My Dad and I both have Rovers with the Suzuki 2 stroke. My dad bought his (steel mulching base) back in the 80s and it is still running today. Mine (aluminium base with catcher) I bought second hand and it came with two and a half spare engines and the original owners manual, brochure and display card from the dealer which I thought was cute.
Lately I have had some trouble with mine, it just screams and screams, running way too fast.
It is like the governor lever cannot overcome the spring, even when the throttle is only barely on. You remove the Spring and the engine will run but obviously cannot self regulate when you hit a thick patch of grass.
Does anyone have any idea on what I can do to even begin trouble shooting this? The mower ran great when I got it but has since developed this issue. I have been using it without the spring installed so that I can actually cut my grass I want it to run like it should.
Hi Tim, Welcome aboard! Sounds like you have a problem with the governor, the arm is either loose on the shaft, which is an easy enough fix, or the governor gear in the crankcase has broken in which case you're in trouble as you cant get parts for these engines afaik. Cheers, Ted
I was thinking along the same lines as Ted but if you manually hold the throttle just open (idle position with Choke off) and the motor is obviously running too fast then there must be a fuel or air pressure problem .
When the engine idle suddenly runs high that usually means you have a fuel or air pressure problem, have a dirty air filter or you're running bad fuel. Cross the dirty air filter and bad fuel off your checklist after inspection and if the idle remains high then you might want to conduct a compression test to rule out an air leak.
An easy way to check the carby is not the problem for me is to bolt the carby to another motor and see if it runs as it should,
It could be just a governor problem as Ted suggested but you will need to check a few things.
Leaking crankcase seals can be a common cause of of excessive no-load engine speed ,there are a few methods for checking for worn crankcase seals ,I usually check the lower crankshaft seal by removing the spark plug lead and spark plug then with an oil can give the spark plug hole about 10 squirts of oil then refit the plug and turn the motor over ,most of the time this causes the motor to hydraulic lock when turning over so I slowly turn the motor over about 20 times from the blade plate then spin the motor with the starter a few times ,if the lower seal is excessively worn you will have oil dripping down the crankshaft if the seal is slightly worn the crank is usually dripping oil after a few days of sitting idle.
Another way is to get a 1.5 thou feeler gauge and push it between the seal and crank ,when the old seal has gone hard and is leaking the feeler gauge will have very little resistance when inserting between the seal and crankshaft ,with this method you need to be careful not to damage the seal with the feeler gauge if the seal is good.
Not long ago I had a powertorque motor, I rebuilt the carby then fitted and ran the motor and the engine ran excessively high in the idle position so I removed the carby then after fitting on another motor it ran perfect so I knew the other motor must have an air leak .
Thanks for the feedback gents. I am lucky in that I have some spare motors to disassemble, look around in and scrap parts from. Ultimately I want to spend a couple of weekends turning the spare motors into a second whole, running engine that I can store safe and clean in the event of the demise of the main motor.
To be honest, I got to the stage where things were starting to feel like a lost cause. I was able to get in touch with the small engine mechanic who sold me the mower and he is now having a look at it. The mechanic knows I am interested and had previously talked me through adjusting the governor. I tried this and was able to slow the engine down a bit however in the process something else failed and I wasn't able to start it again, hence the trip to the mechanic.
It's been a week now since this happened but I think I do remember the engine throttling up very quickly when moving the throttle lever by hand, so maybe the carb is in need of a clean.
I will report back once I have my mower back and, assuming all good, perhaps I can continue this thread with my mission to get one of the spare motors running.
Thanks for taking the time to respond, I really appreciate it!
