Lawnmower woes

I just watched a couple of videos on cleaning the carburetor. Actually looks easier than I thought. Unclip fuel hose, drain the fuel. Unscrew one bolt holding the carburetor cap, hold a cloth to soak up excess fuel. Spray the bolt and the little fuel jet hole on the side of it with carb spray or compressed air, and put it back together again. Gonna try that tomorrow and change the spark plug. I suddenly feel confident I might get this working. :p
 
Hyburnate said:
You've pretty got nothing to loose, you're very unlikely to screw it up beyond fixing.
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Yeah, I think you're right. Would it be ok to flush the fuel tank with water while the hose in unclipped, to clean out any bits?
 
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Don't flush the tank out with water, use petrol, the tank may look dry,but you'll still find droplets of water, which will get drawn into the carb, & mower will not start.
 
Thanks guys, I thought so. I won't flush with water then. Ok, I've disconnected the fuel hose and drained off the excess fuel. I've removed the carburettor cover and this is the inside of it. Loads of crud.

qvDC2Tc.jpg

Here is the white carb float exposed and the needle just behind it.

FD8Z7PN.jpg


I'll go buy a can of carb cleaner and spray everything, inside the cap too and then wipe it with a cloth. Then I'll put it back together, rinse the tank with some fresh fuel while the hose is off then fill it up and try it. The new sparkplug didn't improve anything btw.
 
That float bowl is in a bad state, once you have petrol in there as well, all that crud will be floating around blocking the needle jet, etc.

No wonder it struggle to go.
 
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Nightglow said:
That float bowl is in a bad state, once you have petrol in there as well, all that crud will be floating around blocking the needle jet, etc.

No wonder it struggle to go.
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Yep. Well, just brought these home

UFiKqPC.jpg

So will have a go. Just rang F&M. Guy was unhelpful, miserable and couldn't tell me how much. Also said I'm looking at 2 weeks as he has hundreds of machines to fix. However, just rang EGM and the guy couldn't have been more friendly and informative. He said if I get stuck, to remove the whole carburettor, take photos of where the springs clip on, bring the carb into him and they'll do a sonic clean for just £10! :) He also said if I decide to change to an electric mower, to avoid qualcast and any mowers under £100, and to get a Wolf induction mower, which they sell, which cost around £160. I'll cross that bridge though if I can't fix this. Oh, he also told me that since there's a float in my carb that there will be no diaphragm. Just as well cos he said they stopped production of this engine 4 years ago and parts are hard to get.
 
Shimmyhill said:
Good news :)

mine was same issue and same fix - just looked and i stuck a YT vid up too, 3 years ago - wow how time flies!

I too need a lawn ;)

http://youtu.be/qxqVVk7l5qc
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Lol, yea, my lawn is ******. :D Yeah, your machine sounded like mine did.

That carb cleaner is great stuff. I sprayed it around the carb, the float chamber, inside the carb cover that I'd removed, the cover bolt and it's side jet holes, and also into the air filter intake hole. I also pushed a thin wire through the bolt jet holes as well, and then I sloshed some fresh fuel around the tank while it drained out of the disconnected pipe, to clean out debris. I want to change the oil now. I found my half empty 500ml bottle of SAE30 hiding in the shed, so I know what oil is in there now. No drain plug on this machine though, so I guess I'm gonna have to tip it on it's side and empty via the fill up hole.
 
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