Author Topic: Freakin mower died (Read 238 times)

Meatwad · « **on:** August 16, 2005, 04:13:41 PM »

Have a Craftsman rider and was mowing the yard and all of a sudden it sputtered for a sec, and then DEAD! Now when you try and start it you hear a loud "click" come fron the front (front bottom?) engine area. Wont even turn ever, just that click sound. Oil in it is fine, just checked it. Any ideas on what happened?

SIK1 · « **Reply #1 on:** August 16, 2005, 04:32:46 PM »

Check to make sure that there is nothing hanging up in the pulley under the engine as well as the pullies that go to your mower deck. Most riding mowers use a magneto so a low battery should not cause it to die but could be the reason you only hear a click when you try to start it (I'm assuming that it is electric start) so make sure that the battery is fully charged, also check the fuel filter to make sure that you don't have any contaminates reaching the engine. Single cyclinder, and even twin cylinder engines are a little more tempermental than auto engines when it comes to fuel contamination. If you could give more detail on what exactly happened I might have better luck helping you figure out what is wrong.

Meatwad · « **Reply #2 on:** August 16, 2005, 04:37:43 PM »

I been mowing wet grass and the center blade gummed up about a minute before it died, but it quickly got blown out after driving through a clear cut path.

I'll go check the battery and see if anything around the deck area is gummed up. Hopefully it isnt anything serious, im too lazy to pushmow a yard now, id rather sit and mow it.

Edited. Battery is juiced up and blades are un-gummed. The clicking is coming from the area where the spinning roung thing on top of the engine is at. May have to take it apart and check it out.

SIK1 · « **Reply #3 on:** August 16, 2005, 04:56:23 PM »

The spinning round thing on top is the flywheel, check the electrical connections to the starter to make sure they are all good. If they are and you still can't get the engine to turn over remove the tin cover on top of the engine (it's called a blower housing) and make sure you don't have a bunch of crud packed inside the blower housing I've seen them packed with so much that it wouldn't let the starter engage the flywheel. It is also a good idea to clean out the blower housing and the cooling fins under the blower housing at least once a year (it makes these air cooled engines live much longer) never run the engine for more than a minute or two without the blower housing.

Xargos · « **Reply #4 on:** August 16, 2005, 05:29:13 PM »

Did you throw a rod?

Meatwad · « **Reply #5 on:** August 16, 2005, 05:38:23 PM »

After looking I seem to have found where the problem is. In the picture the circled area is where that loud clicking sound is. My guess is that the engine seized

eagl · « **Reply #6 on:** August 16, 2005, 05:53:29 PM »

nevermind

Meatwad · « **Reply #7 on:** August 16, 2005, 05:54:46 PM »

Aw m nj,.vcbmv

Aw crap, I found it. Would you believe that on rider mowers you have to disengage the mower blades before you try to start it. Guess after it died I forgot to push it back in. Jeez im in idjot. I feel like I been runover by a DUMBTRUCK.

Turns out it was out of gas. Im gonna get a beer

P0G0 · « **Reply #8 on:** August 16, 2005, 06:20:22 PM »

SIK1 · « **Reply #9 on:** August 16, 2005, 07:07:41 PM »

LOL, Yeah, there are more safety interlocks on mowers these days than you can shake a stick at. Glad you found your problem and it's not an expensive one

Meatwad · « **Reply #10 on:** August 16, 2005, 07:20:56 PM »

You aint kidding. Garanteed their for people like me. Thanks for everyone's help though.