Lawn Boy. I hate you.

[Dacotensis]

I got into it with small engine troubleshooting.

Couldn't figure out why the lawn mower wouldn't start.

It's a recent aquired item from grandma.

My son used it last week no problem.

Went to use it recently and it wouldn't start.
I gave it a shot of ether, still a no go.

Gave it some fuel in the plug. Pul and pull and....
Nothing.

Checked for spark. Nothing.
I pulled off about ten screws with three different head sizes.
I cleaned the coil. Pollished the parts I could see as best I could.

I put it back together and still no spark. Sigh. Very long sigh.

Off to Ukrainian tire for a new plug.
Still no spark.



I started looking at the wires and where they all went on this power assist model.
I followed one down to a metal point on the back of the mower where the bag frame sits in.
It dawns on me that this may be a Safety feature. A ground wire there?

I placed the bag in its slots properly and confidently gave it a pull.

Wouldn't you know it. It fired up.

Only took two hours to figure out this high tech gadget.


Hope it saves you all some time this summer.

Look for the simple stuff first.

Now to fire up the boat motor.
It's been too long and I need a break.

[waterninja]

sorry to laugh at your predicament, but who would have thought that the bag had to be in place before it would start. good thing you don't live in edm. where you are told by the city that they prefer you don't bag your grass. won't be long before it is illegal to use a bag on your lawnmower in edm.

[Taco]

Well as least that's better'n fightin' with a small engine for an eternity and realizin' it works much better with the kill switch flipped t'other way....

[omega50]

Had a Craftsman push mower in the 90's that drove me crazy.

Craftsman rebranded a mower and decided to effect a few changes.
In their wisdom they introduced a very thin light gauge tapered aluminum keyway perhaps thinking that if you struck a solid object that it would bend or shear and protect the crank.
Everytime it happened it went out of time and almost clunked itself to death before you could shut it down

Tall grass-keyway sheared
Pull too hard to start-keyway sheared
First start of the season keyway sheared.

Changing that keyway involved a near complete teardown all different head sizes and defeating their safety systems
First time I tore that engine apart I had no idea what was wrong- keyway was not sheared, but rather was bent.
After disassembly and relying on the timing marks to reassemble I discovered that in their wisdom Craftsman decided to protect their unique mower by having a secret code-line up the timing marks and you were screwed.
You had to line up the marks and depending which model- you had to offset the gears by 1 or 2 teeth.
Of course it took me almost 3 weeks to figure that out.
Eventually I bought new keys by the dozen.
Second happiest day of my life was trying out my new TC 50 cal on that engine while it was running.
Happiest day was divorcing Happypants:sHa_shakeshout:

[Redfrog]

Check your bag position.

Weed whacker or tallywhacker, Good advice.:)

I have a Stihl weed whacker that is as good as a Honda. Sits all winter. Add fuel, pull and it starts. Not this spring. :angry3: after pulling and checking and checking and pulling, I realized the on off switch was in the 'off' position.:thinking-006: Paint is worn off.

[Jmaccan]

Yesterday I was trying to start the boys dirt bike (50cc yamaha). Flipped the fuel shut off lever, put the switch into start and pulled the choke. Started second kick, ran a minute, died. Kick started till I was blue in the face, boy gave up on waiting and went to do something else. After about 15 minutes I figured out that I either didn't shut the fuel off the last time or one of the kids flipped the fuel valve and when I thought I had opened the fuel I'd actually shut it off. D'OH!!!

[Fisherpeak]

I have a PTO switch on my Troy Bilt riding machine for the mower.This past winter I put the snowblade on it and it would not start.Click,Click.I traced it down by the noise to the solenoid,replaced it and still nothing.Just before I dragged it onto the street and lit it on fire I noticed the PTO switch was on.Flipped it off and she fired right up.I now have the old one as a spare.
I never said a word to the wife.

[Dacotensis]

I have a PTO switch on my Troy Bilt riding machine for the mower.This past winter I put the snowblade on it and it would not start.Click,Click.I traced it down by the noise to the solenoid,replaced it and still nothing.Just before I dragged it onto the street and lit it on fire I noticed the PTO switch was on.Flipped it off and she fired right up.I now have the old one as a spare.
I never said a word to the wife.

Like a well trained husband.
Awesome :)
The longer we all live, the smarter we should be getting....

[RBI]

I got into it with small engine troubleshooting.

Couldn't figure out why the lawn mower wouldn't start.

It's a recent aquired item from grandma.

My son used it last week no problem.

Went to use it recently and it wouldn't start.
I gave it a shot of ether, still a no go.

Gave it some fuel in the plug. Pul and pull and....
Nothing.

Checked for spark. Nothing.
I pulled off about ten screws with three different head sizes.
I cleaned the coil. Pollished the parts I could see as best I could.

I put it back together and still no spark. Sigh. Very long sigh.

Off to Ukrainian tire for a new plug.
Still no spark.



I started looking at the wires and where they all went on this power assist model.
I followed one down to a metal point on the back of the mower where the bag frame sits in.
It dawns on me that this may be a Safety feature. A ground wire there?

I placed the bag in its slots properly and confidently gave it a pull.

Wouldn't you know it. It fired up.

Only took two hours to figure out this high tech gadget.


Hope it saves you all some time this summer.

Look for the simple stuff first.

Now to fire up the boat motor.
It's been too long and I need a break.

Ya itsn.t that a nice safety system , but do you think that they could put a label telling you that somewhere on the mower. After two seasons with the mower working fine and the first cut of season , starting up great , I go to use it the next week and totally no go ( I got quite fluent at some real bad words ) .
So into the repair shop for tune up ( $ Special ... only $ 125.oo ) Guy says it was running pretty good but he still did the once over etc. ( to this day I wonder if the guy ever actually did anything , other than put a bag or it and start it up ) and after a bit of conversation I find out that you need the bag on for it to work.
Its funny , I'm the type to read the manual when I buy something, and I don't ever remember reading anything about the bag. Funny though, that I went 2 years without problem as I always used the bag until that one time .

There is no visible switch that I can see that should make this system work.

[Dacotensis]

Ya itsn.t that a nice safety system , but do you think that they could put a label telling you that somewhere on the mower. After two seasons with the mower working fine and the first cut of season , starting up great , I go to use it the next week and totally no go ( I got quite fluent at some real bad words ) .
So into the repair shop for tune up ( $ Special ... only $ 125.oo ) Guy says it was running pretty good but he still did the once over etc. ( to this day I wonder if the guy ever actually did anything , other than put a bag or it and start it up ) and after a bit of conversation I find out that you need the bag on for it to work.
Its funny , I'm the type to read the manual when I buy something, and I don't ever remember reading anything about the bag. Funny though, that I went 2 years without problem as I always used the bag until that one time .

There is no visible switch that I can see that should make this system work.

So, you know! Eh?
Lol.
Oh man.

I really try not to swear when my son is around.
He just took off and watched tv while I messed with the mower. So I was free to be me.

After I got it running, his heart was broke:) he knew his break time was over.
He could not believe that was the problem.

I believe he said something along the lines of "dad, that's really stupid. Are you kidding me?".

[javlin101]

Well as least that's better'n fightin' with a small engine for an eternity and realizin' it works much better with the kill switch flipped t'other way....

or pulling your arm off and finally check the tank duh no gas.