Got a freebie Craftsman today. Needs some love

jayjr1105

jayjr1105

Joined
Aug 2, 2018
Messages
1,279
Location
PA
Picked this up a couple blocks away from home today for nothing.

The Bad: Needs pull cord, new air filter, coil, and a throttle cable for the engine control handle part.

The Good: In excellent shape with barely any tread off the tires, shaft doesn't appear bent, appears to have compression and I can spin the crank by hand with a ratchet.

Getting absolutely no spark from it. I even re-terminated the spark plug boot end because it was corroded. Only part I'm having trouble nailing down is the throttle cable. Anyone know where I can get that?

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Never mind on the no spark thing. Since no engine control cable, the coil was grounded out. I removed the spade connector and now have good spark. Just need to find a cable that will fit now.
 
Was Sears selling those before the green mowers. I had a green one and it was a strong mower/engine.
 
jayjr1105 said:
Picked this up a couple blocks away from home today for nothing.

The Bad: Needs pull cord, new air filter, coil, and a throttle cable for the engine control handle part.

The Good: In excellent shape with barely any tread off the tires, shaft doesn't appear bent, appears to have compression and I can spin the crank by hand with a ratchet.

Getting absolutely no spark from it. I even re-terminated the spark plug boot end because it was corroded. Only part I'm having trouble nailing down is the throttle cable. Anyone know where I can get that?

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Click to expand...
My Craftsman mower with a Honda engine doesn't have a throttle control (which I assume is what you're talking about). It runs at a pretty good RPM all the time. I thought that would be a problem but it isn't.
 
Enter the mower model # at repairclinic.com or searspartsdirect.com. they can usually provide part numbers even if no longer available.
 
Update, I have the engine running but it surges up and down. I can make it run well if I press the primer bulb once per second while It's running. I have a small amount of fuel mixed in with some MMO to try and clean out the carb and such. Thanks for the part sites suggestions. I'll try them out later.

By throttle control I mean the bar you hold down on the handle that keeps the engine running. Sorry I don't know the correct term for it.
 
Since it's running you can add some Techron to the gas and that might clean the Carb out and you may not have to take the carb off.
 
Tecumseh engine common around 20 years ago. Those have an aluminum intake manifold with a long runner to help atomize the gas not seen on most mowers.

At my last house, I trashed picked a Craftsman mower, same color, that was self propelled with the same engine. It had front wheel drive. It started up and ran great! But the rest of the mower was very worn out. It needed new wheels as all 4 where wallered out. Mowed my grass with it once and put it out with the trash as I didn't need another mower and it needed $100 in parts to make me happy if I kept it.
 
I ran the small amount I had in the tank with some MMO all the way to empty. It's getting better but still not fixed. I sprayed a bunch of carb cleaner in it and took the bowl off. It had a metal float and the pin fell out. Was a pain to re-install the pin but it's back in there. I ordered the cable, pull cord and new air filter. I'll try to run it again tomorrow to see if the MMO did anything. I don't think I have any techron stuff.
 
Tecumseh carbs were finicky, but I personally always preferred them over Briggs. Here’s what to do to hopefully fix the surging issue. Remove the bowl nut from the bottom of the carb. That bowl nut has a tiny fuel jet drilled in the side. If you don’t have a set of torch tip cleaners, grab a wire twist tie from a bread bag and peel the paper off. Run the wire down the center of the nut and also through that jet on the side near the threads. If this doesn’t fix the surging then you may have to pop for a rebuild kit. Most of the time cleaning the bottom bowl nut will be the cure.

L8R,
Matt
 
My carb bowl nut doesn't have that but I'll check tomorrow. I think my carb has this hidden one on the side like in this video
 
If your carb has the adjustable jet screw on the bottom, then you’ll definitely have to follow the video. I rebuilt a carb for a Tecumseh powered wood chipper with the HM80 engine. After the rebuild, it starts in two pulls. It takes two because the engine is directly bolted to the chipper blades so you can’t get the engine to turn over very fast with the pull rope.

L8R,
Matt
 
Doesn't look to be self propelled. Myself, I would not put a lot of money into a "push" mower that probably sold for less than $150. If you can get it going with minimal parts cost, that's great. Otherwise, I would be parting it out.
 
I have $18 into it right now.

Today's update: Pulled both of those jets (1 from bottom of bowl, one from above it with the platic cap on it) BOTH were clogged, had to drill them both out with a tiny drill bit. Reinstalled and it's much better but still hunting a little bit but I no longer have to prime the bulb constantly to keep it running. I just dumped the oil I put it in yesterday to wash out any junk. Sure enough it was quite glittery. Since it had no oil I pulled the blade and sharpened it. It's a very funky blade that is wavy. It seems balanced so I'm not sure if I should replace it or not. The only other thing that comes up on google searches causing surging is the diaphragm that has a vacuum hose attached to the top of the carb. Could that be bad? I'm going to get some ethanol free gas and maybe add some techron to it and then maybe re-assess the situation once I have it all back together.
 
Warstud said:
Was Sears selling those before the green mowers. I had a green one and it was a strong mower/engine.
Click to expand...
Are you talking about the Bolens? i have a 20-23ish year old one and i fired it up just yesterday out of boredom when i was in my garage just looking for something to do. It sat for man 6 years at least since i no longer use it. Said it'd fire up in 2 pulls guaranteed on the old briggs engine and it had some old azz gas in it. i put in a swig of 2 stroke mix that was about a year old. i then went to spin it and i forgot to take the spark plug out and put something of lubricant in so i painfully spun a locked cylinder but it smoothed out just fine after a pull. i then i remembered to put the choke in position and it fired up in a just a single pull. The carb was completely dry and i didn't drain it. it finally got gas in the bulb after a dozen primes, surprised the bulb also hasn't torn or anything. Does anyone know if the briggs carb have like a trickle drain so that the carb never has gas in it while it sits but doesn't drain while running? probably why it fires up easily??? i also forgot to change the oil last time. oil is probably 8 years old. no knocking or anything. Those brigs engines never fail to impress me. I've had other briggs equipped stuff like a pressure washer and other mowers and nothing but good experiences. really regret not lubricating the piston before spinning and draining the oil out.
 
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