darn lawnmowers

[cookiedough]

Went over to mow my mom's yard with her 5hp briggs 22" cut ranch king push mower non self propelled.  The last few times the plastic housing for the cable broke that you have to hold the bar down on handlebar to start and keep running (the kill/start cable I like to call it).  I put a coat hanger wire to hold the spring mechanism by engine down below in place and somewhat has worked.  But, for whatever reason,  it sometimes kills on me and I have a heck of a time getting it started again.  Well, this last time NO luck re-adjusting the coat hanger to even get the engine to start.  Wondering if you have to have that linkage just right to engage the circuitry or whatever to get the engine to start???????

Engaging that cable back to start/stop the engine is fine, but the plastic housing holding it in place is totally broke so it has some tension on that cable to move over the linkage (big spring, etc.)  down by engine.

Anyways,  today I jb welded that plastic housing in place and hope it holds so the cable when pulling that handlebar back engages having tension on the linkage/cable just right to get it running again.  If not,  off to the mower repair shop.  Other than that, it runs really well when it runs.

My brother last time over there at moms brought over his about same 5hp engine on his murray 22" self propelled mower stating 'quantum' on the engine but that is doing almost the same darn thing.  He jerry-rigged the linkage down by engine like we did with a coat hanger to get the engine to start.  It mowed fine today but 1/2 way thru the engine would just sputter and die like not getting gas.  I let it sit 3-5 minutes and primed the gas and after a few pulls darn thing started and then 5 minutes later stopped and died doing that 5 times before I got done mowing for 2 fricking hours should only take 1 hour to do.

It's bad enough to mow the yard, but dealing with mowers failing makes it 3x's worse and upsetting. 

I'm guessing on both my brother's mower and my mom's,  the coat hanger to open the circuitry (for lack of a better word) is not cutting it???  Any ideas for all you small engine repair gurus?

I told my mom call my brother next time to mow since he has only mowed my mom's yard twice all summer while I have dozens of times and we both live 15 minutes away from her house.  He can deal with his own crappy mower killing on him.

[Rams]

Personally,
Keeping peace in the family would be worth hiring someone to take care of Mom's yard.   They would use their own mower and relieve both of you from the task.

[Momz]

My solution was quite simple,....I bought a HONDA lawnmower.

[cookiedough]

Personally,
Keeping peace in the family would be worth hiring someone to take care of Mom's yard.   They would use their own mower and relieve both of you from the task.

Mom won't pay someone 20-25 bucks per mowing for 1 hour of a normal city lot to mow her grass.  She is in her 70's and still thinks it is 1980 costing 5 bucks per mowing.  My brother and I certainly cannot afford 20 bucks per mowing either.

As far as keeping peace between me and my brother,  I just don't think it is fair he takes her grocery shopping once per month and sees her while I do the rest.   Besides,  I found out by balancing her checkbook he asked mom whom has altzheimers 4 years ago for a 'loan' (ya right) for 2 grand for his oldest son to help buy a monster pickup with big mudd tires while his other youngest daughter needed another 2 grand 'loan' (ya right) just last year in college.  I asked my mom on both occassions and she said they told her they would pay her back  (ya right more like forget about it since I asked mom last year about the 2K loan a few years ago and she forgot until I showed her her checkbook from that timeframe).  Well over 4 years and 1 year now on 4K of loans and don't see her monthly checkbook going up 4 grand just the same old bills and social security check.   I am in charge of her estate/power of attorney thank god and could easily say something to my brother who likes to blow money as well as his wife,  but won't forget. 

If my JB weld doesn't hold on that broken plastic piece holding that cable in place,  I will take the mower which is otherwise a very nice 22" 5hp briggs engine to a local small engine shop and hope it costs less than 50 bucks for the repair/part since it is a 15+ year old mower but otherwise runs well, etc. and in good shape otherwise.  Plastic am sure gets brittle over the years and can snap/break as it did when I released the hand lever 3-4 mowings ago. 

[Jersey mike]

Do yourself a favor and buy a new mower. My last Craftsman cost about $225.00 and does a very good job. The one I had before that was a Chraftsman too and that one is still going, but I had to bring it in for a few repairs and now use it to mow the weeds at work.

Money and family don't mix...learned that decades ago. Unless you want bad blood in the family, it's best to let some things go and realize they are what they are.

Good luck, I hope things go ok and for the benefit of the family try to keep the peace.

