Recent content by Silviasil

Anybody old enough to have used this mower? I found the pamphlet among some old owners manuals of which the mowers haven’t been here in dozens of years.

Auto Doc, I think I’ll experiment this Fall. I mostly only have leaves to mulch this time of year and the weather is cool here in Ohio now. I’ll probably use the synthetic 10W30 and see how things go. I can always go back to the 30 wt next Spring. You are right about adjusting the valves...

The engine in my 31 year old Craftsman riding mower with a Tecumseh OHV-125-203015A engine calls for SAE 30 wt oil above 32° and 5w30 below 32°, then the manual reads, “Although multi-viscosity oils (5W30, 10W30,etc) improve starting in cold weather , these multi-viscosity oils will result in...

Hi, Star Tech, In fairness to that FreeAll penetrating fluid. I have used that in the aerosol can and twice now over the past dozen years I had the experience of unable to loosen a steel fastener (nut and bolt) and a brass nut and a steel screw. I had given up after a couple of hours so I...

My vote is the latter. I would highly suspect a weak fuel shutoff solenoid. I had the same symptoms last year and found real fine “grit” down around the spring of the plunger. I cleaned it up and it worked for a year. However this year same symptoms and found the body of solenoid getting hot...

At first I tried to disable the solenoid by removing the rubber tip from the plunger and unplugging the electrical connector to the solenoid but even the metal tip of the plunger was enough to keep fuel from flowing and engine would not start. I ended up by depressing the plunger and using a...

I guess I could with the solenoid unscrewed turn the ignition key to run for many minutes to let the solenoid heat up and see if the electromagnetic force becomes weaker over time. I would hate to disable it permanently in case the problem is somewhere else. I have also suspected the ignition...

Good point on the gas cap . I was able to easily blow through it. And fuel flows freely through the disconnected fuel line downstream of fuel filter. As for the spark….I did connect an automotive timing light to spark plug wire and it continues to flash as the rpm’s drop while engine dies...

Solenoid part number is 596038. Resistance cold is about 42 ohms. Will try to get a reading when it is hot and when the mower has died

This is on an MTD Yard Machine Riding mower. Mdl 760. B&S Engine is 282H07-0334-E1 with a Nikki carburetor. It dies after the engine gets good and warmed up. It is still getting spark as the engine is winding down so I believe it is fuel related. It has the fuel shutoff solenoid screwed into...

Try rotating the engine crankshaft backward by hand (by the screen above the flywheel) until it just gets to the compression. Then use your electric starter normally. It might give the starter enough umph to over come the problem. Let us know. Good luck.

Try this workaround. Turn the engine crankshaft backward till it turns hard because of compression, then use electric starter normally. Nature of the beast on some engines. Good luck

To make a long story shorter, I took that solenoid off, turned it upside down and sprayed carb cleaner in the plunger side and got out really fine grit. Works fine now. I think the fine dirt was keeping the fine spring from totally collapsing barely allowing the plunger to open for fuel to flow...

Not once but several times when connecting that spring I rerouted it on the wrong side of the belt. In my case engine bogged down severely and I smelled burnt rubber. Now I tension the belt with mower not running and check if there is interferance between the belt and tensioner spring.

I have found that orange juice and milk “cartons” make good long lasting and of course gasoline proof gaskets for gas cans gas caps etc. Just try it , what do you think?