oliver2-44 9,726 #1 Posted June 20, 2021 So my neighbor was rolling this push mower to the trash when I was setting our cart out. He said it would not start and not worth cost to send to shop. Sadly he’s a throw away guy. I haven’t ent had a push mower in a long time but one of my sons may need one soon. Interesting there is no throttle or choke or kill switch. It is a push-not self propelled. What looks like a handle to engage a self propelled drive go to a brake that rides on the flywheel to kill it. Everything shows very little wear, not even ANY nicks in blade, just grass stain. He said it just quit running???? But he’s not very mechanical maintenance minded I checked and It has good strong spark. Sprayed some gas in Carb got nothing. I pulled the cover and flywheel key didn’t look bent/sheared. I didn’t have metric bolts for my puller to pull flywheel. Checked compression with choke propped open got 60psi. Seems lawful low for as new as this mower looks. The inside of the muffler outlet is still silver painted. I have not found anything on line to make me think this has a compression release So I pulled overhead valve cover and verified both valves are moving and had clearance. What am I missing ?? it had new looking clean oil in it when I got it. Did he maybe run it with no oil and kill the rings? 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Yossarian 208 #2 Posted June 20, 2021 Until some one smarter than me comes along (next post, I'm sure) I'd put fresh gas and some Sea Foam in it, pull the cord a dozen times and let it sit over night. At least that has worked for me more times than it probably should. If the guy isn't mechanically inclined I'd bet he doesn't bother with fresh, non-ethanol gas either. Last year my wife decided she wanted a push mower. A friend of hers gave her a Toro self propelled deal with a Briggs engine. Same thing, no throttle, choke, or primer. Everything I have is old and half broken so it confused the heck out of me. It started but had quite a lope to it. Fresh gas and a little Sea Foam, tied the bail down and let it run until empty. It's been going strong for over a year now. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wallfish 16,994 #3 Posted June 20, 2021 Maybe take the plug out and shoot a squirt directly into the cylinder. Replace plug and give it a yank. That would by pass the carb. 3 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tunahead72 2,412 #4 Posted June 20, 2021 3 hours ago, oliver2-44 said: ... Interesting there is no throttle or choke or kill switch.... .. The inside of the muffler outlet is still silver painted... It may have an automatic choke. Is there anything clogging the muffler outlet? A mud dauber nest or something similar? 1 hour ago, wallfish said: I'm dealing with trigger finger these days, just watching this little video is killing my hand! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Achto 27,562 #5 Posted June 21, 2021 4 hours ago, oliver2-44 said: Interesting there is no throttle or choke or kill switch. It is a push-not self propelled. What looks like a handle to engage a self propelled drive go to a brake that rides on the flywheel to kill it. No throttle = Discontinued by Briggs & Stratton when they finally got fed up with warranty claims from people lugging the engine and causing ring damage. Automatic choke on the late model engines. The engine brake / kill handle = The result of a law suit after a push mower was used outside it's normal design. Basically the manufacturers being forced to dumb things down to the lowest denominator possible. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
oliver2-44 9,726 #6 Posted June 21, 2021 1 minute ago, Achto said: Basically the manufacturers being forced to dumb things down to the lowest denominator possible. Sadly I agree. 58 minutes ago, tunahead72 said: It may have an automatic choke. Is there anything clogging the muffler outlet? A mud dauber nest or something similar? yes it has an automatic choke. good thought about checking the muffler outlet. 3 hours ago, wallfish said: Maybe take the plug out and shoot a squirt directly into the cylinder. Replace plug and give it a yank. That would by pass the carb. yep, I actually shot some starting fluid into the cylinder, but got nothing, not even aa cough or puff. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
WHNJ701 4,165 #7 Posted June 21, 2021 The throw away society in nj, you can pick up a dozen mowers up every weekend. I can't tell you how many I picked up and the air filters were plugged solid. Our system was if you can't get it running in 15 minutes, we would pull the engine if it had a good deck, wait for the next round of free mowers and swap in engine. What didn't sell over the summer all went for scrap in the fall Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Crazyredhorse 295 #8 Posted June 21, 2021 plastic carb they are getting cheap Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
