Recent content by TobyU

Yes, and often even slightly higher than that is acceptable. Even three to four has still gotten a pass for an entire batch in many situations. Different companies do it in different ways. Sometimes if they had a failure rate of over a certain number in a whole run of production, they would pull...

It certainly won't hurt but I find that at the levels they recommend it's not going to do too much too quickly. Most of their recommendations are also pretty vague. Do you remember what it actually said on the bottle? I'm thinking most of these treatments which are like a 12 oz bottle or...

Most of the carburetors have a little drain at the bottom you can stick a hose on and a screw to open to allow fuel to drain out of the bowl. You might be able to drain some of the fuel through like this and shake it around and tilt it towards that side as you're doing it to get a lot of the...

This is exactly the first thing I was able to get such miraculous results on that I have been using it ever since. It was a '79 gs850 motorcycle whose carbs were slightly restricted etc and this stuff did wonders. You have to be careful not to drip anything on the paint though because it can...

It's certainly low percentage wise on the failures but numerically it's way too many as I mentioned in another post. If I had to estimate, I would say it's well under 2% of all these similar Briggs engines and likely closer to a half of a percent. That is quite acceptable by most company...

Yes, percentage-wise it's quite low and probably quite acceptable to their company decision makers. But numerically, it's still too high! In fact, anything over one or two is too high because they didn't have this problem before and then they started having the problem SO should have fixed it...

I don't find this to always be true. I have had no problems with these cheap spindles. They last far longer than they should for the money I've paid for them. Now there are other things I will not buy again. I replace two window regulator assemblies in two different cars a few years ago that I...

That's fine but only IF a person uses quality bearings.. I would venture to say that 95 plus percent of the people do not end up with quality bearings because the average bearing you buy today is also cheap junk. Even though this is the case, I find they still last long enough to be quite...

You could even use MMO in your 2-stroke fuel also as long as you still put the correct amount of oil in it.. It's not going to hurt anything and the ratios that these additives are recommended to be used at is so low it's barely a maintenance dose. If you test berryman's B12 liquid four can...

You are very correct and rarely does hitting anything cause these to shear. What usually does it is somebody messing around with the ignition switch turning it on and off or a flaky switch or even more likely when their seat switch isn't adjusted properly or it's bent or something and they're...

What do you mean by tapers? You mean the Sledge style tapered press fit of the crankshaft into the matching shape on the flywheel?. I don't worry about those getting damaged at all. It makes little difference. Lol Just stick it on and hold it in the right place and tighten it up and actually...

True, but this depends on the situation and also which side of the fence you're on. I have three separate companies and one of them I contract to an organization and that's all paid by check so I'm fine with that. None of them have ever bounced. Lol In one of my other businesses I'm probably at...

Yes, this does work well but technically, just choking it out with your hand makes it draw so much harder on the Jets that this alone and also having some fresh gas in the tank did far more than the atf, or any cleaner was going to do. There are times when one Ron's but surges are needs a little...

He may but I don't. The anecdotal experience someone has told you that they have had good luck with once or twice or maybe even six times does not equate to what some of us have seen thousands and thousands of times over. Marvel's mystery oil is far better to use in the fuel like that than ATF...

I keep looking and it keeps getting worse. I just checked Amazon of course I always tell people Amazon is a terrible place to buy lawn mower parts 90% of the time. This is because you can get a better price and almost always a better selection if you scroll down eBay but there are a couple of...

This is an okay method also but for most of these residential grade riding mowers, the bearings individually will cost you more than just buying the commonly available spindle assembly on eBay or amazon.. I just did a quick search in it does irritate me greatly that they're going for about 32 to...

It's just VERY rare for a Kohler or Honda to shear a key.

Keys usually don't shear on riding mowers and especially not on Kohler engines because they use a steel key from the factory unlike Briggs that uses an aluminum one. I most likely culprit for them shearing would be a flaky seat switch causing the ignition to kick on and off on bombs or if...

It's not worth messing within all the news pretty low quality bearings today. Just don't buy the brand name spindles and buy them online where you can get them super cheaply. The last ones I ordered we're between 9 and 12 dollars a piece shipped to my house. I do always buy the ones that come...

People say a lot of inaccurate crap on the internet. I have taken these bearings out myself and have yet to find one that was open on the inside. They are the most common and cheapest bearings out there with the little rubber press and seal on each side which is designed to keep everything out...

Same here! Mostly cash and a few checks here and there but I don't take plastic at all. We are destroying this country but everyone using plastic. Now since covid and our new normal crap a huge majority of places are starting to add the surcharge onto the customer instead of eating the cost...

You were hardly getting belittled.. lol. People skills are not something on most of our priority lists. I actually had a customer tell me one time after we had just loaded his mower back into his car after just unloading it because he decided he was going to take it somewhere... That I needed...

Sounds like it works well. There are a number of ways to do it. Even when people just go the pipe route, you just have to make the pipe just long enough so it sticks out just past the frame if you're going to put a cap on the pipe which works just fine or you can put a 90° elbow at the end of...

I've never had a single problem with one of them after they were tightened up. They do make it much easier to drain the oil the little standard pipe plug some of them have but it is far better too

Bingo! Somebody else says something about they've ruled out other things and fuel was one of them. I see nowhere where fuel has been ruled out and if it was it was done incorrectly because if an engine surges like this it is a mixture problem. It doesn't always have to be at the carb is...

I've never had a single problem with one of them after they were tightened up. They do make it much easier to drain the oil the little standard pipe plug some of them have but it is far better to put the galvanized pipe into it and put an elbow right at the end so you can drain it right into an...

