Small Engine Repair?

[Fish]

Time is worth nothing if the alternative is sitting on the couch.
The money is made by using that spare time to get to understand what make machinery and engines tick and be able to fix/maintain one's own equipment.
And that goes from the tiniest engine in a weed eater to whatever equipment one has incl tractors and cars or trucks.
The only thing i farm out is a crank grind or a head resurface cause i don't have the dedicated equipment(to costly)
other than that everything else is Do It My Self.

Crank grind?? Head resurface? What mower shop does that?

 

[Bison]

Crank grind?? Head resurface? What mower shop does that?

I was talking about engine repairs in general, of course mower shops don't do crank grinding, one has to go to an engine machine shop for these things.
Lawnmowers are pretty much throw away these days ,..hardly worth having a lawn shop even look at it. One is often better off to buy new.
Lawn tractors of course is a different story.

 

[exotion]

I was talking about engine repairs in general, of course mower shops don't do crank grinding, one has to go to an engine machine shop for these things.
Lawnmowers are pretty much throw away these days ,..hardly worth having a lawn shop even look at it. One is often better off to buy new.
Lawn tractors of course is a different story.

I disagree. Mowers are not throw away people are just lazy... The exception is the simple push Murray with a 3.5 b&s engine at Walmart the machine is 100 to invest any more in repairs is in fact dumb.

People nowadays get scared when they take a machine they spent $300+ and have a shop give them a quote for a third of that price to repair. So instead of spending $100 for a repair they go spend another $300+ on another machine treat it the same and have it happen again. If the shop would have repair it and the person took care it would last a very long time.

Even the "throw away" mtd and craftsman mowers are worth repairing so stop being lazy and fix the machine.... It's an investment take care of it.

 

[motoman]

You know if you got the bug...love tinkering and fixing . Without training you will make lots of mistakes, but gradually the skill will come. The joy of small engines is that a lot is bench work, and does not demand larger facilities. Plus you can probably work in a heated area. How many are motivated and actually do their own work? I will guess no more than 20%. That does not hurt the small engine repair shops too much, does it?

 

[exotion]

You know if you got the bug...love tinkering and fixing . Without training you will make lots of mistakes, but gradually the skill will come. The joy of small engines is that a lot is bench work, and does not demand larger facilities. Plus you can probably work in a heated area. How many are motivated and actually do their own work? I will guess no more than 20%. That does not hurt the small engine repair shops too much, does it?

Ya probably not I enjoy my own work and I learned by messing up and reading a lot. Still some things I have not dealth with but if I run into them ill try my best. I think people should try their own work its really not difficult. It's just like replacing brake pads on cars people are just to afraid to mess with that when in reality its really quite simple.