10518 winter project

Just picked up a non running 10518. I don't see a lot on this site about this model.... Is that a good or bad thing?:wink:

yes you do.yours has an f motor and anything you need to knoww is right here.all you have to do is ask.there are some very knowledgeable people on this forum .

I remember seeing a trouble shooting guide/list but cannot find it now. Just want to check it over right and not replace parts that are not needed. I would guess the carb will need attention since it has sat for a while. So any detail in that regard would be great too.

Thanks all

check for spark first.no spark equals 23.00 for a new coil on ebay.try to attach a pic to this thread of it also if it is hard to push or roll backwards you have to regrease the transmission.here is a pic of mine

Well I finally had some time to mess with the mower. Took the carb off and cleaned it really good. All pieces looked to be fine. Shut off valve was leaking so I flipped the gasket, seemed to fix it. Still no worky... Seemed like a no spark situation. Got a new plug for starters. Nothin. Checked the coil, and all connections. Coil face was rusted over and pretty much touching the engine. Took it off sanded off the rust, put back on adjusted gap to two business cards worth. Put it all back together, started first pull! Yeah. Took the blade off, sharpened. Figured since I had that off I would pull off the muffler. Burnt off all the gunk with my torch and wire brush. Reassembled and cut the grass

Think I will hang on to it for a while.

Pic of the $21.69 mower. 20.00 for the mower and 1.69 for the CJ14 plug.

Good work but you are still leaking gas.its worth it to fix it This is Lawnboy's best model for reliability.I have two of this model and they are easier to work on than the Dura Force ones I have.

Not leaking gas at all. Flipping the gasket stopped the leak. Think I need to dig into the transmission next. May just be the belt. Can I swap that with out taking too much apart? Haven't really looked into that yet

Well the 10518 is the same mower as the 10515 and 10520 except the 10518 has the plastic carb and the 10515 and 10520 have the metal choke only walbro carb. They are the exact same mower except the plastic carb puts out 5 hp and the metal walbro puts out 4.5. I prefer the metal walbro over the plastic carb because you can adjust the wabro and you can't on the plastic modular carb. Another thing to check when you change the belt is that the set screw on the pulley hasn't sheared causing the pulley to just spin on the crank shaft. I saw one last year that had the whole sp system disabled and all that was wrong was the set screw and a belt. You have a keeper with the mower and the gold F's are the best of all the gold series. However i am seeing several of these later model F's have a problem with throwing rods so keep the engine governed correctly and sufficient lubrication. I am getting these mowers used and i don't want to start a debate about lean mixtures, but i would keep it very close to 32:1 mixture. If it were my machine and i was using the newer synthetic oils I believe you could get away with 50:1. Like i said I'm not trying to start a debate, just telling what i would do if it were my machine and i wanted to make sure i kept it running for many more years. I guess the way i look at it is that lawn boys were designed to run 32:1 and that is where mine will aways run. Congrats on the score and i hope this sheds some light on the model differences.

try this it worked for me take off the back wheels and clean it up then lube the zerk for the axle bearings and spay lithium grease on the axle gear and spocket on the wheel.dont use axle grease as it tends to pick up debris wipe off excess grease.changing out the transmission takes an hour or so and change it out as a unit you can rebuild the transmission but that takes a little longer.sometimes the grease inside the trans. is old and dried up and needs replacing with no.2 lithium grease not bearing grease.