I pulled my mower equipped with a 6-1/2 HP B&S Quantum engine out of storage yesterday. It started on the second pull, after 4+ months of being stored in an unheated lawn shed during Michigan's winter season. My tune-up consisted of installing a new plug, new air filter, change of oil, and sharpening of the blade.
Although the mower started fine prior to doing this work I had one heck of a time getting it to start afterwards. I reinstalled the old sparkplug thinking maybe the new plug was defective, but no difference. Eventually it started up and continues to start on the first or second pull.
The engine acted as if there was an incompressible in the combustion chamber (such as oil), or that the recoil starter was jamming and not disengaging. When the engine finally restarted there was only a faintest wisp of smoke from the exhaust, so there couldn't have been much (if any) oil trapped in the combustion chamber. The starter rope was jerked out of my hand a few times by the engine as I was trying to get it started. One such incident resulted in the T-handle of the recoil starter striking the handlebars and fracturing, sending large piece of shrapnel(the broken piece of T-handle) careening around the garage. The outer jacket of the rope was torn in half, and only the unbundled nylon fibers comprising the core of the rope remained, so a new recoil starter was required too.
What a PITA to install a new recoil starter! The old starter was pop-riveted to the engine shroud. The instructions with the new starter said to drill out the rivets with a 3/16 bit. The rivets were so poorly installed that they spun with the bit! So I had to remove the shroud, use a cut-off disc in my Dremel to cut most of the way through the rivets (poor ergonomics prevented cutting all the way through), then use a small Cold Chisel to fully sever the rivets. Buy this time the area of the shroud surrounding each former rivet hole was sufficiently distorted that the short bolts supplied by B&S with the starter were too short to accept the provided nuts. So the shround went onto a make-shift anvil (short piece of Iron Rail) which allowed me to pound the metal flat using a Tin Smith's hammer.
Finally it all went back together! And it is now starting properly - again!
So what do you think was the base issue with the failure to start, effectively a back-fire issue? Oil trapped in cylinder? Bad recoil starter jamming? Something else? I don't want to repeat this same scenario again next Spring.
By the way, this is a 2002 mower and engine.
Although the mower started fine prior to doing this work I had one heck of a time getting it to start afterwards. I reinstalled the old sparkplug thinking maybe the new plug was defective, but no difference. Eventually it started up and continues to start on the first or second pull.
The engine acted as if there was an incompressible in the combustion chamber (such as oil), or that the recoil starter was jamming and not disengaging. When the engine finally restarted there was only a faintest wisp of smoke from the exhaust, so there couldn't have been much (if any) oil trapped in the combustion chamber. The starter rope was jerked out of my hand a few times by the engine as I was trying to get it started. One such incident resulted in the T-handle of the recoil starter striking the handlebars and fracturing, sending large piece of shrapnel(the broken piece of T-handle) careening around the garage. The outer jacket of the rope was torn in half, and only the unbundled nylon fibers comprising the core of the rope remained, so a new recoil starter was required too.
What a PITA to install a new recoil starter! The old starter was pop-riveted to the engine shroud. The instructions with the new starter said to drill out the rivets with a 3/16 bit. The rivets were so poorly installed that they spun with the bit! So I had to remove the shroud, use a cut-off disc in my Dremel to cut most of the way through the rivets (poor ergonomics prevented cutting all the way through), then use a small Cold Chisel to fully sever the rivets. Buy this time the area of the shroud surrounding each former rivet hole was sufficiently distorted that the short bolts supplied by B&S with the starter were too short to accept the provided nuts. So the shround went onto a make-shift anvil (short piece of Iron Rail) which allowed me to pound the metal flat using a Tin Smith's hammer.
Finally it all went back together! And it is now starting properly - again!
So what do you think was the base issue with the failure to start, effectively a back-fire issue? Oil trapped in cylinder? Bad recoil starter jamming? Something else? I don't want to repeat this same scenario again next Spring.
By the way, this is a 2002 mower and engine.
