM More related articles below
  • briggs and stratton
  • Todays small briggs an stranton engines have a pull rope mechanism a lot simpler than the old style engines of yesteryear.Flywheel cap must be removed before attempting to install new rope,usually there are from four to five bolts holding it on,usually three eights in size.Once you have cap off you will see the inside recoil disc,that is mounted with a bolt in the center which you will not have to take loose,if you try to spin the recoil disc around you will see either two plastic or metal starter pawls or dogs as most people refer to them.Sometimes they will break,causing you to replace them.They fly out and catch the starter cup on the flywheel, thus spinning the engine.To replace starter rope you will have to spin disc in a counterclockwise fashion all the way, until it feels tightly wound making sure you align the hole in the disc with the hole in the flywheel cap.You will have to hold disc in this fashion without it unwinding.I usually use a pair of vice grips or any means to wedge disc to keep it wound up while installing the pullrope,since you will need both hands free for this.Try to size the length of your new rope with whats left of the old before you install.With everything line up,disc wound up,feed new rope through hole in flywheel cover and intostarter disc hole.You may need to burn end of rope with a lighter to get rid of any frazzles that hinder this proccess,if flywheel cover hole and starter disc hole are aligned it should be simple enough.Once rope is through starter disc hole,tie a good knot and pull from outside flywheel cover,release the vice grips or wedge,letting disc unwind,thus winding rope up,before you do this its a good idea to have your rubber handle installed on opposite end of rope,to keep rope from winding all the way in to starter disc.You can see a photo on this by going to my trouble shooting guide at http://pass.smallenginetrblshtng.com and going to contents.Older style engines, such as some of the briggs 5 hp tillers and go carts,and still some of the pushmowers are different in having a spring that must be removed and wound up before being installed, thats room for another article.
  • 4.5 briggs
  • This past summer,I ran across some interesting thingsconcerning carbs and cams in Briggs an Strattonengines.First of all a customer brought a riding mower in with a12 hp Engine the complaint was that it was running wideopen whenever it was fired up.I immediately checked allof the linkages going to the carb,governor linkages andso forth.They checked out fineand if I had not seen this before, I would have beenstumped.What had happened and apparently was a defect thatBriggs was having on some of these engines.Thescrews that hold the butterfly in the carburetor in placehad vibrated out and were sucked into the engine,passed the valves, into the head and either they willimbede themselves into the soft aluminum head orpiston, or pass out the exhaust side.AT either rate theengine runs wide open because the butterfly cannotcontrol the gas flow .I had one that had sucked thebutterfly into the manifold,   intake manifold.I have sawthis happen to several 12 and 14 hp engines, so I know ithas to be a defect of not putting enough loctite on thebutterfly screwsSecondly, a customer brought a 15 hp intek, Briggs anstratton in.The symptoms were,it would fire up and runon idle, but would not idle up.I checked the carb, andimmediately after finding it to be o.k. Proceeded toadjust the valves,being a overhead valve engine. Thatdone, the symptoms were no better.What washappening was the intake valve was letting fuel in, butthe exhaust valve was not staying open long enough tolet exhaust out,so Iput exhaust valve way out oftolerances to see what would happen, nochange.Immediately the possibility of a bad cam cameinto mind,but the engine was no more than two yearsold, then I saw made or assembled in Mexico on theflywheel cap.I pulled the engine, disassembled thebottom crankcase, pulled the cam and wala, one of thelobes was almost completely gone.The exhaust lobe tobe exact. I did this to two 15 hp inteks last season,soapparently there is a defect in some of the cams in thenewer engines,possibly its been solved by now.Also didthis on a 17 hp engine.Note; the replacement cams wereof much better quality.Hope these snippets of info will help you,if you runacross these type of things in the future.

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