I've been looking for a cheap mower. There are areas in my yard that are very steep, and driving the tractor there is dangerous. Too many times I've nearly flipped the thing. But the areas are too large to cut with the string trimmer.
So this morning, I stopped at a yard sale. There was a brand new looking Bolens (MTD == cheap!) 22 inch mower with a 4 HP B&S engine. It looked like it had been sitting for a while, but otherwise looked like it had only been used once. The lady said that it runs, but it's too hard for her to pull the rope so she bought a more expensive mower with self start (they make those?). Sure enough, the rope was hard to pull. But the engine turned over and felt like it had compression. It didn't start, but there was only a tiny bit of old, stinky gasoline in the tank. Asking price was $10, so I took a gamble.
Fist thing I did at home was check the oil. You guessed it - EMPTY! Not dry, though - maybe left over from a test run at the factory, then drained for shipping? I added 1/2 quart of SuperTech 10w-30. Took out the spark plug, and gave it a few pulls to splash oil around. Re-installed the spark plug, and added fresh gas. The rope is MUCH easier to pull now! It started on the third try, and I mowed a section of my lawn. It seems to run perfectly.
I just hope there is oil in her new, expensive, self-starting mower.
So this morning, I stopped at a yard sale. There was a brand new looking Bolens (MTD == cheap!) 22 inch mower with a 4 HP B&S engine. It looked like it had been sitting for a while, but otherwise looked like it had only been used once. The lady said that it runs, but it's too hard for her to pull the rope so she bought a more expensive mower with self start (they make those?). Sure enough, the rope was hard to pull. But the engine turned over and felt like it had compression. It didn't start, but there was only a tiny bit of old, stinky gasoline in the tank. Asking price was $10, so I took a gamble.
Fist thing I did at home was check the oil. You guessed it - EMPTY! Not dry, though - maybe left over from a test run at the factory, then drained for shipping? I added 1/2 quart of SuperTech 10w-30. Took out the spark plug, and gave it a few pulls to splash oil around. Re-installed the spark plug, and added fresh gas. The rope is MUCH easier to pull now! It started on the third try, and I mowed a section of my lawn. It seems to run perfectly.
I just hope there is oil in her new, expensive, self-starting mower.