Lawnmowing season is almost here. My neighbor and I have an unspoken agreement… she mows our big grass strip on her riding mower, I get the culvert with my gas push mower. She was out yesterday and did her part. I need to ready my arsenal for the year, so I can live up to my end.
6 years ago we bought a standard issue Toro self-propelled mower. It’s a 22″ with a 6.5HP motor. Every spring I have taken it to the seller (rental/saw/mower shop) for spring service and it has usually run fine thru the year. Last year was an unspeakable disaster. It ran the first few times. Then it started sputtering so I took it in. He accused me of using old gas in it. Not true, I am a numbskull but I know that much, I run the old gas in my truck and refill the mower can fresh every spring. It went from bad to worse and I spent too much time and money trying to keep the mower operating thru the season. They ain’t gettin’ no more of my money for mower-related anything. Ever.
So, here I am, an able carpenter but a clueless gas engine technician. I suspect there is a short list of fairly easy tasks I should master to keep the mower going. I know they clean the carb, maybe adjust it, change the oil, change the plug, sharpen the blade, and maybe a little more. Anyone here willing to run a rookie thru a detailed-enough description of what to do? I have plenty of tools, a good shop space (didn’t have that last year), and an utter determination not to give the repair guy another nickel. I can buy Senco fasteners there for good prices… that’s all the business we’re doing in the future.
Replies
It's really simple actually.
About every other year I do it.
Step 1. Go to Home Depot, Lowes, Sears or your own favorite retailer.
Step 2. Buy new Mower
Step 3. Load in truck
Step 4. Unload in Driveway
Step 5. Unbox and assemble.
But all kidding aside......I use Clymer manuals for my motorcycles......if they have something similar for Lawn Mowers? Best $15 you'll ever spend.
I used it the first time I pulled apart a ball and ramp power valve and everything turned out just fine......Nice pictures and clear instructions.
Dave,
All I can add is the tip from the small engine guy at the John Deere dealership where I worked in Sales, years ago. As you say, part of the service is the carburetor cleaning, mainly just clearing the bowl, which catches any water plus trash. When he took down a carb and found it crappy, he'd call the owner and tell him to bring his gas can by the shop.
More often than not, he'd toss the old, crappy, rusty gas can into the dumpster while the owner was there, and he'd tell them to go up front and buy a new can !
New plug, new blade, oil change, clean air filter, and clean the carb bowl, and I'm set.
Greg
Edited 3/22/2009 5:50 pm ET by GregGibson
I don't know where you live David but if there is an autoparts store nearby, drop in and buy a few small containers of gasline antifreeze. These are about 2-3 fl oz's each. Pour one into the mower gas tank before you fill it with gas. Let it sit for 10-15 mins and then fill the gas tank full. Let this sit for a few mins. Then tip the mower back to prime it. Then start the mower.
Gasline antifreeze allows the moisture in the gas tank to be mixed and burned with the gas. If you flood the spark plug, wipe it dry and try again without tilting the mower.
It sounds like carb problems. Or fuel deliver, or air leakage.
What is the Brand and series of the engine. And if it is a B&S does it have a primer bulb on it?
William the Geezer, the sequel to Billy the Kid - Shoe
Your maintenance should have been done in the fall before you put it away. Modern gasoline breaks down fairly fast, leaving deposits and varnish that can clog your carburetor. Typically a gas additive is used and the tank filled. Some prefer to drain all the fuel and empty the carb. The oil should also be changed since it will contain combustion by products and other junk that can harm the engine. A fogger is squirted in the spark plug hole to prevent the cylinder walls and pistons from rusting.
Gunk can also form inside your gas can. It only takes a pin head drop of varnish to clog your fuel line and the mower will run ragged and quit. There is also an air hole in the gas cap that needs to be able to breathe. If you have the owners manual, it will tell you the procedure for storage and spring tune up. In addition to the oil and gas, there are a number of places that need lubrication. Air cleaners need replacement. Keeping grass accumulations cleaned up will help prevent the deck from corroding.
9 out of 10 times, the problem is junk in the gas, unless someone has messed with the carb and the seals aren't fitting correctly. The gas lines are pretty small, you have to be fastidious about getting the tank and lines clean, the slightest little flake of debris will clog things.
Beat it to fit / Paint it to match
Ok, whats the easiest way to prime a primer bulb? I had that problem on something ( I forget which machine, but I'll know when I try to use it).Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations
They kill Prophets, for Profits.
