Recent content by DaveTN

If you’re getting good bluish white spark at beginning and end the coil should be fine. Weak orange reddish spark means coil weak and going out. That’s why I asked about color of spark.

What does it do when you remove the linkage and manually turn the throttle? Sounds like something in the linkage or governor not responding to throttle spring tension. I’d go thru the linkages again. If it throttles up manually by moving the throttle plate by hand and not by the throttle...

Update on the Bolens w/ a blown 14.5 B&S vertical engine. Switched carbs on the Bolens rider look alike been sitting out 5 yrs under a tarp and amazingly it fired up and ran strong. Switched out rear wheels, checked & greased spindles and sharpened blades and he was mowing his yard when I left...

Just curious what color spark is at beginning cold and when it’s hot and quits. Does it start to cut out and miss or lose power and die all at once?

Welcome to the LMF! It’s been fun for me tinkering and working on things since I was a kid. I’m a dabbling Thespian as well, lived in Hollywood back in late 70’s and mid 80’s. “To Beat the mower with a hammer or not to Beat, That is the Question!”

That’s right, good point. That blade acts like a second flywheel to help smooth out the rotations.

Or could be a partially crimped flywheel key throwing off the timing causing kick back. Noticeable after you hit something like a root etc. It’ll run but pull the skin off your fingers when it kicks trying to start it.

I keep saying I’m thru w/ working on mowers etc., but I got a call from a senior friend just up the road. Says his Bolens Single cyl 14.5 BS just quit. I went up do a few checks, valve clearance, spark, but thought I‘d turn it over by hand. Low and Behold NO compression. He has 2 identical...

Dang it! All I’m seeing in my Diagnostic Crystal Ball is some homely looking girl from Kansas clicking her heels and crying about trying to get her mower started back home and the grass is higher than a wheat field…

I studied film production in Los Angeles and know very well what you say. Some of these videos on you tube is like a beginning film student going out with no pre planning and points the camera here and there and calls it a movie made on a weekend! Worse yet a tourist filming here and there...

I’ve got this senior friend who is a magician! He will ask me to come over and repair his riding mower. He admits he knows very little about mowers. But when I start to diagnose and repair it, he suddenly turns into a genius mechanic and tells me what I need to do to fix it! His wife will...

Why not use Steel Push Rods instead of Aluminum ones? That might do the trick after you check and adjust the valve guides.

They just closed Bull Run Steam Coal-fired plant about 4 miles away. Had been online since I was a kid back in the 5Os. How are they going to fast charge all these electric cars that don’t explode and burn first? I saw a u tube about a fairly new white elec suv type auto that the battery blew...

LMAO at Shaved Monkeys! Yep I’ve seen a bunch of those UNSHAVED APES too, especially down South where I live. Thanks for a great visual laugh. That Taryl guy looks like one but he’s a PhD on small engines. And more than a few aren’t shaved. I could use a Bigfoot shaved or not to help me pick...

Welcome to the LMF. Lots to learn and share on here.