How not to change your mower blades

[stuckmotor]

Joshua,
I don't think you flipped your Bobcat on it's side. What kind of mower are we dealing with here?
Stuck

 

[joshuabardwell]

I don't think you flipped your Bobcat on it's side. What kind of mower are we dealing with here?

Just a little Murray 12 HP, 40" cut riding mower. I would have been much more careful with my tractor!!!

 

[Egon]

I've considered this, but I'm not sure I could turn the bolt loose from under there, since I don't have an impact wrench to spin it off with.

Socket and long handle.

 

[Jackspaw]

Draining your oil sounds like a real good idea. I would go ahead do that oil change too. Let it drain over night with the filter and spark plug out. If you can drain the fuel from the carb id try that too. Your muffler is not supposed to be on fire. Be careful and good luck.

 

[joshuabardwell]

Well, cleaning the spark plug didn't fix the remaining issue. After about 15-20 minutes of running, the motor starts hunting (I can see the governor wobbling back and forth) and wanting to stall under load. Eventually it gets to the point where I can't baby it any more and it stalls out and won't start again until it cools. Cross my fingers that a fresh spark plug will fix it, because that's the only thing left I haven't changed.

 

[joshuabardwell]

Draining your oil sounds like a real good idea. I would go ahead do that oil change too. Let it drain over night with the filter and spark plug out. If you can drain the fuel from the carb id try that too. Your muffler is not supposed to be on fire. Be careful and good luck.

Oil change is done. Actually, the oil change was done twice, because after it stalled out, I pushed it back into the barn and forgot to cut off the fuel, so the next morning I had fuel drained down into the oil, and had to drain out all the fresh oil and put another batch in.

 

[stuckmotor]

I mentioned the carb draining into the oil to the counter man where I bought my Snapper. He said they were told to rebuild the carb the first time it happened. If it happened again to replace the carb.

 

[joshuabardwell]

I mentioned the carb draining into the oil to the counter man where I bought my Snapper. He said they were told to rebuild the carb the first time it happened. If it happened again to replace the carb.

Yeah. The problem is that the gasket on the float is worn, or alternatively the needle is worn (I'm not sure which), but given what the mower overall is worth, I'm not inclined to buy the rebuild kit. I'm basically just trying to limp this thing along until it gives up the ghost--which, if I keep flipping it on its side and stuff like that, will be sooner rather than later.

I've done a bit more research and apparently "excessive" use of starting fluid can sometimes "wash" the cylinder walls and cause the engine to lose compression. A suggested solution is to squirt a little oil into the cylinder in hopes of it re-seating the rings. I'm not sure why that makes sense, since the cylinder should be bathed in oil all the time, right? I dunno. Does the symptom I'm having sound consistent with that?

 

[joshuabardwell]

Well, I squirted some oil into the spark plug hole, on the advice of The Internet. This did not fix the problem; in fact, it so thoroughly fouled the plug that I had to go out to get a new plug. Fortunately, that was on my troubleshooting checklist anyway. After installing the new plug, the mower fired up and... died after running for ten minutes.

If this mower wasn't on its last legs to begin with, this is where I'd take it to a small engine repair shop, because I'm out of troubleshooting ability. Instead, I think I'm going to take the $150-$200 that I would spend on a repair, and look for another mower-on-its-last-legs to buy from somebody else. My neighbor's got one parked in his barn for the last year that apparently has nothing wrong with it except it won't crank. Thankfully, starters are something I feel pretty confident troubleshooting (trace 12v from battery to starter, replace the thing that is not passing 12v), so maybe he'll sell it to me for a song.

 

[stuckmotor]

Concerning the washed cylinders. I had a push mower that would quit after a few minutes and wouldn't start back until it cooled down. I don't remember it hunting, though. Anyhow, it had recently had new rings installed so, I don't think lack of compresion was my problem. I suspected the coil, the problem there, was that a new coil would have cost more than the mower was worth. I never solved my problem. Hopefully, your luck will be better.