[Hooter]

The mower, well gotta do what ya gotta do there. Thats trivial compared to the bigger issue. The bigger issue and only concern should be your mother. The situation as described sucks and it won't be easy to find a solution. When it comes to aging parents it's difficult, but the responsibility "should" be divided up equally among the kids. Suggestion: Money in an account can be protected by a dual signature process. Check with her bank to see if that can be done?  With that system no monies can be removed from any account without 2 pre-arranged signatures. (is this already in place?) As it sounds one of those signatures should be yours anyway.
   After my dad died the three of us (boys) took on the house hold duties. We were busy too with careers but you make time to take care of the folks. Then my mother was diagnosed with cancer and we were more involved with every aspect of her life. Appointments, the home etc, until she died.  You do this outa love not necessity. You don't take advantage of your family! I gotta stop now.
  AS for the loan already out, that will be a PIA to recover. But, protect what she has now so it can't happen again.

[Jess Tolbirt]

you can remove that safety cut off and to kill the engine all you have to do is ground the wire thats attached to the safety cut off switch...

[RainMaker]

I've had this problem with a Toro.  The second mower that runs for 5 minutes and dies has a defective gas cap.  It won't let air in so the gas goes down the fuel line until the vacuum overcomes the gravity.  It stops running because the gas is held in the tank by the vacuum.  So you probably take off the cap (releasing the vacuum), look at the gas to see it's full, then it restarts and runs just fine until the same thing happens again.  I finally drilled a 1/8" hole in top of the gas cap (off the mower) and it solved the problem.

That mower ran for another 2 years until it's blade met an immovable object and busted a rod through the side of the motor.  The replacement Honda mower has had zero issues.

[Roidfingers]

Had both problems before. Did the coat hanger thing and was all good. I just put a wire tie aroung plug wire and used it to pull off of plug to kill mower.
The second problem with the stalling is your coil. Its bad, Once they warm up they stop working. But a new coil. Bout 20 bucks and replace. Its on the front of the mower. Has 2 crews. Just follow your plug wire up under top housing.
Remove old coil and then install new one but before tightening screws place a business card between coil and crank then manually rotate until magnet on crank pulls coils in. That is ur gap. remove card. Now tighten screws and ur ready to go.

[cookiedough]

The mower, well gotta do what ya gotta do there. Thats trivial compared to the bigger issue. The bigger issue and only concern should be your mother. The situation as described sucks and it won't be easy to find a solution. When it comes to aging parents it's difficult, but the responsibility "should" be divided up equally among the kids. Suggestion: Money in an account can be protected by a dual signature process. Check with her bank to see if that can be done?  With that system no monies can be removed from any account without 2 pre-arranged signatures. (is this already in place?) As it sounds one of those signatures should be yours anyway.
   After my dad died the three of us (boys) took on the house hold duties. We were busy too with careers but you make time to take care of the folks. Then my mother was diagnosed with cancer and we were more involved with every aspect of her life. Appointments, the home etc, until she died.  You do this outa love not necessity. You don't take advantage of your family! I gotta stop now.
  AS for the loan already out, that will be a PIA to recover. But, protect what she has now so it can't happen again.

good idea on dual signatures.  I wonder if the bank can set a limit, say 500 bucks on up, needing dual signatures since my mom thankfully is still pretty good on paying her bills (gas, electric, phone) and none are ever over 300 bucks. 

I think next time for mowing,  I'll let my mom call my older brother up since his mower is jerry rigged same way, but has other issues like said probably the coil when heated up makes the engine die all of a sudden without much notice besides a quick sputtering. 

I've looked on craigslist and if my jb weld doesn't hold that plastic piece holding the cable for the cutoff/start mechanism in place,  there is a nice one (well maybe) for 130 bucks being a toro self propelled.  Makes you really wonder though why would anyone sell their 3-5 year old push mower looking fairly new still so early on unless moving to say an apt. or other areas not needing to mow the lawn.    Am guessing there has to be something wrong with it that will happen after buying it usually of course??

I got lucky and spent 20 bucks on a near new 20" basic cheap push mower at a garage sale.  It cuts grass nothing fancy and for 20 bucks,  I've already got my 1 year's use out of it.  ONLY issue is it is only a 3.5 hp tecumseh engine and have to walk very slow in order to cut effectively in thick/taller grass even with sharp blades engine just doesn't offer enough power and speed in revolutions to cut grass walking very fast. 

[Michvalk]

You know, parts are available for those engines. If you are mechanic enough to rig a fix, your mechanic enough to install a new part. Just sayin'

[Hooter]

I think you can set up a dual signature account anyway you want to. Don't wanna hamstring mom!  Talk with the bank where her account is and they will steer ya through it. Good luck!