Many of them are too close to the deck unless you have a very thin walled socket but even that won't work in all of them but it's way too much work to loosen the bolts and lift the engine up and then also risks the engine bolts loosening up later so a large pair of channel locks will work just...

Oh, it will tighten. You just are stuck in a little spot there where a rock back and forth a little bit. It will take more effort to remove it all the way out or to tighten it all the way up but it will tighten.

I have been complaining for 20 years about these drain valves. Not about the valve itself because they're fine if they're installing correctly but the fact is 80% of them I see are not tight from the factory. Technically, I don't think the factory actually installs them as I think Briggs ships...

Classic example of why you shouldn't believe everything you find from google, we Wikipedia or online. Lol I have literally worked on thousands of these mowers and I know plenty of people today are skeptical and don't like to believe anything a person says but I only speak in actual facts from...

You should never really open one with the back open and even if you prop it up in just a little bit it still gets grass out of your feet and stuff is annoying. The stick method for the side works but typically not as well as the actual discharge flat. It should be able to order one online. They...

I was going to ask where you came up with these numbers.... Not accurate at all. Dividing CC's by 15 isn't even close to hp (unless you have a supercharger to put on it too). It's more like divide by 25- almost 30. But there really isn't a common rule of thumb like that. RPMs - mowers are...

That first answer did answer your question but your questions were not the only ones that needed answered. Cutting tall grass is not just about engine power. It's mostly about discharging the grass out the side with a side discharge option that many have AND using the discharge deflector...

It's been a while since I've looked at a cv Kohler. I haven't seen many with the DSAM system etc. I don't see the big deal with them it the train they even did it. I know some kits come with flywheel so I guess some are different but why can't you use the standard coil that doesn't have or need...

Yes, the old horsepower wars and all the lies.. People worry about getting a 19 or 20.5 horsepower single engine for their repower when we have been using the exact same mowers with a 12 to 15 power for decades to cut the same lawns.. It's very odd that in Australia you have that type of...

All of my single cylinder lawn mower engines only have one piston in the engine. Some of them are also underpowered. 😂 Bahahahah

The facts are that all things being equal, you will have more fuel related problems with e10 ethanol fuel anywhere with pure fuel but - all things aren't equal for everyone and with all people. Lol I have found that using one ounce of fuel stabilizer with every gallon of fuel makes the e10...

An RPM reduction doesn't mean it's misfiring 100%. I guess we could get specific on how the definition of misfiring but it normally means when something is running fine on all cylinders some are most of the time but occasionally or every few seconds etc one of those cylinders stops firing either...

This is why I also like to keep an old sooty plug around for spark testing or at least pull one out of something else that I've just watched run because it's even harder to see the spark on a brand new shiny plug.

It's just not that big of a deal. I don't think I have used any gas that was ethanol free since 1998 or so. Everything in my area has been 10% ethanol since then. Prior to that even Meijer department store gas station had three grades and two of the three were ethanol free from what I remember...

Yep. More like barely over 7 to 1 compression ratio and 2900 RPMs for most things today. Lol You are so right though. People read something on the Internet and if it's conveyed to them in just a certain way they accept it as the gospel truth. SMH There's also a lot of information over the...

Okay, first of all stop taking heads off of engine to decarbonize anything because it's just a waste of time. Lol Secondly, always diagnose a problem before you do anything to it or change any parts. First thing you should determine when this happens is whether it doesn't have fuel or spark...

You hit the nail on the head when you talked about long-term storage and the fact that most people don't have these best conditions. We all hate these newer and the vast variety of these EPA nozzles but the only thing they do better is they keep the can airtight and keep the gas fresher longer...

I haven't found any of the premium fuels to store any better than the standard 87. I think most feelings that it is is just confirmational bias or some type of bias or wishful thinking. While some of those fuels, especially shell v power are probably excellent at keeping things clean when...

They are wrong. I would venture to say that even an extreme cases they are still wrong! There's a lot of crap on the internet and a lot of people that think things are true and then they say it and other people believe them. I'm not going to claim this next statement is absolute fact but I think...

My first response to him about this was to cancel out cylinders so that would quickly be determined. Lol

Well, the first thing I would probably do is grab the engine and try to twist it left and right to see if the mounting bolts are loose.. If everything is nice and tight I would put it at a medium speed and running on each cylinder by canceling out the other cylinder by removing the plug wire...

All this talk of safety switches and arguing back and forth.. Who cares at this point. The first thing to do is to test your coil and see if it's good or not. I gave the method of doing that in my first post. Also, keep the ohm meter put away because that test is worthless for a coil and it's...

The most surefire way to test a coil is to take the shroud off to get to it and unhook the small push on wire from it which is the kill switch. Note that this disables always of turning off the engine so if it does start be ready with a glove or a towel to pull the coil wire off the plug to stop...

Yes! The experience is worth a whole lot.. Just make sure you remember all that for next time you have a problem with something because many people don't and they just start replacing things. Lol I personally despise YouTube videos because about 90% of them do things either the hard way or the...

Toro actually does one of the better jobs of the residential grade ZTRs out there. They also seem to have some of the highest blade speed I've seen for residential mowers or maybe it's just deck design but they have a lot of vacuum and noise and do a very good job of being powerful and cutting...

About the only purpose removing both cables can do is the fact that it gives you a chance to inspect both cables for corrosion and taking them apart and putting them back on is liable too knock some corrosion off if there's any there and make a better connection than if it just sat there forever...

This is exactly why people really need to focus on the diagnostic skills when there is a problem with a piece of equipment. All too often people end up trying this or trying that which is basically throwing parts at a piece of equipment and typically on the 3rd or 4th time they luck out and get...