Sounds to me just like water in the gas or the carb bowl.
If you left it outside at all it's a no brainer.
Bowl is easy and intuitive to remove and check for water.
Someone else mentioned drygas.
I've got 32 small engine machines to keep running. It takes a few weekends in the fall to go through the ritual, but here's what I do and they start and run perfectly the next spring.
Run the engine and change the oil if it's a 4 cycle engine.
Drain a little gas out of the fuel tank. This will get rid of any water that was in the bottom of the tank.
Drain the bowl on the carb.
Fill the tank and add the appropriate amount of Stabil fuel stabilizer. It is great stuff!
Remove the plug and fog the combustion chamber. You can get the stuff in a spray can at almost any automotive store. If you don't have any, squirt a little oil in there and rotate the engine a few times to distribute it.
Sandblast the plug or replace it with a new one. If the engine was running OK in the fall, it should start with a couple of pulls in the spring......unless you are unfortunate enough to own a Briggs.....then all bets are off!
Oh, and if the engine is a filthy mess.....get the power washer out and clean it up before you do anything.
And never use a metal gas can!
Edited 3/22/2009 8:10 pm ET by BoJangles
Edited 3/22/2009 8:11 pm ET by BoJangles
If the gas is old and the engine has trouble starting or runs rough, I use a small amount of carb cleaner in the gas tank. Then it starts right up.
David,
Stabil and injector cleaner in the new gas.
New plug and air filter.
Change oil to synthetic.
Set carb by on hot engine by turning screw in until engine stumbles then back out until engine revs.
Check valve lash, Hope it's not a Briggs!
My Briggs 9 hp started on first pull last week. Took 2 pulls on my 13 hp Honda.
KK
what exactly is it doing now? I am kinda handy with small engines but on a forum figuring out the kinks is a bit tough.
My dad knew this stuff very well. his dad and he had a lawnmower & bicycle repair shop back in the 60's
I refuse to accept that there are limitations to what we can accomplish. Pete Draganic
Take life as a test and shoot for a better score each day. Matt Garcia
An idea from my automotive days...
Pour ATF down the spark plug holes while in storage. Fill the engine and the cylinder head - everything full of ATF.
When you bring it back into service, drain all the old fluid out again and add regular oil again. Start it up and run it until it stops smoking. Replace the motor oil again and you are good to go. It's supposed to really clean out deposits off valves and such.
Tu stultus es
Rebuilding my home in Cypress, CA
Also a CRX fanatic!
Look, just send me to my drawer. This whole talking-to-you thing is like double punishment.
Your engine needs three things to run: compression, spark at the right time and the correct fuel/air mixture. Of the three, the fuel/air is the most common after sitting over the winter.
Easy way to troubleshoot for fuel is unscrew the spark plug, dribble/squirt a small spoonful of gas in the hole, screw the spark plug back in and try to start. If it runs for a couple of seconds, it is a fueling problem. Hint, do not leave the mower tipped for very long or oil may leak into places it shouldn't.
To troubleshoot for spark, unscrew the spark plug, attach the wire, lay the plug base against the engine block somewhere, and pull the starter cord. If there is a good blue spark, it is not a spark issue. Note: be sure there is no raw gas around as the spark may catch it on fire.
As for regular service, keep the engine and mower clean, change the oil, clean the air filter (and re-oil if it is foam), sharpen and balance the blade.
In the fall drain the gas out of the tank and run the engine till it dies. Try to restart it a couple of times to make sure all the gas is out. Change the oil. Squirt a couple of spoonfuls of motor oil in the spark plug hole and spin the engine around to distribute the oil on the cylinder walls.
Let me know if you have more specific questions and I'll see if I can help.
David's original comment ... Then it started sputtering .... leads me to believe your observation " spark at the right time " is the correct diagnosis.
Every one of my small mowers and rototillers and chippers with 8 HP or less engines were bought at garage sales.
By far, the most common factor that made them run poorly has not yet been mentioned!
Partially sheared woodruff key!
Pull the flywheel and see if it is still 100 % straight. If you recall hitting a stubbor clump of grass or rock last year you likely partially sheared the key.
Mower wont even start with a fully sheared key, but many dont fail completely.
Easy to replace, but you do need a flywheel puller. While you have it off, clean or replace the points. Many small mowers also have an adjusted mor position of the magneto core, follow maintenance book (as previous posters referenced) advice on that.
