I had a call yesterday from a mate who wants a mower for his Lady Friend, his words not mine. Anyway she wants a smaller mower that is easy to start as she only has a small area to mow. I looked around to see what I had and I think the best option I have is this Sprinter with a 300 series motor on it. Motor as far as I'm concerned is junk as these later Briggs seem to be, I tried starting it yesterday, it has spark and compression but with a squirt of starter fluid, not a peep from it so I won't waste any more time on it. I think I will put an old vertical pull Briggs on it, I pulled this old International out, put a carby on it and it started first pull and ran well, those old Briggs were obviously fairly well made. By fitting this old Briggs on it this Sprinter might live to an older age unlike the countless numbers of them sent to scrap and not one I have ever seen has the slightest sign of the wheels being slightly worn. So much for this crap about protecting the environment when manufacturers continue to build junk like this that is designed not to last and I'm not allowed to get a plastic bag from the shopping center to carry food home in a hygienic manner and they ban 2 strokes. Any thoughts?
If the first engine has a bar blade it might just be a sheared flywheel key. But of course the user could have bent the crankshaft by hitting something solid. Or it could be just a dropped valve being a OHV engine.
Hi Norm, I'd play with the sprinter a bit more, take the starter off and use electric drill starter.... save your arms. I water blast the gunk off,, let it dry in the sun..... Might be govner... it's the more advanced engine.... speedy
........................Keep your blades sharp......................
Not much gunk on this one to blast off, I will give it a few mins in the morning with the drill, but I have a pretty good feeling it is going to be a non runner and will end up in the scrap bin
Whatever it is AVB, it is not worth spending 5 mins on this Briggs rubbish
Norm,
It takes me take long just to get the tools out to do most jobs and that includes setting a work order plus looking up the IPLs. The key is the patience you need learning something new. If I had the attitude like why try I would have never learned to work on handheld two cycles but I spent hours working on them at first, now I am fairly fast on the diagnostics.
On the Briggs what would help is the service manuals for the basics then learning the specifics are easier. But I do agree the low end stuff is junky as they got to make them so cheap. I don't anything much than carburetor repairs on them as the equipment can be replaced just as cheap as the repair bill. But I am one that still like to know why an engine will not work.
I actually work just about every kind of engine that lawn care equipment uses. I have found every manufacture has their own way to doing things. My current problem is getting up to speed on the EFI systems are now hitting the market. Hopefully I can apply some my knowledge from automobiles in the troubleshooting. I do know the early Robin/Subaru experiment was a failure but manufactures are still trying go this way.
I have somewhere here the result of a lady hitting bloody big rocks several times (rental only mows when knee high) with a sprinter - 3rd time, pull cord wouldn't retract. Flywheel blew the entire centre out - will try to find it and take a photo - just a nice roundish few inch hole in the middle.
That was one of the last flat head 450s though
Mowed with my PT commando last weekend - 3 months sitting, 3 primes and went with 1 pull. Says something about quality.
Yes some people thinks a lawn mower is Bush Hog (larger rotary mower attached to tractor and is designed for rough cutting with swing arm bar blades).
I just recently by accident nearly destroyed my riding mower deck by hitting a large stump. Bent the blade, broke the spindle housing, and bent the deck itself. Kinda good I did as also had head gasket to blow on the engine. A couple hours with a large 3lb hammer I got the deck straighten out. Replaced the whole spindle assembly and new blade. Usually I am fixing others screw-ups but I reckon it was my time.
Yes some of the Briggs OHVs are using light weight flywheels that just can't take the abuse. I haven't seen broken as you describe but I seen them split in two. There was even a picture here of one that riveted back together.
I wonder how a power torque would react to having a bar blade whack an unyielding object? I don't think that's good for any motor unless it has a mega beefy crank. On the flip side any motor with a blade carrier with swing back blades is on a holiday.
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
MF, the Powertorque is a completely different animal and there is a good reason why you will never see a PT with a bent crank. Firstly it is a shorter crank out of the bottom of the motor and then it is really beefed up by it having the solid boss fitted on the taper and this tapered boss is hard up against the underside of the fan wheel which is up against the underside of the lower seal/bearing so there is no longish section of shaft down to the blade carrier which Briggs and Chondas have. AVB, It isn't about learning about them it is the fact they are still only a $50 at best mower after you have spent many hours working on them and then you have the ongoing problems with them because from new they are rubbish and no better than the junk from Aldi. All comes down to why waste you time on rubbish, plenty of rubbish on TV you can waste your time on and be no worse off.
I found this in the shed - I am pretty sure this is from the sprinter. A friend tore it down to fix as he has engine knowledge and wanted to help his neighbour, who got half way through 'slashing' and pushed it over some bloody big object. He would have used a rattle gun to get the nut off, but he reckons this is how it was on there. Maybe he buggered it if he levered it off, but it must have been on its way
He asked if I had a spare flywheel, but the crank appeared bent so it was scrapped. Despite my suggestions of a Victa/Masport with swing blades, she has purchased another cheap one with a bar
Hi Tyler, Fact is so many people won't listen and manufactures love that because it is like taking candy from a baby, they whinge about it for 2 seconds then go out and buy another junker and whinge again next year when it fails. Anyway I spun this one up with the drill and as I figured not a peep from it so it now resides in the scrap bin, all those cheap Briggs are good for, I would take a Chonda in preference any day, the Lawn Beetle motor is 100 times better, just the plastic body is a joke, but if I can pick them up for $10 they usually are good value
That looks better than I expected Norm. The paint job on the motor really makes all the difference to the overall appearance of the machine and it will gain the most important element to performance for a mower -reliability. These motors have good torque. I take it the shaft length was compatible with the base. Good job. Could you post a couple more pics for us?
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
The picture looks better than in the flesh, I only painted the cowl and I didn't bother with the actual motor as it is only a $40 mower can't spend too much time on it. Not sure what the blade carrier is off but it has an alloy boss, smallish diameter disc and quite long blades so it should do a good job on the lawn. Now it has stopped raining for a day or so I will give it a test run tomorrow Now I am on to my next cross bred project, a Sanli with a Briggs on it, you may ask why, the Sanli had been left in the rain for so long there was 200 mm of water in the petrol tank and it had a catcher, the Sprinter my son picked up today didn't have a catcher, with the Sanli 4 blade blade carrier on it the Briggs should be a big improvement on the useless 308 gram Sprinter bar blade
For some reason I have had a burst of Sprinters here over the last couple of weeks and as I very rarely get a catcher with them I don't bother with them. On the last couple I have fitted a real blade carrier, not those useless bar blades that the factory fitted because they were cheap and only weigh 300 grams. This turns the little Sprinter into a reasonable sort of mower even though it is still only a 16 inch cut, but the heavier blade carrier transforms them into a solid feeling machine compared to the floppy thing factory produced. Whoever thought the single bar blade was a good idea had obviously spent too many long lunches with the design team from Victa when they came up with the hump on the cam and the kill switch ideas on the G4/LM carbs
Norm, what blade carrier and disc did you end up using? I have a wesco with a chonda on it as well as a sprinter. The Wesco has a 2 blade carrier akined to a shorted masport quickcut, and I agree it makes them much nicer to use.
No idea what the carriers are off the one I did today I think might have come from a Flymo, I did one a couple of days ago and used a blade carrier that is pictured below, not sure what they are off but they are about 10 inches in diameter. It is a matter of finding a suitable carrier, then finding a boss that suits it. Does make them a much better mower
