Recent content by Tiger Small Engine

I have had good results with cheap Chinese carburetors, over and over again. When the cost is up to 5 times more (OEM versus aftermarket), and the availability is limited, aftermarket is often the way to go if the results are positive and the comebacks are negligible.

Over a hundred years ago… I wonder what that beast weighed?

I can understand your frustration. Hopefully you can understand why shops charge $80 an hour to diagnose and repair your problems. The tools, skills, and experience that a good small engine mechanic have are of value. The cost saves your time, frustration, and parts that are often thrown at a...

The only way to know for sure, is to adjust carburetor and see if that helps. If not, step two is to remove carburetor, clean, replace metering diaphragm, and install carburetor. Make sure fuel is no more than 30-60 days old.

Not picking on you, however, with 30 years as a vehicle mechanic, you of all people know that replacing parts without seriously attempting to diagnose the actual problem is not the way to go about it. I would say that most repair shops are honest and try to do the right thing. I would also say...

If you want to be about half the cost of average labor rate of many shops, nobody is stopping you. I don’t know how long you have been working on small engines is why I added the “newer” part. If you can do all that in only ten minutes, then you should have charged about $5 bucks. See how that...

If you are using it weekly, this is completely unnecessary. Good procedure for occasional use equipment though.

A Kawasaki engine with 8100 hours on it should be in the Hall of Fame.

Throwing parts at issues on equipment isn’t usually worth doing because it is expensive, time consuming, and not the proper way to repair problems.

To replace two deck pulleys and a belt should be about 1&1/2 hours of labor book time. Your labor rate of $40/hour, and increased to $50/hour is way too inexpensive, unless you are newer and just getting started. At $75/hour you would have charged $115 versus the $50 in labor you charged. Most...

As the shipping costs rise, like everything else, something has got to give. So slower shipping times is the result.

It is called planned obsolescence. The manufacturer wants the consumer to keep buying more products to keep them in business. The President mainly affects the economy positively and negatively by individual regulations he enacts. Tightening or loosening regulations is what affects many...

If you can buy oil for $5/quart then you are getting a great deal. I am buying oil in 5 gallon buckets for $5/quart and buying 4 buckets at a time.

The silver Stihl 2-stroke oil is synthetic. Prevents carbon build up and better oil and worth the extra money versus the orange bottles.

Very few shops will work on hydraulic pumps, pump motor, and transaxles. I used to, but no longer offer this as a repair. It is not worth the time for the effort and money when lots of equipment is waiting to be worked on. It is normally a remove and replace nowadays and very expensive.

The fact that the dealer had your mower a month, fixed nothing, and said it was the best he could do and gave up, is mind boggling.

So in other words, this is why the oil and filter rarely/never get changed in hydrostatic transaxles. Plan B is to pump out as much oil as possible and refill.

An engine autopsy is in order here. Seeing the damage is sometimes worth the effort for a learning experience.

Some mufflers seem to do a really poor job of quieting an engine down. I think the design and or quality it poor and leads to a loud exhaust.

It is a cheap big box store residential zero turn. MTD makes Cub Cadet, there are a lot of them out in the field, nothing special.

It is not uncommon when you do repairs to have to remove one or more parts to do the repair. It is not uncommon for space to be very tight and limited when working on ATVs and small engine equipment. It is not uncommon to have a poor line of sight as well.

Drain and refill oil, make sure the belt is in good condition, and belt tension is good. Open up transaxle as a last resort and keep your expectations realistic.

Wheel lug bolts got loose and you ran it like this long enough to “egg or waller” out the factory holes. This happened to me years ago when I was mowing commercially and had to replace rim as a result. Expensive lesson.

I have never heard a seat safety switch, PTO switch, or relay chatter, because they don’t. That was the starter solenoid quickly engaging and disengaging, most likely due to a battery not fully charged. Charge the battery, load test the battery and try again.

I do own a Ferris 60” zero turn, and a Scag as well. The point is, I have worked on enough mowers to know there is a tensioner pulley on the drive belt on a zero turn, and a stiff spring gives it tension. I have a spring removal tool, but sometimes you have to use a ratchet strap and wire...

Yep, those cheap Chinese Torch spark plugs are hit and miss.

Berryman’s, Seafoam, etc. limited success helping any engine problems. Usually a good carburetor cleaning gets it running right.

Is this a trick question? That is what a mower sounds like when blades are spinning.

Next time remove tensioner spring, install belt, and reinstall spring and it will be easier.

Or just raise deck all the way and look under deck for grease coming out with a flashlight.

Check the deck hanger brackets at the rear of decks will be one or two bolts that can be adjusted. Then the front hanger bolts needs to be adjusted. Make sure all tires are inflated properly and on level concrete. Adjust from of deck 1/4” lower than rear.

Some people on internet claim the grease still gets into bearings despite being sealed. I know in some cases it takes up to 150 pumps on these spindles before grease comes out to let you know it is full. Others claim at a minimum it helps keep moisture out. It has bothered me for a long time...

Push on the valve spring and spraying with penetrating fluid. Remove cylinder head if necessary.

I can’t believe they dropped the purchase price $4500 off of retail. You should remember this as you are going through all this aggregation with the drive belt.