I really think it is far more simpler than all of that.I'd change the plug and gas first. should fix it if it ran great when put away in the fall.
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I refuse to accept that there are limitations to what we can accomplish. Pete Draganic
Take life as a test and shoot for a better score each day. Matt Garcia
simpler than all of that
Copuld be except that David said he had just gotten it back from a 'professional' tune up.
One other subtle item that is often overlooked. The valve stems on the small engines DO STRETCH over time. After only a few hundred hours of operation the valves may need to be pulled and the STEMs ground shorter.
On some engines you can just pull a small sheet metal plate off the side and check valve clearance.
good point, I forgot that.Wonder of the plug was changed. Maybe rust on the flywheel or coil changing the gap at the magneto.Bad wire to plug, shorting?So many options to guess at over the internet.Sometimes "Service" isn't much of anything other than to make you fell like you've gotten a valuable thing that you couldn't do yourself. They may not have done anything at all.Hard to believe that a lawnmower repair shop performing service could not have figured out the real problem immediately.
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I refuse to accept that there are limitations to what we can accomplish. Pete Draganic
Take life as a test and shoot for a better score each day. Matt Garcia
Thanks for all of the replies. Just to clarify, the rough running early last year was attributed by the mechanic to the gas, and refuted by me. He obviously has the upper hand in terms of technical knowledge and all I have is a desire to defend my reputation as a conscientious caretaker of equipment.
I will take the steps outlined here. Sounds like it needs completely drained and cleaned, then refilled and tested. I use a 1 gallon plastic can for the mower gas now, enough for a month or less of use, so there is no rust and no way to let gas sit for long.
What do you guys to for balancing the blade?
If it hasn't been sharpened a lot, and you have not hit anything that really whacked it, balance is not an issue.
But there is a cone like device you put the blade on, and if it leans, gring more off the heavy side.
I just buy new blades as needed, I have a lot of rocks, and the newer blades ain't like they used to be, they just bend like a pretzel.
for sharpening, I kiss em with an angle grinder following the old bevel, then a light touch on the back side, for a slight back bevel, it beefens the edge VS getting too sharp and dulling faster.Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations
They kill Prophets, for Profits.
Angle grinder question
Hi,
I'm thinking of purchasing an angle grinder for sharpening my blades. Is there a particular grit that should be used with a lawnmower blade? I'm thinking of buying cheap with Ryobi and using it only for sharpening my lawnmower blades.
Regards,
Bob
My next door 85 YO neighbor retired as director of Maintenance for the King County shops.
He has some good equipment (3 gang toro mowing, small loader backhoe, dump truck, etc) he bought at auction from the county as he knew the exact history and he had access to all maintenance records (even those that were not inthe auction file) thru acquantenances at the county.
Anyway, you probably do NOT want to do (or try?) what he does to his mower blades (he mows 3 acres of his own and about a 1/2 acre of mine (otherwise he knows I'm so 'green' I'd let if go wild<G>)
So, what he does is put the cutting edge in water, welds a fan blade type shape onto the back of the blade. That obviousl could put it seriously out of balance.
10D nail in vise. The blades he has are the ones with an oval notch in the sides for keying so it makes setting the blade on center on the nail pretty easy. Then he simply grinds off the fan blades to balance. Same technique for sharpening.
Probably would work well on regular blades also on a smaller nail.
I'm so lazy I dont even take blades off to sharpen, just use an angle grinder with a hose over the blade for coolant. If it shakes after sharpening when started, grind a little off one side (1/8" deep notch in the end). If is then shakes more, grind about 2X that amount off other side in a rounded notch on the other end. If it still shakes, then alternate notch depth by factors of 1-1/2, 1-1/4 etc till no shaking or as fine a balance as you want.
David,
I use the cone-shaped balancer Sphere mentioned. Either an angle grinder or bench grinder will work. I'm wondering if your gas may have gotten water in it. All it takes is a couple of drops to make it run erratically. Junkhound also had a good point about the flywheel key being partially sheared.
If you can't figure it out, or need any special tools, and want to bring it to Anacortes, I'd be happy to help. I worked for a number of years as a small engine mechanic.
Holy smokes, someone from around here!
I am going to give it a go this week. If it gets ugly I will let you know.
I am inclined to agree with your belief that you might have been fed some BS about dirty fuel. I had a mower still under warranty that would not start one spring and felt that the service tech had misled me. After that I bought a small engine service book and talked to a neighbor who picks up "broken" mowers and repairs and resells them. He says a big problem is moisture in the tank from condensation and a varnish like build up when gas evaporates.
