New to the world of lawn equipment

Mrbill1

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Mar 4, 2019
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Hello, everyone. Thanks for allowing me to be a part of this forum. I'm retired and wanting to start a venture in lawn mower repair as a hobby. I took a mail order course last year to gain some knowledge. About the time I finished the course I was diagnosed with stage four throat cancer and had to cancel all my plans and get treatment. I ended up spending a month in the hospital with double pneumonia. It's been a slow road, but I am getting somewhat better and hope I'll be able to work outside again once the weather warms a bit. I'm sure I'll be seeking plenty of help. I live way out in the country so the idea of fixing lawn mowers for people probably won't go too far, as there just aren't many folks who live out here. So I'm thinking of keeping an eye out and find old non-working mowers and fix them up and reselling them. Any thoughts on these plans could be helpful to me.
 

NorthBama

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Welcome to the forum hope your new retirement venture works well for you. Hands on is the best way to learn repair good luck
 

bertsmobile1

Lawn Royalty
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Nov 29, 2014
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Glad to hear you are on the mend.
I bought the repair run 6 years ago and thought as I have been playing with vintage motorcycles it would be a doddle.
Thought was very much wrong.
For me Donny Boy & Taryl Fixes all were a Godsend and I managed to blow my download limit for nearly a full year, watching & rewatching.
Then I got called out to a JD443 which was a diesel so I had to fork out for the JD manual.
What a revelation, not only does it tell you how to fix every problem, but how to test everything the order things should be tested and better still how everything should work.
I spent another $ 500 buying at least one from each series .
After that nothing was a problem.
Six years on & I am getting to the point where I can recognise most problems from what I can hear , see or smell but it was a really steep learning curve.
Joined every mower, chain saw snow blower & garden forum so I could learn from other peoples problems
Good luck
 

Catherine

LawnWorld Support
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Jun 13, 2015
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:welcome:

Happy to have you here and it's good to hear you're doing a little better after that bump in the road!

You'll find plenty of discussions on mower repair here - and a few on making a business out of it :smile:
 

Rivets

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Mar 11, 2012
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I would start by going to your local repair shop and is if you can get an older Briggs or Tecumseh engine for free or no more than $25. Give us the model and serial numbers and we will find you a service manual. From that point you can work on getting it running. By going to the repair shop you will have a valuable source for parts and a brain to pick when you run into problems down the road.
 

NorthBama

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I would start by going to your local repair shop and is if you can get an older Briggs or Tecumseh engine for free or no more than $25. Give us the model and serial numbers and we will find you a service manual. From that point you can work on getting it running. By going to the repair shop you will have a valuable source for parts and a brain to pick when you run into problems down the road.

I thank that is a great suggestion good hands on training
 

bertsmobile1

Lawn Royalty
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Nov 29, 2014
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I would start by going to your local repair shop and is if you can get an older Briggs or Tecumseh engine for free or no more than $25. Give us the model and serial numbers and we will find you a service manual. From that point you can work on getting it running. By going to the repair shop you will have a valuable source for parts and a brain to pick when you run into problems down the road.

And note, Rivits said REPAIR shop. not big glass fronted retail outlet.
Most independent repair workshops will take the time to help you and of course they will usually have a source of quality after market parts.
If your local authority has road side clean up you can usually find plenty of dead outdoor equipment put out for collection.
And your local dump will usually sell old mowers & engines for scrap metal prices.
 

NorthBama

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And note, Rivits said REPAIR shop. not big glass fronted retail outlet.
Most independent repair workshops will take the time to help you and of course they will usually have a source of quality after market parts.
If your local authority has road side clean up you can usually find plenty of dead outdoor equipment put out for collection.
And your local dump will usually sell old mowers & engines for scrap metal prices.
Very good suggestions also
 

Mrbill1

Member
Joined
Mar 4, 2019
Threads
9
Messages
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Thanks for all the suggestions. During the time I was doing the course I did get a few engines that I tore apart just to
have hands on for how to tear down and get a better understanding of how each part worked. I do intend on getting other engines to work on. Our salvage yard use to be a good place to go looking for mowers and other things as they would sell it to you by weight. Then I guess they got new management or something because they suddenly started loading all the stuff onto trucks just as fast as it was brought in.
 
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