smollenhauer
Forum Newbie
- Joined
- Jun 2, 2014
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I've got a Simplicity Champion ZTR with B&S 20 HP Vanguard 35877-0280-E1 engine. Residential use only, 10 years old, 500 hours. Last summer it was running rough and the dealer overhauled the carburetor. Still ran rough, burning gas faster than it used to. In March the dealer performed "winter maintenance," replacing all filters, plugs, fluids, etc. Brought it home and was puffing black smoke out the exhaust and still running rough, sounding like it wasn't getting up to full power at full throttle. It deteriorated over 4 cuttings (about 2 hours per week cutting) and ran rough/inconsistently at idle and full throttle.
Dealer tech says ignition coils. I'm tired of spending $400 every time I take it in, so I thought I'd tackle this myself. A co-worker of mine has done much of this kind of work himself and said to sand the face of the coils to remove the rust, and also the flywheel. Then set the gap between the magnetos and flywheel to about the thickness of a business card and try it again. Before I removed the magnetos, it looked like the gap was pretty narrow to begin with.
What I'm looking for here, as the title suggests, is whether to bother with the sanding of the flywheel and magnetos or just order the parts. I suppose cleaning up the flywheel is a good idea even if I replace the magnetos. Do I need to be mindful of turning the flywheel as a run my little detail sander? Is there an alignment indicator for timing on this engine?
First time doing anything more than changing plugs and scraping crud out of the deck, so I'm open to all guidance.
Dealer tech says ignition coils. I'm tired of spending $400 every time I take it in, so I thought I'd tackle this myself. A co-worker of mine has done much of this kind of work himself and said to sand the face of the coils to remove the rust, and also the flywheel. Then set the gap between the magnetos and flywheel to about the thickness of a business card and try it again. Before I removed the magnetos, it looked like the gap was pretty narrow to begin with.
What I'm looking for here, as the title suggests, is whether to bother with the sanding of the flywheel and magnetos or just order the parts. I suppose cleaning up the flywheel is a good idea even if I replace the magnetos. Do I need to be mindful of turning the flywheel as a run my little detail sander? Is there an alignment indicator for timing on this engine?
First time doing anything more than changing plugs and scraping crud out of the deck, so I'm open to all guidance.