Other problem is the primer bulb developes tiny cracks and then does not work correctly, which can be overcome by a new primer bulb or simply filling the tank full(not overfull) before starting and tilting the mower back which will also prime the motor.
The big thing according to my neighbor is gas line antifreeze to get rid of moisture regularly and gas treatment before storing the the mower over winter. It's best to empty the gas tank in the fall after gas treatment and change the oil annually because condensation builds there as well.
All of the suggestions posted are excellent and will help keep your relationship with your mower long and healthy.
Ed
Just a quick note to state that benign indifference worked again as well. Put the charger on the mower that set outside all winter, no stabil no running the gas out just parked it last fall. had to pull the plug and use a wire brush on it but it started up. Didn't have any oil handy so I added a little tranny fluid. smokes a little bit more that way but I added oil on the second cutting.
Was a little disappointed in the $69 Ryobi weed wacker that I hung up last fall with gas in it. I had trouble starting it and had to pull its plug for the first time and clean it. Put it back in and it still wouldn't start so then I had to pull the foam air filter out and wash it for the 1st time in 15 years. Still wouldn't start so I broke down and replaced the 15 year old spark plug. It runs fine now. Don't clean it. Don't mess with. Just don't abuse it. Benign indifference.
I'm not much a mechanic but there are tons of youtube videos that will take you thru the repair of just about any small engine.
I'm rebuilding my chainsaw carb soon as the parts come in. Wish me luck.
I know from my own experience that its important to change engine oil, sparkplug, and blade at least once every ten years.
Family.....They're always there when they need you.
This probably won't help but I subscribe to a strict regimine of benign neglect and it works. I don't change oil just add more. I don't change plugs although I will occasionally pull on and sand/wire brush it. I don't run the gas out or drain it or use stabil i just park it and wait till next year.
I'll hit the thing with the charger or maybe buy a new battery and every couple of years I might clean the air filter. Starts and runs fine. I suspect that good deal of the problems people have result from people fiddling with stuff and dislodging beneficial crude which ends up destroying something. My mower is a 1981 Deere (thats 28 years) and its runs 4+ hours every week. I finally blew the original motor at 25 years and put in a used one which is running great. Last year I finally had to replace the bearings on the deck(27 years old). I took the mounts off myself and dropped them at a machine shop and they pressed in new ones. I sorta stripped the deck with the intention of painting it nice but now its such a perty red color I think I'll just leave it. Never clean the deck unless it absolutely gets so clogged the motor bogs down. never go near it with water. Only thing I religiously do is add/check the oil before I ever touch the key. Its also a splash oiler which I use every week on a 30 +/- degree grade which means the oil all runs to one side or the other leaving the other side dry. The other side of the coin is I don't beat the living bejezus out of my stuff either. I don't try to cut at max speed and I cut twice rather than try to hack too tall grass in one pass. Sure I have changed parts occasionally but not much in relationship to its age.
My $69 Ryobi string trimmer is now 15 years old. Never been serviced. never drain the gas. Never even had a new plug. worst problem i had was a lost spring on the bump head and a worn though knob/nut on the bump head. Never wash it don't clean it at all. BIL has a $300 Stihl. Has it service all the time a cleans it spotless after every use. Drains the gas and the whole bit. He usually loses it for a week or two each year and it costs him $80 bucks a throw to get it fixed.
Benign Neglect. Works for me.
One more thig to check. If you have a deadman handle with a cable that kills the spark, check it for stretching. My 6.5 HP Kawasaki on my Cub Cadet would not start no matter what I tried. I finally found that was the problem. I wedged a small stick in there to keep the cut off / ground out tang away from the spark voltage.
If it is just loose enough, it could vibrate and be shorting out the spark.Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations
They kill Prophets, for Profits.
I will add another one. Choke cable/spring rusty and sticking.
Engine might start and run till warm then acts up or hard to start and then after finally warm does OK.
Edited 3/24/2009 4:29 pm by dovetail97128
OK, I had about 3 spare minutes this weekend so I took a look at the mower. I can see that it leaks oil, looks like the crankshaft seal under the machine. How big a deal is that?
Other than that, I removed the gas tank and used the leftover gas to start a stubborn burn pile. Removed and wiped the carb bowl. Got a new plug and air filter. Took off the blade--it's the most damaged cutting tool I have ever seen, and it didn't improve much after minutes spent at the bench grinder, so I'll get a new one.
