It's not a Lawn-Boy, but still thought it was worth a mention. Flymo

We're flying! Got it all back together, and it started on the 4th pull! Runs OK, and doesn't seem to bog down or anything, but it just from the sound it feels like the mixture isn't exactly right. Unfortunately, the idle jet adjustment makes little difference, and as mentioned, the main jet is fixed, so there's not much to try there.

I ran it with the snorkel air filter in place, but not the foam one right in front of the carb. The remains of an old foam filter were in there when I bought the unit, and I did get the foam element, so maybe that's the next thing - oil up that element and see if running a bit richer helps. I guess I could simulate that with partial choke - maybe I'll give that a try.

As far as I can tell with just a few minutes of time on it, Flymo mows reasonably well. It seems to have less resistance to moving side to side than it does going forward and back, so you need to make a conscious effort to keep on track. One really nice thing is that the whole mower is very light, I am storing it just hanging on the wall like a rake.

F

jfpointer said:

Good news, the Flymo is up and running! Picked it up Saturday and put it to work mowing the steep slope on the house we're flipping. It was quite a revelation--although the grass was very tall, it barely bogged at all cutting it, and it's the easiest thing to push around that I've ever used. As long as I can keep it running, it'll see plenty of use around here.:biggrin:

As far as air filters are concerned, I can see why they put the canister style filter up on the handle. There's a lot of stuff flying around down there at the business end of things.

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In 1956 Victa found that air from the top of the handlebars had a lot less dust than at the engine height so had been fitting Snorkels as standard of 60 years.
I just overhauled a 1968 mower, cost $ 28.00 in parts including a new filter, the first one it has had all it's life & I only neded to do it because of the mug pluggers in there.
However a snorkel will cause rich running due to increased restrictions to airflow.
For the brief period that Honda sold assesory snorkels , they came with smaller jets to compensate for the air flow.

And you mow with a Flymow as you would with a line trimmer sweeping side to side while walking foreword.

My neighbor gave me a Flymo he used to mow steep banks on his last property. He would hook a rope to it and operate it by walking back and forth, lengthening the rope until the whole bank was mowed.. It looks pretty nice but the old fuel and a dried out carb will have to be worked on before it will run.
I can't find any numbers on the carb and will need that before I can search for a kit. Can't wait to try it out next spring.

Vinsky, my first sight of a Flymo, back in the 70s, was someone using the rope technique to mow a bank.

Is yours a Tecumseh motor? If so, do a search online and you can find many places that have copies of service manuals. I got my parts off of Amazon and eBay - still readily available.

I did get a chance to use mine more this fall, and it appears to be running extremely well after some additional time on it - I am still using just the snorkel air filter.

Based on my experience with the carb, you might want to just try throwing some 2-stroke mix in there, cleaning the plug, and seeing if it fires up. I did rebuild my carb but it really wasn't that gunky.

F

Yes, it has the Tecumseh 2-cycle motor. I now have a manual and the Tecumseh tech handbook. There's no carb linkage, spring or governor so may be looking for another carb. The other part I need is the blade spacers. Hopefully it will be ready for spring mowing.

Vinsky, I did see some of the blade spacers on eBay when I was looking around.

I'm short on storage space, so the Flymo spent the winter months tucked up under the travel trailer to keep the snow off of it. Pulled it out, topped off the fuel, and put it right to work on the slope this week.

I mow from the bottom up with my self-propelled, then finish off from the top with the Flymo. Coolest thing ever when it comes to mowing steep slopes!:thumbsup:

bertsmobile1 said:

And you mow with a Flymow as you would with a line trimmer sweeping side to side while walking foreword.

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On level ground, either forward or backward while sweeping side to side works fine. On the top of a steep slope, facing down and hanging on to the mower, it's up and down and side to side.