My mower repair thread

I've been lurking for a little while and besides an intro I haven't posted. I have been tinkering with mowers recently as a hobby as they are so easy to pick up for free and most people would rather toss and buy new than repair an older mower. I currently have 3 ready for sale and another 6 awaiting repair or dismantling.

The grey Craftsman has been my workhorse for a few years. My first gas mower, and first free one to boot (I've never paid for a gasser). 6.5 HP Craftsman, it was a year old when I got it. Previous owner couldn't get it to start so he gave it away. I filled it with gas, shook it around a bit and it started right up.


The red MTD had a fouled spark plug and a badly bent blade. After a new blade and spark plug, it runs perfectly. The deck is rotten so it's currently selling very cheap as a 1 or 2 season tie over for somebody, but if I get around to it this week I have a newer black deck that has a lot less rust that happens to have no motor, then I can sell it for a little more.

The black Yard Machines has a gash from what I figure was a rock caught betwixt the blade and deck, not too bad otherwise. It is a newer model and runs flawlessly as well.

On the side burner is an old Toro SP 53 with 4 cycle Suzuki(data plate is missing so I don't know what model it is) which is a bit of a basket case, missing a few components and had been sitting in the rain for a long time without an air filter cover. That one I may buy a cheap honda clone motor to use as my main mower if the pulley will work on the shaft. I also have an old Lawn Flite that the owner threw a lot of new parts onto but doesn't run, haven't touched that one yet, a 4.5 HP craftsman with bad rod knock, a 6HP craftsman self propelled with a broken starter shroud and bolt broken in the engine block (the shroud will be donated from the knocking mower), a 6 HP mulching mower that I forget the brand, and 2 Tecumseh Craftsman mowers. I like the Briggs engines, they seem bullitproof but the tecumsehs seem to have finicky carbs. I have enough to keep my busy for a while, There are a few people who repair and sell mowers in Halifax but they seem to ask quite a premium price. Hopefully business will be good, but as a hobby, I'm more concerned with stock piling up and looking like a hoarder!

business seems to be good after all, people are coming today for the craftsman and Yard Machines this evening. Last night I picked up a compact electric mulcher, a 20" Poulan in very good physical shape and a solid Murray mulcher/bagger. The Murray is also a 20", but is very heavy for it's size, it will not rust through for years to come. The Murray has no oil in the crank case though and the small deposits left on the stick are black, so I'll try filling/flushing the engine and see if it runs after that. It does have compression and turns freely(I pulled the starter a few times with the spark disconnected).

On a side note about the Toro, it doesn't have very much compression at all, I can almost free spin the blade and it is not a model with a blade clutch, so I will probably part out the engine or sell/barter it to a rebuilder. I could always use more briggs parts. I also have a small collection of edge trimmers, most people seem to give them away when they need new line. What a throw away society...

Pics to come later, I'll show all my goodies so far.

Well, this Murray 20" mulcher/bagger was an easy fix. I changed the oil, cleaned the spark plug and it runs beautifully. It smoked grey for about 20 seconds and cleared up after that, and hasn't smoked again since. It starts on the first pull every time. The governor spring setup must be missing something though, or it can be used as though it has a manual choke. This is the one that I mentioned was very heavy for it's size. The bag has a loonie sized hole, but it will still get the job done for somebody on a tight budget for a few seasons.

The black mower with the gash sold for $50.

This electric mower is tiny! 14" cut. The circuit breaker was tripped so I re-set it and sharpened the little mulching blade. It has a nice single adjustment lever. This one will be an easy 20 bucks even with the missing bag.

This Poulan looked very nice on the outside, not much rust, looked like it had been kept indoors, but looks can be deceiving. I looked in the tank and it was full, but the primer was not working. I took off the carb and the screen was completely coated in rusty varnish. This lead me to examine the tank a little more, which was filled with a rusty slurry of a mess. No problem, I have a matching Briggs mower with a rod knock which is becoming a donor for the cylinder head and shroud on a self propelled Craftsman, so I transferred the entire tank/carb assemble to the Poulan, taking care to re-install the springs as they were. Started the mower up and the throttle ran away, tremendous overspeed! Now it won't start and the output shaft seal is leaking. Nuts. Maybe it was leaking before, but I hadn't noticed. For now I'll pull the 4.5HP Briggs from the rotten MTD and install it on the nice Poulan deck with the Poulan shroud, should fetch me more than the rusty MTD would have for sure. I'll play with it at another time. Worse case, I have another parts donor engine for when I will eventually need it.

Once I re-activate my photobucket account (lost my password, the confirmation email address is locked because I also lost that one...) I'll link pics that way for easier viewing. In the future when I accumulate enough money I intend on going further with these mowers with paint and sand blasting. This is a hobby for me, so I'm not selling the mowers for much, but the money is going to things like tools which I'll be using to restore a '77 Toyota Celica, so some good sand blasting and paint practice will be a benefit to me.

Are you trying to make a living doing this?

No, just a hobby. There is a very easy supply of broken mowers here so it's something that I can keep myself busy with. There is very little profit at the price I'm selling these at.

Yeah, they don't sell too high here as well....

I do this as a hobby to. I make a decent chunk of cash this time of year I get about 1500 profit... Of off free mowers no investment except parts. Rest of the year its about 600-800 dollars a month and winter is pretty slim. I don't do repairs for people I get a mower or buy for close to nothing and sell them a working one. Fun hobby