Just to throw a little more "stuff" into the game. I always add a couple ounces of carb/injector cleaner to a 5-gal. can of gas.
How much oil is it leaking? Is the crankshaft just damp, or are there drips or even a puddle under it? If it is just damp, I wouldn't worry too much about it; just keep an eye on the oil level. If you do need to replace the seal:
1. Drain the oil and gas.
2. Clean the bottom of the mower--a pressure washer works great.
3. Remove the blade, blade adapter and shear key. For the adapter, you may need a puller, but a few taps with a hammer might do the trick.
4. Use emery cloth (like plumbers use) and sand the crankshaft smooth.
5. Remove the seal. There is a tool you can buy for this, probably at an auto parts store, but a 3/16" flat blade screwdriver would be the first thing to try. Hold the screwdriver as close to perpendicular to the crankshaft as you can and stick it between the crankshaft and the rubber seal. Tap the end of the screw driver gently with a hammer outward about 1/4". Then use the screwdriver as a lever and try to pry the seal out. It may take a few tries.
Another method is with a small punch. Hold the punch parallel to the cranshaft and punch a small hole in the metal rim of the seal as close to the outside edge of the seal as possible. Screw a #6 or #8 screw into the hole and then pry outward on the screw--kinda like pulling a nail out with a hammer claw. Just don't pry so hard on the bottom of the engine that you crack the block.
6. With the seal out, clean the opening and install the new seal. Use clean motor oil to coat the crankshaft and seal prior to sliding it over the shaft. If you can find a piece of pipe the right diameter, or a deep socket to help tap the seal in that would be good. Or, you could use about a 6" piece of 3/4 x 3/4 wood and tap around the seal. The key thing is to get the new seal started evenly.
7. Put the blade back on, add gas and oil and wait for some sunny weather.
I'm not sure what your mechanical skills are, if what I wrote makes sense or not. My previous offer to help in person still stands.
I forgot to ask about what you think caused the oil seal to fail. Usually it is because something (like fishing line or bailing twine) got wrapped around the shaft. But, in a very rare case it could be caused by a bent crankshaft.
You should check this before you do much else. It may take two people. Remove the spark plug and ground the plug wire. Tip the mower on its side with the carburetor facing up. Watch the bolt that holds the blade while someone pulls the starter cord. If you can visibly see the bolt wobbling back and forth, you have bigger problems than just a seal.
You should also find out why the engine isn't running properly before you spend the time changing the lower seal. Check the compression just for grins. It needs to be at least 50 psi and should pump up to that within a couple cranks on the starter cord.
Thanks again for the input on this. Now that you mention it, there were some strands of nylon fiber wrapped around the crankshaft when I took the blade off. They are from a spot where I mowed into the exposed edge of landscape fabric that's in our orchard. I'll take the mower to the carwash tomorrow and blast the bottom of it. The amount of oil that leaked was maybe 8 oz. and it took all last year and winter to do it. Only reason I noticed was that I brought it inside recently and it dripped a few drops on my shop floor.
With that much oil, the seal will need to be replaced, but I would do it after you get it running good just to make sure there aren't any other major issues.
It's easy, but you should start in the fall. Siphon the tank mostly dry and then add some Stabil and let it run until it dies. Change the oil.
In the spring add fresh gas (with Stabil added) and start.
I have to disagree with you on this one. Stabil is a fuel stabilizer. It doesn't accomplish anything by adding that to gas and then running the gas out of the system. If you want to clean things out, you should use a carb cleaner.
If you think you have water in the system, drain some fuel out of the tank.
It also does no good to use it in the spring. Same reason, assuming you are going to be using your machine frequently.
And most important, I find that it is much better to keep Stabilized fuel in the tanks and keep the fuel system full. Storing an engine dry can lead to dried up diaphrams in the 2 cycle carbs, gumming in all carbs, and corrosion in the fuel tank.
I have tried both ways, with lots of engines to maintain.
Disagree if you want, but it works.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. -John Kenneth Galbraith
Disagree if you want, but it works.
