Can anyone help TLPower? He needs a new lawn mower engine. Again.
Thank you Rusty, how kind.
A cautionary tale to all of you who have full size horse sculptures in your gardens. Do not ever cut the lawn too close to the structures that secure said horses to the ground. If you are unlucky enough to hit one with a Mountfield petrol mower it will stop the engine very suddenly with sufficient force to bend the crankshaft.
The sensible ones amongst us would take this as some kind of salutary lesson and avoid the four legged bastards at all costs when cutting the lawn with your new mower.
Last Friday afternoon with the sun beaming, the birds singing and everything being well with the world I decided it was time for the weekly lawn mowing duties.
( I say lawn based on the fact that I put "stripes" in with a roller, mowing the lawn without stripes is merely cutting the grass. I digress.)
The front lawn (see above, stripes) was completed without incident, the rear lawn was started upon with me pushing the envelope of skill and sanity by cutting closer and closer to the equine twats.
The resulting collision stopped the engine dead (again), as an added bonus it deposited a significant amount of engine oil from it's bowels it an attempt to show me it was really hurt. Of course I decided to try and re-start the poor thing which to it's credit it did though now rather noisily and with a cloud of smoke a dreadnought would be proud of when "making smoke to escape".
Suspecting another bent crank I retreated to my lair, the Thunderbastard was replaced by the mortally wounded Briggs&Stratton lawnmower on the bike lift which now served as an operating table. Tipping the mower over and turning over the engine showed a blade giving an excellent impression of a long playing record that had spent too much time too close to a radiator. It also managed to pump the remainder of it's oily life blood out of it's various orifices.
Grim.
Undaunted I decided that it might just be wounded and not dead. I fashioned a dial gauge on the top of the crank and turned the engine, that appeared straight, the blade end definitely wasn't, but what if the aluminum blade mounting/rear drive boss was bent instead? All could be well?
I set to removing the boss
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/314028637129?hash=item491d90bbc9:g:-u4AAOSw first with a gentle tap, then heavier encouragement and finally my 4 pounder with chisel. The first few blows resulted in nothing more than a few bits of casting making their bids for freedom. Unperturbed I moved the chisel to a new spot and swung a hefty blow.
Unfortunately my aim was poor, instead of steel I hit the base of my thumb.
The pain was immediate and sufficient to pass straight to my bollocks and toes. My latex safety gloves provided a laughable amount of protection. I tentatively removed the glove to be greeted with a tennis ball sized swelling, fearing the worst I sent a pictorial message to Mrs Power who was out delivering grandson number one back to his parents. I mentioned I may need to visit A&E.
As the minutes passed I reasoned that the thumb still moved as did the rest of the digits. Other than the pulsating agony I decided that I could forego a visit. By the time Mrs Power arrived home the swelling had begun to subside with the aid of a cold compress.
Back to the mower.
A quick search on FB marketplace for a replacement engine threw up a likely candidate 45 minutes away. It had been for sale for 20 weeks, I feared the worst but messaged the seller, he replied immediately and a deal was struck for me to collect on Saturday morning. I gave him £10.00 and I was the proud owner of another B&S 450.
It was in a oil tight condition, he assured me it was a runner when he removed it...
I removed the dead engine, I attempted turn the new engine over on the bench to be greeted with it being a little tight. I removed the spark, plug and a large amount of oil spewed out, this did allow the engine to turn over freely. In an effort to clear the rest of the oil out I left it with the engine draining out of the spark plug hole.
I nonchalantly began fitting it into the mower, I even put some music on I was so confident all would be well.
I was wrong.
With everything refitted I attempted a start, this resulted in the pull cord being snatched out of my hand and the engine failing to turn a full revolution, I took the plug out again and it was covered in oil, it would spin over perfectly with the plug out suggesting the presence of oil still in the cylinder.
I removed the head and was treated to a dollop of oil stuck in the combustion chamber. It was teatime so in I went.
Today at just after eleven I started the de-coking process and general fettling, the older engine had a better looking plug cap so I swapped over the magneto, I drained the remaining oil and filled with new. Primed the carb and it started first pull with plenty of smoke which cleared eventually. I finished the remainder of the lawn from last Friday but kept away from the horses. And the bruising is slowly subsiding thank you for asking.
