Lawn Mower trouble - please help

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Paul
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Re: Lawn Mower trouble - please help

Post by Paul » June 16th, 2017, 11:22 am

Green,

It's obvious from all your post, you really like your yard and put a allot of time and effort into it. So, with all these lawn mower issues, I'm just curious why you just don't bring it somewhere to get fixed? It could be something serious that's not worth fixing and it might be time to buy a new mower.

Green
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Re: Lawn Mower trouble - please help

Post by Green » June 16th, 2017, 5:08 pm

Paul,

Thanks. But the mower is a cheap one, and fixing it wouldn't make economic sense. I'm still trying to figure out if this one is going to improve enough from what I've done so far, or if I'm going to need to get a new mower. It's not obvious yet.

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Re: Lawn Mower trouble - please help

Post by ericgautier » June 16th, 2017, 9:15 pm

Did you clean out the "orifice in the bowl nut"?

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Re: Lawn Mower trouble - please help

Post by Green » June 16th, 2017, 9:36 pm

ericgautier wrote:
June 16th, 2017, 9:15 pm
Did you clean out the "orifice in the bowl nut"?
No, but if that proves to be important to do, I'll reread the posts on it. I guess it's a pretty easy part of the mower to work on.

Green
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Re: Lawn Mower trouble - please help

Post by Green » June 18th, 2017, 9:39 pm

Used it today. Same exact behavior as the last time (which, while improved from a week ago, is still not quite normal).

Still barely starts. But I swear that after 5-10 min running, the rpm was close to normal today. On subsequent starts, it performed ok (I started it about 6-7 times today, and only the first was iffy). Had blue-white smoke once or twice, such as on the last shut-down. Maybe the smoke was a bit less blue and more white today.

Also, I still hear some jumpiness while running. It always did that. It's similar to the sound of a coffee percolator. It's subtle. I'd guess it's the spark plug gap still not being quite right...?


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ericgautier
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Re: Lawn Mower trouble - please help

Post by ericgautier » June 19th, 2017, 9:07 am

Green wrote:
June 16th, 2017, 9:36 pm
ericgautier wrote:
June 16th, 2017, 9:15 pm
Did you clean out the "orifice in the bowl nut"?
No, but if that proves to be important to do, I'll reread the posts on it. I guess it's a pretty easy part of the mower to work on.
Did you do this? :confused:

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Re: Lawn Mower trouble - please help

Post by Green » June 19th, 2017, 3:07 pm

Not yet!

superkaz661
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Re: Lawn Mower trouble - please help

Post by superkaz661 » June 20th, 2017, 10:53 am

Its the carb. Its ALWAYS the carb. (Well not always always, but more often than not.) Replacement aftermarket carbs are extremely cheap on ebay. Much easier to pick up a new one than fuss with cleaning the old. On all my gas power equipment, I install a 90* fuel shut off, and then an inline filter. Also, Id recommend to run as high an octane as you can get at the pump, with some stabil 360 mixed in to counter the ethanol.

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Cyrus
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Re: Lawn Mower trouble - please help

Post by Cyrus » July 13th, 2017, 7:43 am

superkaz661 wrote:
June 20th, 2017, 10:53 am
Its the carb. Its ALWAYS the carb. (Well not always always, but more often than not.) Replacement aftermarket carbs are extremely cheap on ebay. Much easier to pick up a new one than fuss with cleaning the old.
Superkaz - That's exactly what I did with my two 22" Toro self-pace over the winter. They run perfectly again now.
Green - I had a Craftsman when I first moved into my house in 2008. It was ok for me but I was a novice then and didn't know any better. I now know better and you always get what you pay for. I highly recommend getting a Toro, even if it is a Home Depot version. I live in CT also and would be happy to help you should you want to buy the carb for the craftsman and replace it. Otherwise, if you buy the Toro 22" Self-pace I can always help you out easily with any issue.

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ericgautier
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Re: Lawn Mower trouble - please help

Post by ericgautier » July 17th, 2017, 7:22 am

Green wrote:
June 19th, 2017, 3:07 pm
Not yet!
Curious what the verdict is? Did you fix it? Or did you get a new lawn mower? :confused:

Green
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Re: Lawn Mower trouble - please help

Post by Green » July 17th, 2017, 9:14 pm

Well, Eric...it's improved enough to be usable. Still somewhat poor starting, but after 5-10 min seems to run ok in general. Still putting some carb cleaner into the gas tank at each fill (planning to do so until the container runs out, which will be soon). Have not disassembled anything at this point. Still have a puff of slightly bluish smoke almost every time at shut-down.

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ericgautier
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Re: Lawn Mower trouble - please help

Post by ericgautier » July 20th, 2017, 9:57 am

Green wrote:
July 17th, 2017, 9:14 pm
Well, Eric...it's improved enough to be usable.
Did you clean out the "orifice in the bowl nut"?

Green
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Re: Lawn Mower trouble - please help

Post by Green » July 20th, 2017, 12:04 pm

As mentioned, I haven't taken anything apart yet...

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Cyrus
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Re: Lawn Mower trouble - please help

Post by Cyrus » July 24th, 2017, 2:47 pm

ericgautier wrote:
July 20th, 2017, 9:57 am
Green wrote:
July 17th, 2017, 9:14 pm
Well, Eric...it's improved enough to be usable.
Did you clean out the "orifice in the bowl nut"?
I bet cleaning out the bowl nut will fix the problem . . .

Green
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Re: Lawn Mower trouble - please help

Post by Green » November 25th, 2017, 7:06 pm

Update: Ended up having the thing professionally serviced. The guy took out the carburetor, took it somewhat apart, soaked the parts in a cleaning solution for two days, and replaced the float needle (actually, the plastic part inside it, I believe) with a new one, because the old one had gotten warped so the gas flow was being blocked. It was getting to the point where it would hardly start, and wasn't running right even after warming up fully. The problem started very slowly about 1.5+ years ago.

It runs flawlessly now. Sounds really good and mulches properly now. And I'm glad that I didn't get a new mower, because the engines in the newer ones aren't as powerful unless you get a $600 or up mower (Honda HRX or Toro Super Recycler). This was a 190cc engine, and the mower was from Spring 2014. The current models are mostly using 160cc now.

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Re: Lawn Mower trouble - please help

Post by Marinegrunt » November 26th, 2017, 10:50 am

Good to hear it's all fixed up Green. If it's not too big of an inconvinience see if you can find ethanol free gas to run in it. Less of a chance of the carb gumming up over time. If you go to pure-gas.org you can enter your zip to find a station who has it. Once I switched over to using ethanol free in all of my small engine equipment I've had a lot less
carb issues and especially in my chain saws, trimmers, etc.

Just for future reference; If you ever suspect a carb issue you can usually find an aftermarket carb for around $20 or so. It's easier than having to mess.with cleaning it. Obviously, they aren't oem but I've had good luck with them. Some have had even less issues than the oem carbs I previously had on them.

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ken-n-nancy
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Re: Lawn Mower trouble - please help

Post by ken-n-nancy » November 26th, 2017, 11:36 am

Glad to hear that you were able to get your lawn mower fixed! Personally, I think keeping older equipment running, especially for simple things like a carburetor cleaning / repair is an environmentally-preferable solution to treating small engine equipment as "disposable" like so many people do nowadays.

That said, our mower is just about on its last legs - it was definitely built in the prior century and is starting to have issues that are less easily repaired.

In any case, congrats on the successful repair!

Green
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Re: Lawn Mower trouble - please help

Post by Green » November 30th, 2017, 11:30 pm

Thanks for the suggestions, and good luck to those of you who posted above.

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