How to Fix Stuff

[UncLeJunkLe]

Maybe I'm using the wrong term. Newer mowers like the one my neighbor bought(Honda) don't have a primer bulb like mine does. His broke down and the engine shop explained it to him like there was a wax cylinder that kept the engine choked until it warmed up and then the cylinder moved to open the choke once it was hot.

Yeah, that's an automatic choke (aka auto-choke) - the choke is adjusted automatically with no user involvement. As opposed to a manual choke that requires the user to adjust the choke to various settings when starting the engine, like on a chainsaw or string trimmer. Come to think of it, all my outdoor machines have a manual choke, including my chipper/shredder and snow blower. I could be wrong but I think manual chokes on consumer-grade mowers is a thing of the past.

My grandpap had a 20-30 year old Toro mower with a Tecumseh engine, which had a primer bulb (but auto-choke), I have a feeling that might be what you have. I sold it for $50 for the engine 12 or so years ago when he died - the transmission was shot and the cost was over $100 for the transmission. I don't think it was even OEM. So I said screw it, just sell it. The deck was built like a tank, but it was heavy as hell so using on a slope would have been not-so-fun.

 

[Bronze]

Yeah I have to take a look at things more closely. I don't care that it does this, but I'm afraid it's going to leave me high and dry someday when I REALLY need to mow lol. I know in the past it would do this sporadically but not as badly. I think it is the carb. Never took a carb apart on a mower. The mower is roughly 10 years old. Been through a lot as with all my mowers. I use it on 2 properties one of which is rough. Technically I mow 3 city lots plus a slope. My mowers are put through hell. I really need a small riding mower for the flat parts, but I'd still have a lot of mowing by foot to do even if I had on lol. As I get older, I wish I had one but I'm not sure how practical it would be anyhow. But I can't even afford a new walk-behind mower right now let alone a riding mower. This one's a toro recycler with a Briggs engine. The new ones are shyte. I know because my aunt bought one 3 years ago. They are light, but not built to last and it cuts-out on slopes even with a full tank, which is a no-no for me. Mine doesn't cut-out on a slope even with a nearly empty tank. Doesn't matter which brand you get, they seem to have the same exact briggs engine on them. Anyway I'm rambling.

BTW: I may have found a thick denim bag today at the army surplus store to use on my chipper/shredder. It's smaller than the original bag, but it'll do assuming I can find a good way to attach it to the discharge without it blowing right off.

IF you decide to mess w/the carb I would definitely try cleaning that bolt on the bottom of the bowl plus the carb + check the gasket first. That is usually where most carb problems exist. If you go further, then a complete replacement is in order (wouldn't bother rebuilding it). Try and get OEM (might find it on Amazon). The Chinese crap is worthless. Not a particularly hard job to replace if you ask me.

Best mower: Honda. Period, case closed, end of story. Short of that, any mower that has a Honda engine. Anything with a Honda engine is the best quality be it a weed wacker, lawn mower, generator, automobile, race car, truck, anything. Honda is the premier engine manufacturer of all time whether it be small or large and no one comes close (maybe Toyota in their automobiles).

 

[borno]

Yeah I have to take a look at things more closely. I don't care that it does this, but I'm afraid it's going to leave me high and dry someday when I REALLY need to mow lol. I know in the past it would do this sporadically but not as badly. I think it is the carb. Never took a carb apart on a mower. The mower is roughly 10 years old. Been through a lot as with all my mowers. I use it on 2 properties one of which is rough. Technically I mow 3 city lots plus a slope. My mowers are put through hell. I really need a small riding mower for the flat parts, but I'd still have a lot of mowing by foot to do even if I had on lol. As I get older, I wish I had one but I'm not sure how practical it would be anyhow. But I can't even afford a new walk-behind mower right now let alone a riding mower. This one's a toro recycler with a Briggs engine. The new ones are shyte. I know because my aunt bought one 3 years ago. They are light, but not built to last and it cuts-out on slopes even with a full tank, which is a no-no for me. Mine doesn't cut-out on a slope even with a nearly empty tank. Doesn't matter which brand you get, they seem to have the same exact briggs engine on them. Anyway I'm rambling.

BTW: I may have found a thick denim bag today at the army surplus store to use on my chipper/shredder. It's smaller than the original bag, but it'll do assuming I can find a good way to attach it to the discharge without it blowing right off.

I agree W/ bronze, probable needs the carb cleaned out. That crappy ethanol is hard on small motors after a while it forms a greyish sludge that's nasty. The closest station with real gas to me is about 15mi. away up on the PA border, not quite worth it to go. I've been nursing my '78 lawn boy 2-stroke for a while, great mower. A 25 year old briggs for a back-up.