<G>
Stabil is like liberal philosophy, may not be good for much but makes some folks think they got a good thing going <GGGGG>
All I know is that once I started using Stabil my problems with small engines not starting disappeared. My snow blower started on the second pull this fall.The problem with leaving gas in the tank off-season is that the gas evaporates and leaves behind scum/varnish. Running the tank dry reduces the amount of gas that can evaporate and hence the amount of scum/varnish produced. And adding gas stabilizer makes the remaining scum/varnish more soluble come the start of the season when you add fresh gas.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. -John Kenneth Galbraith
The problem with leaving gas in the tank off-season is that the gas evaporates and leaves behind scum/varnish
Better check for a big leak if you have that problem.
I do agree with you that it is great stuff...but seriously, what good does it do you if you add it to the gas and then run all the gas out of the system?
a small engine mechanic told me the alcohol in gas today causes problems if left in, even with stabil
bobl Volo, non valeo
Baloney detecter WFR
"But when you're a kibbutzer and have no responsibility to decide the facts and apply the law, you can reach any conclusion you want because it doesn't matter." SHG
Stabil claims it works whether there is alcohol in the gas or not. But what does that mean? It may stabilize the gas, but the alcohol could still cause problems...or does it stop the alcohol problems too??
I had some bad problems with my 2 cycle engines & alcohol in the gas when I forgot to add Stabil to a couple of them a few years ago.
Now I make sure they all have Stabil and I haven't seen any sort of problem since. Therefore I've got to conclude that it took care of the alcohol problems too. But I wouldn't give anybody a 100% guarantee that they wouldn't see damage in some components from the alcohol.
Just last week used 2 gal of leaded gas ( bought in 1991) just before gas prices spiked as gulf war one started. Put it in 11 HP engine on Honda pressure washer, ran great. No stabil or nuthin, was stored in 55 gal bbl for over 17 YEARS!. Put the other 53 gal into '63 GMC, was that engine ever HAPPY!
Think stabil loving folks are like those that buy the $2K Bosch dishwashers - gotta love'm after you get took for bucks or realize ya got took.
The situation you describe is totally different than the problem you face with fuel in the gas tank of a typical small engine. The gas back then contained no alcohol and you had a large quantity stored in an airtight container. What could happen to it?
In a small engine you often have alcohol, water, air, and sometimes oil sitting in a small vented container and it can create a witch's brew. It is subject to evaporation (although not quite as much as Dan suggested) and various chemical reactions that will corrode steel tanks, gum up stuff, and rot out rubber fuel lines or gaskets.
The worst case in my opinion is a 2 cycle engine with a gas/oil mixture and alcohol in the gas tank. If you let the system go dry, I have trouble with carb components drying up. If you don't treat it, they don't start in the spring.
I can tell you're a non-believer, but I have 30+ small engines to fire up in the spring and I guarantee you I will have trouble one way or the other if I don't use Stabil. Once in a while, I will forget to treat one of them in the fall, and there is no way that thing is going to start in the spring.
Draining the whole system is not as easy as it sounds because it is not always possible to get every bit of gas out of the lines etc., but I would prefer that to leaving gas in the system and not treating it.
You waited until gas was under $2/gallon to get that old barrel out?
Jon Blakemore RappahannockINC.com Fredericksburg, VA
Thanks to all who offered tips on this thread. I did as recommended and the mower runs like brand new. Starts on first pull, cuts like hell, doesn't bog down, doesn't miss, no smoke. Main thing I learned is to clean it up and get ready for storage at the end of the season, which isn't automatic to a guy who owns ~80 electric tools. Those dang things run any time of year. For that matter so do the air tools.
Noticed one thing--my little Stihl edge trimmer AND my 200-year-old Homelite chainsaw both run impeccably no matter how stored or infrequently used. Maybe there's something different about 2 cycle stuff.
Like I said, it works.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. -John Kenneth Galbraith
>>>Like I said, it works.I agree, as far as stabilization goes and reducing varnish. The only caveat I've heard is that the octane rating continues to degrade which can be a problem with some engines. No biggie; when Spring arrives just dump out the bit of stabilized gas and replace with fresh.Scott.
I put this in every can I fill, especially in the fall:
View Image
Jeff
Yep, same stuff as Stabil.
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. -John Kenneth Galbraith
One more tip
Get a spark plug that's one heat range hotter. My Father-in-law had a 2 year old Toro push mower he was ready to throw away. A mechanic friend suggested a hotter plug. Never had another problem with it. Get the number from the spark plug & buy a plug with the next higher number. It's a cheap fix & worth a shot.
Gee, I haven't changed the plug in our mower in over ten years. And, come to think of it, I haven't changed the oil either.