OP
alchemysa
Veteran Member
I can finally put a happy ending on this story.
Apparently these permanent magnet starters can't be rewound so I gave it a general cleanup, refitted it, and crossed my fingers. It still wouldn't get past the compression stroke so I then looked at valve clearance. At a glance they didn't seem far out (and I couldnt work out how to adjust them anyway) so I figured it was still a starter problem. So I removed the starter again and found a mower shop. New starter 300 to $400! Hmmm... I think I'll take a closer look at the valves first. The mower guy kindly tells me how to adjust them. (Doh! Theres a screw like an allen key inside the rocker nut).
Back to the mower, refit the old starter, adjust the valves so theres almost no clearance, and turn it over. Brroom, brroom..perfect. So it was the valves all along. Thank you gentlemen for your advice, especially iplayfarmer and shotgun. You were spot on and saved me from wasting money on a new starter. I've played with a lot of engines but I never would have thought a tiny valve adjustment could stop a motor from turning over.
(The reason this saga took so long is because its a 600 km round trip to the mower and back. We do the trip about every three weeks. It took two trips to work through all this.)
Apparently these permanent magnet starters can't be rewound so I gave it a general cleanup, refitted it, and crossed my fingers. It still wouldn't get past the compression stroke so I then looked at valve clearance. At a glance they didn't seem far out (and I couldnt work out how to adjust them anyway) so I figured it was still a starter problem. So I removed the starter again and found a mower shop. New starter 300 to $400! Hmmm... I think I'll take a closer look at the valves first. The mower guy kindly tells me how to adjust them. (Doh! Theres a screw like an allen key inside the rocker nut).
Back to the mower, refit the old starter, adjust the valves so theres almost no clearance, and turn it over. Brroom, brroom..perfect. So it was the valves all along. Thank you gentlemen for your advice, especially iplayfarmer and shotgun. You were spot on and saved me from wasting money on a new starter. I've played with a lot of engines but I never would have thought a tiny valve adjustment could stop a motor from turning over.
(The reason this saga took so long is because its a 600 km round trip to the mower and back. We do the trip about every three weeks. It took two trips to work through all this.)
