Learned something about the old mower....

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today....and was lucky to have a good neighbor help me figure it out.

Decided before I get rid of my craftsman mower, I should still give it a good look over, and my neighbor who wanted to help stopped over to take a look. We played with a for a while, as now it wanted to turn over, but couldn't. Fast forward to about and hour later, we had a good piece of it apart. Turns out that it was something simple: the flywheel key was broke in half.

Two bucks and an hour later, we gave it a few pulls, and she's alive again! I learned quite a bit about mowers, and even more after today. I have to say, it was fun taking it apart..
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Happy it works again...and plan to do a few more things to it too..

STill plan to get a new mower (I'll just switch between the two/help my neighbors), but now I can take my time. I can really see how people can get into this.....
 
Nice work! Glad you got it running again.

I like doing this because I feel I'm doing my part by preventing machines that are still useful from being thrown away.
 
Yep, had this happen to me a little while back. Changed the oil in the mower, went to start it after; no start. Drove me crazy and finally checked the flywheel key, it was sheared in half. Don't know why, don't know how.
 
So true! ! I can hit a rock with my mower, shear the blade mounting pin-replace it and forget about the flywheel at the crank's other end. Like the OP said, key busted.

There's a guy near me with 7 or 8 mowers in a row on his lawn. There's a sign reading "FOR SALE".
Can you guess where he got them? Kira
 
Congratulations. Not only did you increase your personal knowledge, but you were able to spend quality time with a neighbor.
 
My mom hit a pipe in the ground a few years ago and bent the crankshaft on the mower we had.

It ran for 4 of 5 more years ... then suddently wouldn't start any more.

Eventually, we discovered that the little intake manifold thing was cracked from all of the vibrations. Fixed it with some duct tape and that worked for about a year.
 
Still tinkering with it....it now runs very smooth as well. Almost like a new mower....

Got it raised up a bit more for both the mower and the grass....which seems to be thickening up even more now. Not too bad for grass that was nearly dead when I bought the house...
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Thanks everyone for the support...and it was fun hanging with my neighbors. I'm still planning to get a new mower down the road (a few of us neighbors are, as a matter of fact), to help the neighbors on our street, whether struggling or a little older, with their lawns. Glad that my neighbors are pretty cool..we are really starting to look out for each other, which seems to be very rare these days.

Do have a small question though-a few people have told me running 89 octane is better the 87, while a few say don't mess with the 87. Which is truly better for the mower?
 
We have a 1978 Lawnboy 21" self-prop..

bought this at an estate sale 25yrs ago, kept it up with some minor repairs all these years sort of a proud antique from a bygone era, used as a trimmer ahead of the tractor that does the vast majority of our .75 acre lot..well my wife decides this year she's going to do the whole lawn every week for exercise, after watching this for a couple weeks I mention that it's really kinda my pet classic and not intended for extensive service...well sure enough I come home from work and pulling into my parking spot I notice the mower lurched to left..

broken aye on the rear axle..

searching the net this part has not been available for years so I put a wanted ad on C/L while I'm looking at other mower solutions new and used... sure enough I get a call next day from a guy 30mi. not sure but likely has the axle with aye, drive out and yes it is..hour of repair and the '78 soldiers on.


but limited to trim duty from here on.
 
Figured I'd add a little update to this...picked up a few more skills as well...

My dad and I had it apart again to replace a rubber seal, and changed the oil while we were at it. So no leaks, fresh oil, and replaced that cheapie spark plug that I bought at sears and replaced it with a champion plug....

Engine is doing pretty good now!
 
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