joshuabardwell
Elite Member
Literally within hours of putting a new set of blades on my mower, I ran over a root in an area I have mowed a hundred times, and for some reason, this time I hung up a blade. Normally, when I hit something, the blade nicks and I cuss and go on, but this time, the brand new blade was totally ruined. Like, bent forty-five degrees and digging into the dirt. Brutal. I drove back up to the barn. I really didn't want to pull the deck back out from under the mower again so soon, so I just tipped the mower over onto its side, pulled off the blade, and set the mower back on its wheels.
Now, I knew that turning the mower on its side would jumble things up a little, but I was kind of mad, and the mower was due for an oil change anyway, so I figured what's the worst that could happen? The next day, a fresh set of blades was installed, the oil was changed, a new air filter was on, and I was ready to go.
Not quite. The old air filter was covered with oil and fuel where (apparently) the oil leaked out the air intake when I set the mower on its side. The muffler had also leaked a watery oil/fuel mixture. The presence of fuel is most likely explained by the fact that, two years ago, ethanol ate my carburetor, and now it leaks fuel slowly into the oil if I don't use the cutoff valve that I installed in my fuel line. Every time I'm done mowing, I cutoff the fuel and let the carb run dry. But maybe there were a few times when I turned off the mower for a few minutes without running the carb dry and leaked some fuel into the oil. Anyway...
The mower wouldn't start. Ugh. The next thing I did was pull the new air filter. No dice. Clean the plug. No dice. Check spark. Good to go. Shot of starting fluid. Engine fires up but won't run. After a few bursts of starting fluid, I noticed additional oily fluid coming from the muffler, so I thought the muffler might be clogged up and I pulled it. Finally, the engine ran, emitting clouds of white smoke. I killed it and reinstalled the muffler, then fired it up again. Again, it ran, but the muffler was smoking--my best guess is oily mess burning off. I grabbed a fire extinguisher and continued to observe.
After a while, the smoke had all stopped and everything seemed to be going okay, so I took the mower out to finish mowing that field. After about ten minutes, though, the mower started surging, losing power, and trying to stall. I limped it back to the barn where it finally stalled out.
Oh, by the way, in all the cranking with the starting fluid and such, the solenoid, which had kind of been trying to die, finally gave up the ghost. So now I'm cranking by putting a jump-start battery pack on the starter lug and hitting it with 12 volts.
Now, I noticed that the muffler had a white substance caked on its grille, where before it was black. I thought maybe the oily film had cooked off and left some kind of residue in the motor, so I pulled the plug and cleaned it again. Where before it was wet and black, now it was dry and... well, still kind of black. So I brushed it off with some acetone and a wire brush. But even before I cleaned it, it was sparking away, so I don't know.
And that's where we stand, ladies and gentlemen. Tomorrow, when the engine has cooled off and it's light again, I'll give it another go. Hopefully, the loss of power and stalling had something to do with a fouled plug from something cooking on, and everything will be okay. If not, then I have no idea where to go from here.
Anyway, the moral of the story: just pull the dang deck when you need to change your blades. No matter how frustrated you are, tipping the mower on its side will just make more trouble.
Now, I knew that turning the mower on its side would jumble things up a little, but I was kind of mad, and the mower was due for an oil change anyway, so I figured what's the worst that could happen? The next day, a fresh set of blades was installed, the oil was changed, a new air filter was on, and I was ready to go.
Not quite. The old air filter was covered with oil and fuel where (apparently) the oil leaked out the air intake when I set the mower on its side. The muffler had also leaked a watery oil/fuel mixture. The presence of fuel is most likely explained by the fact that, two years ago, ethanol ate my carburetor, and now it leaks fuel slowly into the oil if I don't use the cutoff valve that I installed in my fuel line. Every time I'm done mowing, I cutoff the fuel and let the carb run dry. But maybe there were a few times when I turned off the mower for a few minutes without running the carb dry and leaked some fuel into the oil. Anyway...
The mower wouldn't start. Ugh. The next thing I did was pull the new air filter. No dice. Clean the plug. No dice. Check spark. Good to go. Shot of starting fluid. Engine fires up but won't run. After a few bursts of starting fluid, I noticed additional oily fluid coming from the muffler, so I thought the muffler might be clogged up and I pulled it. Finally, the engine ran, emitting clouds of white smoke. I killed it and reinstalled the muffler, then fired it up again. Again, it ran, but the muffler was smoking--my best guess is oily mess burning off. I grabbed a fire extinguisher and continued to observe.
After a while, the smoke had all stopped and everything seemed to be going okay, so I took the mower out to finish mowing that field. After about ten minutes, though, the mower started surging, losing power, and trying to stall. I limped it back to the barn where it finally stalled out.
Oh, by the way, in all the cranking with the starting fluid and such, the solenoid, which had kind of been trying to die, finally gave up the ghost. So now I'm cranking by putting a jump-start battery pack on the starter lug and hitting it with 12 volts.
Now, I noticed that the muffler had a white substance caked on its grille, where before it was black. I thought maybe the oily film had cooked off and left some kind of residue in the motor, so I pulled the plug and cleaned it again. Where before it was wet and black, now it was dry and... well, still kind of black. So I brushed it off with some acetone and a wire brush. But even before I cleaned it, it was sparking away, so I don't know.
And that's where we stand, ladies and gentlemen. Tomorrow, when the engine has cooled off and it's light again, I'll give it another go. Hopefully, the loss of power and stalling had something to do with a fouled plug from something cooking on, and everything will be okay. If not, then I have no idea where to go from here.
Anyway, the moral of the story: just pull the dang deck when you need to change your blades. No matter how frustrated you are, tipping the mower on its side will just make more trouble.
