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If the first person on the phone is clueless, I ask for a higher tier of support. I work in Audio/Video/Networking and major brands that once had people who really knew their products, even going back decades, have gone on to some other job, likely thanks to COVID layoffs. They filled seats...

They can't provide T-Shirts with 'Righty-tighty- lefty loosey'?

I managed to do something that required my removing the chute and it has that stupid little retainer- why didn't they use a bolt and nylock nut? I know, I know, "Cost down", but c'mon!

It's great, having specialty shops.

Head bolts are often brittle after they become 'work hardened'- he's not inexperienced in general, just with these engines, which don't require much torque.

The dealer obviously wants NOBODY to go back to them, since they're lying to customers. EVERYTHING is available, if someone knows where to look. For almost any terminals, Del City is one distributor that sells them- I found out about them when I went to MasterCraft boat service training- someone...

I was thinking of the Packard/Weatherpack connectors used by GM- you can spray water directly onto them from any angle but the terminals were definitely not making good contact. The wires are still flexible, so I doubt the strands have broken and the lights still work. The main Molex is...

I looking at/working on the Ariens, I was a bit surprised to see unsealed Molex connectors, thin wire, bad head bolt distribution (the cause of the head gasket failures) and then, there's the headlights being fed AC Voltage because the alternator can't deliver enough to power them with DC. That...

They don't let us have stockades in the city. Oh, we have them, but they're well-hidden. :)

Where did you add the relay- show photos and a diagram. Is it activated by the crank wire and bypassing that wire, with tab 87 connected to the battery and tab 30 connected to the solenoid? Adding a relay strikes me as similar to adding a fuel filter when the original one becomes clogged. Has...

I'm in the Milwaukee area- that's the reason I installed a heater in my garage. Nothing coming out of the solenoid= bad solenoid, possibly from excessive crank times with discharged/old battery, possibly from poor quality if this part is a wide spread problem. When I went through my Ariens...

Did you test the starter after pulling it?

The Nimblewill.

All I can say is, I hope that stuff never makes it into my lawn.

Paint for lawn stripes is available- why does it need to be blue? I have seen lawns removed, tilled, rolled and a layer of looser soil distributed on top for seeding or sod. The new roots will loosen the bottom layer, as long as it can't become too dry. I don't know where you live or the soil...

I would drop it off at a waste disposal site- it's only one gallon. Or, if someone has a burn pile, use it for that.

Was the new foam fire-resistant, too? That's the material that kills people faster than anything, not the cover fabric. I have a friend who owns an upholstery shop (he has done a lot of aircraft seats & interiors, too)- they recover tractor seats all the time and in fact, we know some people...

Can't fix broken gas. Good thing it was only a gallon.

How can you prevent a super concentrate from affecting the new turf if it rains after application? Is the lawn flat? If it is, why not use a weed & feed/pre-emergent, let that do its job and overseed, to let the new grass crowd the weeds out?

I have to wonder if the people who buy these are proud of the fact that it has the brand name of the mower. I don't understand that thinking.

That's not 'fair trade', that's price fixing- fair trade is for developing countries, so they can receive better price for their products. Did you mean 'free trade'? That was outlawed a long time ago. Setting prices can be done- MAP is Minimum Advertised price but if the dealer wants to sell...

Does the drive shaft have an intermediate bearing? Could that be the source of the rattle?

Why does the plug need to be Cub Cadet brand? That would be similar to buying headlights or wiper blades with Chevrolet on them- the company that sells products don't make the parts, so generic is going to be cheaper and a better alternative may be available.

But they could at least look for the best price! I guess that consider that gouge equal to the local price because their time it so effing valuable, eh? I mean, driving a long distance vs online is fine but not if it involves grabbing the handles to assume the position. BOHICA! And these are...

Why would anyone buy from them when everyone has this plug for much less?

I have one area in the back yard that goes dormant, so I watered it a few times this week and will cut the whole lawn after it grows a bit more- waiting for more leaves to fall. We need rain- it's not growing fast, so I hope the snow waits until I get the leaves off- we're not supposed to see...

I put a starter kill in my '83 Cutlass after it was stolen (and recovered about 20 minutes later, when the guy kicked the metal collar onto the asphalt as he got out of the car at an intersection where a bunch of cops were handling another call). That worked great at car washes and they always...

My friend who worked in V8 Powertrain Development at the GM Desert Proving Ground until about 2002 drives a 1995 Chevy Silverado- he could easily buy new vehicles but why, so he can be stylish and trendy? Not that type and because he has a 2400 square foot garage with a lift IN the floor with...

