Ownership Verified: CraigB's rear engined, air cooled... Kubota?

What about sheep? They would solve your mower problem. lol

Brother-in-law did that, well, goats and ducks. Now he only mows a small strip around the property and the yard the dogs are in. Works okay, but I'd need to build several hundred feet of fence.
 
And good lord have you looked at how much fence costs these days!?

Could buy that ryobi like 4 times over.
 
There isn't anything cheap it seems.

Engine is still scheduled for Thursday. Need to get out there and clean up the mess the last engine made. Probably do that tomorrow. Also need to weld the exhaust up a little. It has a few cracks. New muffler was $150+, so I'll see if I can keep this one working for a bit.
 
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New engine came a day early and is already, "In the bin!"...


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Actually... I was tapping the mounting holes where the engine bolts to the mower.


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And we are in!

Apparently this engine was near exact replacement, except for... the throttle and choke are separate levers, the original engine was not. I could try to adapt the linkage from the old engine, but I'll do the right thing and install a random choke cable I found on Amazon. I never liked the the single combined choke/throttle, because it forced you to start the engine when cold at WOT. Wonder if that contributed to the untimely demise?

Unfortunately, the install was completed after dark had fallen, so only a single test pass was made. Mows like new, wonder how long this thing has been down on power? Hopefully this engine will last longer than 198 hours.
 
because it forced you to start the engine when cold at WOT. Wonder if that contributed to the untimely demise?

Every single garden engine I've ever seen has had the choke on the throttle lever in exact the same way so they've all been started at WOT, summer and winter. Seeing how much abuse I've seen B&S engines get over the years, the lack of fucks used maintaining them, i'd still say you had very bad luck with this one.

Besides, it's far from WOT just because the lever is on full. You can easily make twice the rpm (and some nice backfires) by pulling on the speed governor lever with a string. I hear it's very effective when you're pushing snow with a Murray lawn tractor and factory rpm in top gear doesn't get you the momentum you need for the wet sticky stuff.

Dad sold the Murray to an old neighbor. He mowed 30 seconds with it before the input shaft on the transmission stripped clean. Wonder why.
 
Relevant to the conversation on the last page:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcJH7QqEn_Y
All the positives of this are why I really wouldn't want any garden appliance with a small engine, they're really needy. Glad this one is fixed though!
 
That video is very interesting, I was briefly thinking about buying that exact mower he has, but was unaware it had lead acid batteries.

Honestly, I don't mind small engines, we have lots of them at the track that we use and I have gotten use to trouble shooting/fixing them. I just have never seen one pop with oil in it, even if was dirty old oil.
 
Relevant to the conversation on the last page:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcJH7QqEn_Y
All the positives of this are why I really wouldn't want any garden appliance with a small engine, they're really needy. Glad this one is fixed though!

I‘ve been waiting for Robert to post his mower review ever since he bought it and I knew what this would be when the forum notifications told me the thread had been posted in. All of FG watches the same handful of youtubers after all. I‘m a patron and figured I’d wait until public release before posting it here, then I forgot. 😛
 
I‘ve been waiting for Robert to post his mower review ever since he bought it and I knew what this would be when the forum notifications told me the thread had been posted in. All of FG watches the same handful of youtubers after all. I‘m a patron and figured I’d wait until public release before posting it here, then I forgot. 😛
I for one cannot wait for our new Coda-swapped lawnmower overlords.
 
I‘m a patron and figured I’d wait until public release before posting it here, then I forgot. 😛
:tease:

It was perfectly timed with me finishing work.

We all know he'll try a lithium swap and maybe burn the place down, but it'll be entertaining.
 
"I decided to put the CODA battery in the Ryobi, but that didn't fit. I tried modifying the battery pack, aaaaand it caught on fire. The fire melted the mower, and now I have a new lawn ornament, a symbol of my own stupidity. The turkeys are still laughing at me."
 
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