 

[Bronze]

I agree W/ bronze, probable needs the carb cleaned out. That crappy ethanol is hard on small motors after a while it forms a greyish sludge that's nasty. The closest station with real gas to me is about 15mi. away up on the PA border, not quite worth it to go. I've been nursing my '78 lawn boy 2-stroke for a while, great mower. A 25 year old briggs for a back-up.

Yeah, the ethonol is bad stuff but worse is the benzene. I use engineered fuel for winter storage. It doesn’t have any of that crap in it.

 

[UncLeJunkLe]

Well the hell my mowers go through, they all last about 10-15 years. My neighbor has a Honda and frankly I hate it and it's really heavy.

The nexite deck option makes it much lighter I hear, but is too expensive. However, given the crappy Briggs engines these other brands are all using, I may break down and just get a Honda for my next mower, or one with a Honda engine. But I read a couple years ago all the honda engines on the sub $500 mowers are pure junk too.

 

[MikeE3]

Yeah, the ethonol is bad stuff but worse is the benzene. I use engineered fuel for winter storage. It doesn’t have any of that crap in it.

My local shop that sells gas powered yard equipment mainly to 'pros' recommended to me to use this. His directions were to add two cap fulls to a gallon of gas. So every time I by gas for the mower and other gas powered yard gear that's what I do.

.

About 5 years ago before I started using it, I bought a new husky blower. Before the season was over the gas line melted. You'd think Husky would know better and use a quality gas line to avoid the ethanol from melting it.

 

[hittman]

Yeah, that's an automatic choke (aka auto-choke) - the choke is adjusted automatically with no user involvement. As opposed to a manual choke that requires the user to adjust the choke to various settings when starting the engine, like on a chainsaw or string trimmer. Come to think of it, all my outdoor machines have a manual choke, including my chipper/shredder and snow blower. I could be wrong but I think manual chokes on consumer-grade mowers is a thing of the past.

My grandpap had a 20-30 year old Toro mower with a Tecumseh engine, which had a primer bulb (but auto-choke), I have a feeling that might be what you have. I sold it for $50 for the engine 12 or so years ago when he died - the transmission was shot and the cost was over $100 for the transmission. I don't think it was even OEM. So I said screw it, just sell it. The deck was built like a tank, but it was heavy as hell so using on a slope would have been not-so-fun.

That sounds like mine. I deal with a small engine shop through my work and I bought a transmission for mine several years ago for about $40 and installed it myself. Mine does have a 6.5hp tecumseh engine. Now that everything is listed in CC’s instead of hp it’s big money to get one with a similar size engine. I just put new drive wheels on it a few weeks ago. The old ones were original and worn smooth.

 

[Bronze]

Well the hell my mowers go through, they all last about 10-15 years. My neighbor has a Honda and frankly I hate it and it's really heavy.

The nexite deck option makes it much lighter I hear, but is too expensive. However, given the crappy Briggs engines these other brands are all using, I may break down and just get a Honda for my next mower, or one with a Honda engine. But I read a couple years ago all the honda engines on the sub $500 mowers are pure junk too.

Don’t believe everything you read.

 

[Bronze]

Now and again I’ll yank out the portable generator and fire her up to get the stale gas out of the carb and fuel lines. Nothing wrecks an engine quicker than old gas. And ethonol is not the chief contributor contrary to popular belief. Instead, it is the benzene found in all pump fuel. This is why I use engineered fuel in any equipment I plan to store for any length of time (say beyond 3 months). Engineered fuel does not have benzene or any of these corrosive components in them. Too expensive to burn exclusively, but excellent for longer term storage. This fuel lasts 5 years in the can, 2 years once opened. A quart can from Home Depot (their house brand) costs about $5. Might be more with these ridiculous gasoline prices these days. Nonetheless, if you’re doing long term storage of small engines like a generator or winter storage, engineered fuel is the way to go. Burn out all the gasoline from the tank then pour in the engineered fuel and start the engine again and run for a few minutes to let it circulate. Engineered fuel comes in regular 4-stroke, and 2-stroke 40:1, and 50:1 blends.

 

[UncLeJunkLe]

A quart can from Home Depot (their house brand) costs about $5

That's what I use. The brand is Powercare, I believe. But I haven't bought any this year yet. Didn't the price go up?

There is no question my 2-cycle engines run a hell of a lot better with engineered fuel over pump fuel, even non-ethanol pump fuel. I use it exclusively in my 2-cycle equipment as I don't use them a whole lot. I might go through 2 quarts of it during regular year. 3 at most.

I no longer mix my fuel anymore, i just buy Powercare 50:1.

 

[Bronze]

That's what I use. The brand is Powercare, I believe. But I haven't bought any this year yet. Didn't the price go up?

There is no question my 2-cycle engines run a hell of a lot better with engineered fuel over pump fuel, even non-ethanol pump fuel. I use it exclusively in my 2-cycle equipment as I don't use them a whole lot. I might go through 2 quarts of it during regular year. 3 at most.

