AuburnChick's Adventures

The lawn mower must have sensed my need to reconnect with my toolbox because it absolutely refused to crank last weekend when Rooster tried to cut the grass.

I’m comfortable enough with the mower to change the oil filter and spark plug.  When I removed the spark plug, oil poured out, and I knew I was in trouble…

I remembered over-filling the oil reservoir about a year ago.  I guess oil doesn’t “magically” disappear.  No wonder you’re supposed to dispose of it carefully!

Realizing that this wasn’t going to be a quick fix, I did what comes naturally and googled the problem.  My search led me to believe that the problem was probably the carburetor.

Say what?

As in a part that I know belongs in my car?

Oh boy.

I had no idea what a carburetor does until I found this link, but I had a feeling it was something important.

All I’ve got to say is thank you YouTube!  I found this informative video…

After running to Home Depot for parts, I got down to work…

The first thing I needed to do was change the oil.  A very knowledgeable associate at Home Depot had assisted me in the selection of a drip pan earlier in the day.  He also advised me to use sand or kitty litter to soak up the oil…

If you have the type of mower in which you need to turn it sideways, make sure you turn it away from the carburetor side.  You really do not want oil in your carburetor.

In the end, you’re left with this…

Next it was time to work on the carburetor.  The guy in the video directs you to remove the fuel tank, but I opted not to after reading someone’s comment that it wasn’t necessary.

First, to locate the carburetor.  It should look like this…

Pretty dirty, eh?

I used a rag and carburetor cleaner to get the dirt off of the outside of the bowl…

Now it was time to select a tool…AR AR AR (Tim the Toolman’s happy grunt)…

Which one would I use to remove the screw from the bottom of the carburetor?

Can you believe that after 20 years of marriage, this is probably the first time these tools have been used?

You would think that all socket wrenches are the same, but I’m here to tell you they aren’t!  I tried one but the socket was too long.  Thank goodness the Mr. had collected two sets of these babies.  I wound up using the one on the left, attaching the 1/2 socket after taking the picture…

As I removed the screw, gasoline started leaking out of the bottom of the carburetor.  Thank goodness I had watched the video, because I knew this was normal.  I decided that I better put on some gloves…

While the gas was draining from the mower, I had to inspect the screw I had just removed.  You wouldn’t think it’s all that important for it to be squeaky clean, but my research made me realize that debris interferes with the carburetor’s ability to mix the gas with air.  Even the little holes on the sides must be cleaned!  As you can tell from the picture below, mine wasn’t dirty at all…

The little black thing that’s sitting below the hole is the gasket the guy in the video was scraping off.  Mine was completely intact, so I didn’t have to replace it.

By this time, the mower had emptied itself of its gas, so I could remove the bowl from the bottom of the carburetor.  I was surprised to find that it was fairly clean.  Despite this, I sprayed a little carburetor cleaner and gave it a good shine…

Next, I removed the O ring, checking for damage and finding myself once again relieved not to have replace another part…

With the O ring off, I was now free to use compressed air to spray debris off of the rest of the carburetor…

Next, I reattached the O ring and carefully set up the bowl with the shallow end closer to the inner part of the mower…

I used the socket wrench to tighten the screw under the bowl…

Next up was the air filter.

An air filters plays an important role in keeping a lawn mower engine running properly.  If a filter is dirty, air cannot move around and out properly.  It was obvious that I needed to change mine…

Changing an air filter is so easy that even my friend, Rebecca, could do it.  Just take the old filter out of the rubber housing compartment that you’ve just rotated and pulled off of your mower and replace it with the clean one…

Line up the hole with the peg on the mower…

Rotate it to “set” it (notice the directions imprinted on the casing?)…

By now I’d removed the oil, drained the gas, cleaned the carburetor, and changed the air filter.  The next part of this task was to change the spark plug…another EASY task!

In the picture below, you’ll see that I had already removed the old spark plug.  I don’t know about other mowers, but mine is located on the front of my machine…

To change a spark plug, you need a large socket…

I had to use the larger end of this to fit around my spark plug.

First, screw on the spark plug by hand.

Then, fit the socket over the end of the spark plug (push it in as far as it will go)…

You can use either an Allen Wrench

Or a screwdriver to help turn the socket to tighten the spark plug…

Then, you replace the spark plug wire (it’s covered in rubber and is permanently attached to the mower)…

Yay!  Almost done now!

The last thing I needed to do was fill up the oil reservoir with SAE 30 oil…

Here’s where I actually got nervous.  You see, some time last year, I managed to put too much oil in, and I’ve been paying the price ever since.  So, I poured slowly…

And measured…

And poured and measured again…

I got a little aggravated and pulled out the manual discovering, in the process, that my mower would hold the entire bottle I was pouring (guess that’s why they make them that small).  So I dumped the bottle over without any more worries…

Finally, my work was finished!

And then it was time to see if my work had paid off.

I rolled the mower to the driveway, primed it, and pulled the starter cable.

Nothing.

In fact, I felt the cable pull back suddenly, which was how I got started on this little project to begin with.

Oh no.

I tried again, nearly spraining my wrist when it was roughly jerked forward again.

However, at the same time, I heard the mower sputter and saw it spew forth a little smoke.

Good signs.

I half-heartedly tried again, but my wrist and pinkie were hurting.

The Mr. came outside around this time.

Perfect!

He grabbed hold of the starter cable, jerked back once…

AND THE MOWER STARTED!!!

We watched as smoke escaped from a part I don’t know the name of.

We kept the motor running for a minute, and the smoke cleared.

I think it had been burning off leached oil.

I did a little happy dance and turned off the mower.  It had rained earlier today, and the grass was wet.  Plus, I didn’t want to take away Rooster’s fun (mowing is his job).

After he mows, I’ll prep the machine for the winter by adding fuel stabilizer to the fuel tank to prevent the gas from getting gummy.  I’ll also unhook the spark plug wire when we put it away.

I’ve learned a huge lesson through this.  Regular maintenance is a must…even on a little ole lawn mower.

Filed under: This-n-That | Tagged: home improvement, lawn mower maintenance | 1 Comment »