My next door neighbor has someone service her mower and snowblower but she wasn't great at starting them, so I showed her after she came over to ask since mine always start easily. I explained that pulling the cord slowly a few times draws gas into the cylinder and builds compression. The...

And it's easy enough to find out if it will be a problem- shake the container and pour some into a clean, clear bottle. If it's cloudy, let the gas in the gas can settle, then pour the good gas into a different container so the water can be removed. I stopped filling my 5 gallon container and...

I'm familiar with Carlysle, having worked at boat dealers and seeing that brand on so many trailers, although they had a bad reputation for awhile but that was likely due to being overloaded, over/under inflated or generally abused. I have used Kenda on my bicycles for a long time and they last...

Update- probably corrosion on the terminals- I tested the lights separately, found that one socket was definitely corroded when I disconnected the plug at the hood & connected a battery, cleaned it and that problem was solved. The switch was good, checked any other connections and after sliding...

I have an Ariens 42" riding mower and the front tires don't have much tread so they slip on hard turns- do the least expensive replacements last long, or should I spend a few bucks more and buy something else? It has Carlysle tires now. Rims are spotless, so I'll just replace the tires.

I was wrong- one fuel line was on my 2 stage, which I still have and I still have the second paddle type, which is much newer. That's true- one is gone, still have the other so I'l look (it's covered). I checked the lines for internal delamination & blockage and found nothing, but I have had...

The shut off valve is a good thing to have, as long as it's not too far from the carb- changing a short piece of fuel line isn't a big deal. I had two different paddle type snow throwers that stopped working well- they ran fine for awhile, then it was like they just had nothing more to give...

Those are the double beam that click, right? The beam wrenches are good unless you can't fit behind something to see the fastener and scale.

Perfect, no, but with Aluminum parts, it's not a bad idea to be more precise. With cast iron, it's not as critical in most cases but in a case like the Briggs that really should have had a bolt where the gasket fails so frequently, undershooting the torque will just make it fail sooner and...

The question of "What should I do if it doesn't meet spec?" needs to be considered, too. That's the main thing preventing me buying a used torque wrench- repairing isn't cheap.

I have seen that, but as I posted, I bought the torque adapter and won't use an in-lb wrench often, unless I find myself working on bicycles and mowers more often.

These are a bit like crotch rocket engines- wind it out and the power is there (measurable) but there's not much torque behind them. I bought a bagger attachment for the Ariens 42" and the seller had replaced their 46" with a light commercial model because the cost wasn't much higher, but the...

I haven't seen small engines that were anything but normally aspirated, so displacement still matters. These don't have super/turbochargers or gearboxes that multiply torque in the way cars & trucks do, so crankshaft offset and piston diameter are about the best ways to increase torque...

To the OP- The saying in drag racing "There's no replacement for displacement' is still valid for these, but we're working with much smaller engines and in order to really see the effect of a larger engine for this purpose, we need to look at the whole machine. As an example, the 17.5HP Briggs...

The manufacturers could have been made to show HP and Torque in the way many other engines are rated, but it would confuse the people who don't care about or understand car performance- show a Power and Torque curve and where it was connected to the measurement device- crank or at some point...

But if you think about it, fractional measurements came about when most people couldn't read and many couldn't write, but they could make marks on a stick and divide it, visually- no calculations needed. Decide on a unit (usually by the King), in feet or inches, use it until a smaller increment...

Metric was introduced as a way to prevent people working on their own stuff? Recent 'right to repair' legislation is an attempt to change that but it's beyond late. 'Shade tree mechanics' have, and will always, exist. People who are mechanically inclined have always been able to figure out how...

Is it called belt dressing? It can work for the short term, but if the belt is glazed, it should be replaced.

How much gas was in the tank? If the tank outlet is above the fuel, well, we know what happens. It also won't run well if there's not much gas in the tank because the pump still needs some fuel pressure at its inlet. If it doesn't have a pump, make sure the fuel line isn't routed too high...

For future reference, starters are supposed to be serviced at some point- preferably annually. Boat starters freeze because the Bendix shaft isn't lubed and these would be the same- turn the gear opposite of the normal direction and the gear will move, so the shaft can be lubed. If you lube the...

How do they measure HP now and why does the change from cu inches to Metric matter? HP is a calculated value, just like Newton-Meters or Joules.