New member with weird noise coming from my mower.

Hey there,
I recently picked up a Lawn Boy 10227 Silver Series with the 2 cycle 4.75 HP "commercial engine." It's in decent shape and after I replaced the spark plug, the air filter, and adjusted the idle, it runs really well with seemingly no issues.

I just have one gripe that I'm hoping I can get help with - while mowing, the mower periodically makes this loud metallic buzzing/rattling sound that comes from the top. It is directly related to the pull cord. As the pull cord jumps around while mowing, I guess it pulls slightly a certain way and makes this noise. I can get rid of the noise by quickly fiddling with the cord handle, but it will come back when I go over another bump.

I also noticed that the noise will occur when the handle is shifted up and down. I guess this movement also puts tension on the pull cord and causes the noise. I can also duplicate the noise if I pull ever so slightly on the cord while it's sitting there idling. I imagine this noise has something to do with the pull start mechanism but I don't know much about how it works.

Anyone know why this happens and how I can fix it? Thanks a bunch.

I think what is happening is, the bouncing pull cord is partially engaging the starter dogs. My Duraforce 10323 model does this occasionally too. I wouldn't worry about it unless it happens all the time.

Jeff

jp1961 said:

I think what is happening is, the bouncing pull cord is partially engaging the starter dogs. My Duraforce 10323 model does this occasionally too. I wouldn't worry about it unless it happens all the time.

Jeff

Click to expand...

Thanks for the response. It does do it all the time and it's quite annoying to be honest - it's louder than the mower. Any way I can fix it?

It is possible if you take the recoil off and inspect you might be able to fix it very simply, for instance the bolts holding the recoil in place may be loose. Recoils are pretty durable, most issues are from rope breaking and getting wound up inside. Will have to drain tank.

You could try shortening the pull cord by two inches or so. My thinking is the rewind spring would put a little more tension on the cord keeping it taught. Don't cut it just tie a knot two or so inches from where the knot it now, just to see if that cures your problem. If the problem still exist, like stated above you'd have to remove the starter mechanism to see what's going on.

Jeff