Customer gave me a mower for free!

[shortyb]

I don't understand why a company would use something like "thermowax" for a choke mechanism. Can those be retrofitted?

I'm sure it can, but haven't seen anyone do it yet. It's a pretty simple linkage and a standalone cable/lever set-up would work with some finagling. But I just get the thermowax cartridges by the dozen nowadays because of the reliable failure of them. Before auto-choke, they just used a compound linkage that actuated with the throttle lever. Push forward all the way, choke on, start up and run a minute or so, then pull back throttle to first detent and it's in normal run. Guess too many people couldn't figure that out and just ran full choke all the time .

 

[Propflux01]

I have that same mower. Circa 2014. Mine only puffs very light black about 3 seconds during cold throttle up and runs fine. The wheels are cheap on scamazon. It is a wet belt drive. Has caused me no issues in the 21 years I’ve had mine. Good score. Clean up that carb (or run a good amount of Techron through it) and you should get a few more years out of it.

 

[John105]

Nice! Why not give stuff to others if they can use them? I gave my buddy who rents a house my 2002 Craftsman and he uses it to this day. The engine is indestructible but the platform isn't...

On another note, my uncle ran a quick oil change / service at a very busy intersection. Customers gave him, not 1, but 2, Audi A6's! One was a 1998 Quattro and loaded. The other was a 2003 FWD and base. This was around 2014. The 1998 needed a water pump and owner was fed up and told him he can have the car. Forget what was wrong with the 2003 but it needed headlights (units). I remember he was switching the headlamps from one to the other until he finally bought aftermarket halogen headlamps for the black car