I no longer mix my fuel anymore, i just buy Powercare 50:1.

I would also use engineered fuel exclusively if I didn’t need so much of it. I have an acre in the woods and a fairly large lawn. I go thru lots of fuel in the mower, blowers, wackers, power washer, and gen (when needed). I’d go broke at $5/quart. So I use pump gas with stabilizer until I need to store the stuff. That’s when I use the engineered fuel. That would be the mower for 4 months (shorter winters here in NC), the power washer that gets used maybe twice a year, the chainsaw (whenever a tree dies or falls over), the generator (when power goes out for more than the usual 2 hours), and weed wacker (tho I just got a cordless one). I have two blowers. A handheld and a big Echo backpack. I use the blowers thruout the year so I just use pump gas in those.

And yes, the equipment does run good with the engineered fuel.

 

[UncLeJunkLe]

I’d go broke at $5/quart.

Looks like at least my local HD might no longer carries the powercare 50:1 fuel, only the 4-cycle fuel, which is now $7/qt. Guess I have to buy the 4-cycle and mix my own again. But that's double the cost once you figure in the oil cost :/.

 

[Bronze]

Looks like at least my local HD might no longer carries the powercare 50:1 fuel, only the 4-cycle fuel, which is now $7/qt. Guess I have to buy the 4-cycle and mix my own again. But that's double the cost once you figure in the oil cost :/.

Hmmmmm

 

[Bronze]

So I was at Home Depot today. A can of that Powercare engineered fuel was $6.98/quart. I don't use a whole quart to winterize. Maybe a 1/3rd to a 1/2 quart. But my HD had the 4-stroke and the 50:1. Didn't see any 40:1. They also sell True Fuel brand that adds a buck.

 

[UncLeJunkLe]

So I was at Home Depot today. A can of that Powercare engineered fuel was $6.98/quart. I don't use a whole quart to winterize. Maybe a 1/3rd to a 1/2 quart. But my HD had the 4-stroke and the 50:1. Didn't see any 40:1. They also sell True Fuel brand that adds a buck.

Next time I go to HD, I'll have to take a look. Their website has been wrong before.

 

[Bronze]

Next time I go to HD, I'll have to take a look. Their website has been wrong before.

Stock probably fluctuates greatly from store to store.

 

[UncLeJunkLe]

Stock probably fluctuates greatly from store to store.

Yeah it does, but this doesn't show up at all in the search. I had to find the listing in google then when I visited that page it was not available in my store or within 100miles of my store. So it may very well be this is actually not available here anymore at least for the time being.

 

[UncLeJunkLe]

As a last-ditch effort to fix a window air conditioner before I buy a new one (or try to), I am doing my first-ever deep clean of a window air conditioning unit. I just now took the housing fully apart and working on protecting the electrical component box next.

I have to say, aside from cleaning out a grease trap under a sink in a restaurant, this is the 2nd-most disgusting and difficult thing I have ever had to clean. This is gonna be one he|| of a challenge. I know I won't be able to clean it 100% but I gotta try my best because I can't find one of this small size locally and I don't like buying things like this through the mail.

The coils aren't actually that dirty for a 10+ year old unit but it just freezes up constantly (in the past I just had to let it thaw and dry out and it would be good for months). But the rest of it is friggin' filthy!

 

[Bronze]

As a last-ditch effort to fix a window air conditioner before I buy a new one (or try to), I am doing my first-ever deep clean of a window air conditioning unit. I just now took the housing fully apart and working on protecting the electrical component box next.

I have to say, aside from cleaning out a grease trap under a sink in a restaurant, this is the 2nd-most disgusting and difficult thing I have ever had to clean. This is gonna be one he|| of a challenge. I know I won't be able to clean it 100% but I gotta try my best because I can't find one of this small size locally and I don't like buying things like this through the mail.

The coils aren't actually that dirty for a 10+ year old unit but it just freezes up constantly (in the past I just had to let it thaw and dry out and it would be good for months). But the rest of it is friggin' filthy!

Disgusting.

Report back with results.

 

[bigbob2322]

As a last-ditch effort to fix a window air conditioner before I buy a new one (or try to), I am doing my first-ever deep clean of a window air conditioning unit. I just now took the housing fully apart and working on protecting the electrical component box next.

I have to say, aside from cleaning out a grease trap under a sink in a restaurant, this is the 2nd-most disgusting and difficult thing I have ever had to clean. This is gonna be one he|| of a challenge. I know I won't be able to clean it 100% but I gotta try my best because I can't find one of this small size locally and I don't like buying things like this through the mail.

The coils aren't actually that dirty for a 10+ year old unit but it just freezes up constantly (in the past I just had to let it thaw and dry out and it would be good for months). But the rest of it is friggin' filthy!

If it's freezing up your low on Freon.