Lawn mower repair for frustration and loss

[cajunfj40]

Originally Posted by Xist

Do you think snowblower systems are not designed to tolerate the heat because they are designed to work when it is below freezing?

Not sure what you are asking. You've got some embedded assumptions in that question that I am having trouble unpacking.

Gas rigs have a shroud around the intake and exhaust to heat the intake air, so jetting isn't necessarily different than for summer. One carburetor for both summer and winter engine models would be cheaper, too. Just a different housing - air cleaner for summer, heat stove for winter. One could make an engine cheaper for winter with shorter cooling fins, less cooling air shrouding, shorter cooling fan fins, etc. but I am not sure it would be worth the inventory and tooling costs to do two separate lines.

The 120V corded electric one I have was cheap, so it would overheat when overloaded just like a corded electric lawnmower or a shop vac or similar would. It has a thermoelectric switch in it so it just clicked off. Wait a minute or few and it would turn back on again. Maybe they used a smaller cooling fan and/or motor and were depending on colder air to keep it from overheating too much, but I don't know. I haven't torn it apart. Pretty sure it is a simple brushed "universal" motor in there - series wound motor of the same basic construction as a series wound DC motor but with laminated stator and rotor rather than solid to minimize eddy current heating when used with AC.

[Xist]

I tried starting without the filter and there was not a difference. The spark plug and hole are oily. I sprayed WD40 and carburetor cleaner, twisted a rag in there, and repeated a few times, but when I cleaned the plug, and plugged it in again, I could not get a spark, nor with the old plug.

I bought a spark plug tester and it did not light up for either one. I will order a new one, but it is time to move on for now.

Fun twist, while the oil read correctly last week, now it did not even show up on the dipstick!

I topped it off.

[Stubby79]

magneto or plug wire by the sounds of it. Magneto going is probably the most common reason for small engines dying and being tossed out, afaik.

[JockoT]

Yesterday I cut the grass for my aged mother-in-law. It was long, after several weeks, and wet after overnight rain. We have a push mower with a Briggs & Stratton side valve engine. All of 148cc.
In the time we have owned it I have put in petrol (I buy a gallon every spring and that lasts the year). I check the oil regularly, but have never needed to top it up. I washed and oiled the air filter this spring but that is the limit of its maintenance. It starts every time and has never let me down. As a Brit it pains me to say, a good bit of US engineering that motor!