As stated, reinstalling the drive belt, or installing a new one should be doable, and not take three days worth of trying. Because this zero turn is brand new, and you probably paid around $20,000 for it, why not call the dealer you bought it from and ask for help? Surely if they are a good...

Step 1: Check for intake air leaks Step 2: Drill out pilot jet slightly if you know the carburetor is clean. Step 3: Optional-buy another aftermarket carburetor and see if that fixes hunting/surging, or bite the bullet and buy OEM carb for 3 to 5 times the cost.

That part is to help hold the starter in place. A small bracket that “locks” one side in place. That is a one off and a good catch.

Until you check with a digital tachometer, you will not know for sure. Not uncommon for throttle control to have a section as you are increasing the lever, to have little to no affect on engine speed.

If it is hunting and surging, then it is running lean on fuel, as you know. Can only be one of three reasons: 1) air leak intake 2) dirty carburetor 3) governor (long shot).

Most blades I see from customers are very dull and chipped. The blades are usually sharpened at too steep an angle also. They do not sharpen them near enough. There are blade sharpeners you can buy to achieve the desired angle of about 30 degrees. The problem is the mulching style blades...

Take a small chisel and hammer and tighten the drain nut by tapping it tighter. These drains are often loose when I go to change a customer’s oil.

Does it have a double barrel Nikki carburetor on it? I think the carburetor needs to be cleaned again. These specific carburetors are known to make popping and small backfires when not totally clean.

The question is, how does replacing a cotter pin suddenly make a hydraulic transaxle sluggish? That simply does not make sense.

$1000 is comparable to rebuilding an engine. However, you can get a lot more than 2-5 years life out of an engine normally. I encourage people to do some research and reading about battery equipment and electric vehicles. Weigh the pros and cons. I will be running internal combustion engines...

I have cleaned many Huayi carburetors. Main jet, emulsion tube, pilot jet, all passages including tiny Welch plug holes in carb throat. Huayi is simply a Chinese knockoff of a Honda carburetor.

Possible ignition switch bad, or chaffed wires intermittently grounding out.

I recently had a customer call and say he thought it was a bad compression release on his mower. Had been reading online. Turns out the engine was completely hydro locked with fuel. Another Nikki carburetor o-ring caused all the problems. He couldn’t be bothered to simply remove the spark plug...

Bad weather, floods, storms, tornadoes, etc. has been happening for thousands of years, there was just no internet or 24 hour TV to report it.

That is the air/fuel mixture screw. Taking the limiter cap off sometimes will help with adjustment on carburetor. First thing I would suggest is make sure you have no air intake leaks around carburetor, then cleaning carburetor thoroughly. My question is why have you put up with this for 10 years?

The answer on how to check to see if the compression release is working was given, in this thread. You rotate the engine by hand very slowly, and watch the intake and exhaust valves as they go through the four strokes. You are looking for “the bump” of when the valve just moves slightly up and...

Not uncommon for customer mowers to have top and bottom of deck packed with grass when I service them. I scrape and clean them, remove spindle covers. I have seen a couple of mowers that sat out in high moisture situations with rusted pulleys and spindles. Had the replace some and use a wire...

Parts and labor, how much did that cost?

You are talking about the difference of about 1 horsepower either way. So no big difference. Raise cutting height to maximum and double cut it at opposite patterns.

I routinely check RPMs on push and self-propelled mowers during a service for customers. Typically the RPMs are too low. Specifically on Honda, I usually move the governor spring just like you did, to achieve higher RPM.

Unless you are in a hurry to charge the battery, 2 amp charge is the way to go. Low and slow like BBQ. Set it and walk away until tomorrow.

Is it common-no, is it rare-yes.

Wires getting really hot tells you that mower wiring has high resistance, such as corrosion on terminals, bad ground, loose connections, etc. Really study the wires visually and see if you can locate the issue.

So you have installed three new carburetors, starter, solenoid, and battery in the last few seasons? Why would you need to have the engine crank for longer than say 5 seconds? An engine that is running right typically fires right up. Have you gone through and done a complete tune up service...

A local competitor small engine shop apparently puts VP fuel in equipment (that needs it) that he works on. Customer gave him a 3 star rating in review because he was charged $50 for about a half gallon of gas. Shop owner reply is that he uses this fuel so he can “guarantee” the repair/service...

All engines start a little differently. I usually go to about 2/3 throttle and full choke. As soon as it starts, instantly take off choke.

Check all wires both visually and with a multimeter. Check stator as well. Could be that the stator heats up with the engine temperature and is just over spec and blows the fuse.

The free Google business site will no longer be offered as of March 2024. This is what I have been using now for several years with strong results. I will be making a basic one page site to replace it. Most of my business is referrals at this point. Also a professional sign posted out front...

Loncin is a Honda clone (Chonda). Loncin, LCT, Predator, Powermore, etc. are all Honda clone Chinese made engines, and have not seen any real issues with them on equipment that comes through my shop. Parts are available online. Dealers often order equipment with these engines to offer a lower...

No need to apologize whatsoever. Today’s fuels (87 ethanol, 89, 91, 93) are not what they used to be say 20 years ago. Fuel treated with stabilizer (91 no ethanol) will often not last the two years that is claimed to start and run a small engine. I am not a fuel stabilizer fan.I see lots of...