lawn mower

[Greg O]

Clipping problem? I have used nothing but a mulching mower on my yard for the last 14 years, no problem! Greg

[davma]

[Phisherman]

I have the Toro personal pace and really like it. Starts better and more power than my old Honda mower. With any mulching mower you can't allow the grass to get too tall.

[William Brown]

[Dave Balderstone]

I found one of the 18" ones at a yard sale for $10.

Beautiful mower, my kids argue over who gets to cut the grass!

[Robert Barr]

... and FWIW, I bought one of those variable speed Sears Craftsman units last summer, and it was just impossible to control comfortably.

I returned it and bought a brand new B&S OHV engine for about $120. Excellent engine. I doubt I'll ever buy an L head engine again. So I squeeze another 7 years out of the same mower -- more my style.

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, Took a look at some from John Deere? Tony

[Charlie Brown]

I hit a stump with a Murray lawn mower today. Mower stopped dead and when started back up, made a heck of a racket. Loud clanging sound. I checked the blade, it looked fine so I decided to take the motor apart and see if anything obvious appeared broken.

Engine head and piston appeared okay.

Took the bottom case off and no broken parts in there either. When I took it off, the camshaft came off and I didn't know how to put it back in with the correct timing. I tried to eyeball it as best I could setting it up so that it appeared the valves opened and closed when they should. However, once I got it back together and started it up, it ran badly. Started smoking pretty bad after a few seconds and after shutting off, blue smoke would sift out of the muffler.

Additionally, when starting, the pull cord jerked me back a few times. Made me hit myself in the ribs once, knocked the wind out of me! Hope the neighbors didn't see that one! :)

Anyway, I'm thinking the timing is off. How do I put that sucker back together to ensure that it's right? Is it possible that when I hit that stump that it through the gears jumped out of wack also messing the timing up causing it to run like crap?

[Joseph Meehan]

Likely you bent the shaft, you need to have it checked anyway so take it in to the shop, they should not be busy now.

[Trekking Tom]

Yep you bent the crankshaft, likely you now have a pile of junk. Oldtimers might know how to straighten it but since they no longer harden the cranks it will bent very easy again.

Tom

[Joey]

Check the crank with a micrometer to see if it's bent. Not exactly sure about the Murray, but on a B&S engine there is one spot on the bottom of the crank gear and on the camshaft gear there are two. Line the one on the crank up between the two on the cam and you're set to go.

J

Charlie Brown wrote: