My mower repair thread

I haven't accomplished much, I've been on vacation for a week and have been cleaning up the yard in anticipation of the hurricane and leaving for work for a week. I did pick up a lovely Briggs 80201, serial number starts with 66 so that may be the year? With the copper paint the time frame seems right. It runs, has a pulley on it and I'm wondering what to do with it. Maybe a neat power generator?
 
I've been away from home for work for a week, and haven't done much on mowers this month, I feel like such a slacker.

Today I picked up 2 mowers, one is nothing special but this Husqvarna built Weed Eater looked promising. The engine was seized and the recoil bound up. Both of the mowers were badly neglected, being left in the rain for I assume was a few years. I lightly tapped the blade to free up the engine, checked the oil, added fuel and gave it a few pulls after tending to the recoil. I drained the carb and it was an orange goo that came out, so I decided to take the carb apart and clean it. It started and ran for a while, then spent some time surging. I adjusted the governor and it helped a bit but still surging. The fuel hose is badly cracked so I figure it's to blame. I cleaned the carb knowing I'd have to do it again after changing the hose for good measure but wanted to have a good measure of how it ran. I like this engine, it is labelled as a Husqvarna as well but I have a feeling it may be a Honda clone, even the carb looks just like the clone part I put on my Honda HR194 last month, same manufacturing logo and everything. I looked around and I happened to have a bag that fits, it says Craftsman on it but it is a perfect fit, I doubt a future owner will mind.


I need to clean the car, so when I do I'll pressure wash this machine to see how well it cleans up. I still need to replace or clean up the rusted wheel bolts and replace that fuel line, but it should be good to go this week. These pics are as I got it, minus the bag that I test fit prior to photo time.
 
What I find interesting is that the Husqvarna web page shows the mowers being equipped with Honda or Briggs engines, but not with their own brand of engines, while this Weed Eater engine is labelled as a Husky.
 
Here she is cleaned up, pics taken with my lame camera's phone. I really need to buy a new camera since the processor broke on my old one. Cleaned up nicely I'd say. The high pressure jet even got rid of the white oxidation buildup to make the block look nice as it should. I tried to start it tonight and only got a few seconds at a time, so something's plugged up again, not a big worry since I didn't expect it to run in the first place given that the engine was seized when I got it. If after the fuel line is replaced and the carb is cleaned it still won't run, I'll take apart and clean the Honda carb I removed and I'll swap it over. If that carb will work with a good cleaning it will go back onto the Honda, and the ebay replacement will go on this Weed Eater. I may try that anyways just to get the OEM carb back onto it. I like this one, but have a hard time justifying another mower as a "keeper", although the HR194 is awfully heavy for an aluminum decked mower, and plugs up very quickly. Nah, can't keep this one, has to be sold...



I haven't even taken the other mower out of the van yet, I was focused on this one. All I know is that the other mower has a Briggs flat head and is also seized, but if it's seized in the same manner as this one it shouldn't be an issue. I have a couple of self propelled from earlier that I'd like to get out the door this week too to make sure I don't have too much stock over the winter. Anything with a junk deck will be torn apart by that point and categorized on the shelf.
 
Good job on the cleaning. It looks new!

That car in the background tho.. Has a flat and it looks like that lower scurt is all bent.
 
That's actually just a fabric cover and the wheels are really only on there so I can push the car around if I need to. When I get my garage built it's going straight onto a lift or a rotisserie. The car is a '77 Toyota Celica.

The Weed eater is still not running reliably. It'll run for 10 minutes and then stall, one primer pump and it will start again for a few minutes. I'll clean the barb again in case it's something that was in the tank that made it's way into the carb. The motor is pretty darn close to my old Honda, the only difference in the carb is that this one doesn't have a manual choke, and when running it's much less refined.

The othe rmower I picked up at the same time is a newer Murray made since Briggs bought them out and put their logo on everything. I unseized the engine gently and it runs, however the governor is in the crank case, not air and spring style like the older ones and it was seized, and not is sticky so it won't move on it's own. I'll either convert it to manual throttle or to the old style governor, but the body is almost flawless. I'll keep an eye out on the driveway where I got them because if they buy a new mower every year because of the neglect, then I can make a few bucks off of them. I have a good Quantum on another deck, so I may just throw that on the Weed Eater and deal with the Honda clone another time.
 
This is the red Murray that I picked up with the green Weed Eater. A quick rundown, this one was seized and took only a light tapping to free it up with a bit of oil in the cylinder to help. The governor was also seized, but I worked it loose by tapping and prying with some pliers, then I let it soak in motor oil, worked it in, dripped more oil on it and repeated a few times. New fuel was added to replace what looked like cloudy apple cider in the tank, then an adjustment to the governor spring bracket to increase throttle and it's good to go. I didn't have to spend one dime on this one. The before shot is actually cleaner than when I got it because when I first started it, half the crud on the deck shook off.





After






I'm not too pleased with the Chonda motor on the Weed Eater, it now isn't getting fuel again other that when primed. I haven't cleaned out the tank and carb again like I planned to, but I tried to start it with little success today. Not screwing around with it anymore for now, I think it'll go on a shelf and I'll put an always reliable Quantum on there. I have my eye on a 2000 Jetta TDI that I'm pretty sure just needs a $20 relay (the famous relay 109), so I want to try to make $500 in sales in the next few days. Think I can pull it off? I commuter car that's cheaper to run than the gas hog 2011 Grand Caravan.
 
Slow due to the rain non stop here. If I don't get the Jetta or don't reach the sales volumes I want, I found a Stiga Park re-branded as a Noma Canadiana rather cheap. They are neat, and from reviews, very well built articulating mowers.

Only one hit on the Murray today, buddy offered less than half the asking price and wanted delivery for that price. Umm... No.
 
Wow, nothing but lowballers lately trying to get a good mower almost free. This is not the trend from earlier this year.
 
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