OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions on Walk Behind Lawn Mower Frames Four Stroke Lawn Mower Frames My New project - Flymo Mower

Hello,
Here are some photo's of a Flymo mower that I am going to try to repair. Flymo? Does anyone know anything about them? This particular unit was scraped after the Mackay Floods and the people that owned it are in the same street as me. I know there was about 15-20cms of water that went through our homes then and that was in February 2008. I guess I'll need to thoroughly clean out the sump, carburetor and fuel tamk. I'll probably need to have a good look at the ignition system too. There is a lot of electrolysis/corrosion on the outside of the aluminium engine parts. I will keep you posted about how I go.

I remember my brother-in-law had an electric flymo back in the 60's. It was like a hovercraft - I don't think it had any wheels. you would just swing it back and forth over the lawn. The lawn needed to be flat. This one has a Briggs and Stratton 50MX engine on it. I'd like to see someone swing that back and forth like that! First up : The starter cord is broken - I think I'll start on that now. I'll keep you posted on problems - I'll need help no doubt. Thanks in advance.

nice find, looks like a fairly easy fix, put in a new rope, clean the carb and change the oil and it would probably go.

as for cleaning out the sump I would personally just tip out what is in there, put in a cup of fuel and swish it about and drain it out again.

fuel tank and carb, tip out whatever is in there, and drop the float bowl off the carby, while the bowl is off make sure the jet (goes up the middle where the bowl nut goes) is free and clear, just be careful as you remove the air filter housing as the little gasket between the housing and the carby forms part of the primer and likes to tear.

The rope can be tricky to somone who hasnt doen one before, what you can do is, wind the spring so it has a fair bit of tension (4-5 turns, feed in the rope through the hole on the starter reel and using your third hand tie a knot in it and let the spring tension draw the starter rope in.

Thanks Joe, I wish I had read your post before I got started. Anyway, I have done most of what you said. It will fire up (on a bit of aerostart...yes, I know..) blows a beautiful shade of blue smoke and then stops. Methinks it is a carby problem - that is what I did'nt do in your post. Now this is a fair dinkum carby not like a plastic B&S 3.5 carby, this one is all metal with linkages and attachments everywhere. I am a little loathe to touch it too much but I can at least do the bowl thing you have spoken of. by the way, I found this great site for parts diagrams. probably there is a good list on the outdoorking too but for what it's worth have a look here

https://www.outdoordistributors.com/

Use the alphabetical code at the top for the engine type and then "don't know part number" and then find your model number. At least it works for Briggs and Stratton.

This is my last day home before I have to go back to work. Work means a 235 trip west and away from home for 8 days. Retirement is a couple of years away.....sigh..Anyway, I won't be able to do any mower work until I get back. That's when I will attack the carby.

Hey sparker,
Those hover mowers from the 60 - 70s if ya ever see one let me know! Im after Kirby tecumseh 2 strokes that were fitted to them, although I'd like to find one complete just as a curiosity!
Cheers

ive got a tvs90 sitting under the house. runs well but has a scored bore. doesn't really hurt it as it still has bumper compression . shame your not closer or you could have had it real cheep!
im only keeping it for a gen project ive got in mind
regards jay

Hi All, just to add to the info, Flymo were connected, as was Electrolux, with Rover-Scott Bonnar a few years ago. The first hover mowers I saw were electric powered, but I have seen one with the Kirby-Tecumseh 4 stroke fitted.

Sparker has said that they had to be used on level ground, the funny thing is, the time I saw one used, it was tethered to a long length of rope and being swung from side to side on a steep terraced slope!

Cheers Mate! I'm really on the hunt for the KAV 87 & K11 models keep your eyes peeled for me. If you can find enough of them I'd go for a drive............good excuse to go to MCG?.....
Cheers

Well I have thoroughly cleaned the carby and I am sure that is good now. However, the blasted coil has decided to pack it in. Sometimes I think there is a conspiracy against me (not that I'm paranoid even though it's true).Remember, this mower basically went under water a couple of years ago and was then stored until now. There was a beautiful spark before I left for work and now zilch! Does anyone have a coil they want to sell - Serial number for this mower is 12F802. I think the part number is 802574 or 790817. Of course I have a coil from another project but, as luck would have it.....it doesn't fit - the conspiracy continues.

MMMM bit sus....have you tried totally isolating the ignition stop system? You may have inadvertantly grounded it some where while playing with the carb? hence now no spark........worth a look......
Cheers,
John

Yes, Fast Grass, after your post I went and had another go. I took the kill wire off and tried that too. It's as dead as a dodo.

MMM bin Job then? I assume you have gone through the motions of points gap etc? It may have corroded points or something if it went under? Have fun....ah the joys....
Cheers,
John

Yup, bin job for the coil. Now to start looking for another coil.

any briggs engines after 1982 has electronic ignition and no points. have you checked the gap between the flywheel and the magneto? i may have one out there but i will have to check because they are a bit different to the other Briggs ones. another thing to do is make sure there is a good ground connection between the coil and the block of the motor and that the plug is good.
regards jay

Hi mowernut. You're right, it does have electronic ignition and I have done all the checks. I should have a look locally first, I guess, before asking you to go to any trouble. I appreciate your offer to have a look and if I can't do any good here in Mackay I hope I can get back to you.

I did another re-check on the magneto and it is working fine-without the killwire attached! Mowernut and fast Grass were right. So I was back to the original problem. It starts then stops. I've done the Clean carby dance again and again. I noticed a little black stuff in the bowl from time to time. I decided to have a look at the fuel tank (plastic). The photo
shows some of what came out.
It's like a black crystal. It must be the fuel tank wall.
I thought my problem would be solved but there hasn't been any change. Starts and stops. Do you think I will need to do this again? There is no fuel filter anywhere on the line. Is it OK to add a filter or does it interfere with the gravity flow?

Can you replace the plastic tank for a tin one,clean out your carby(again) and a small filter should not interfere with the fuel flow...ken

Mowerman, I don't have a tin tank except for a pulsa jet tank. That won't connect unfortunately. I think I am slowly getting somewhere. If I stuff a rag into the carby it will run much longer. Then, when I pull the rag out, it picks up revs dramatically as the air ratio changes but then stops.If I manually work the governor it doesn't make any difference. Therefore I think the choke part of the carby is working but the primer part is not. More crap in it I guess. Oh well, it's back to the mine tomorrow and I won't be back for another week.

Take the carby with you to the mine incase you get bored...ken

Not a bad idea. I am up at 04:30am every morning and work until 16:00 then "on call" all night. I sleep at the mine. That goes on for 8 days/7 nights. What a drag . A little hobby might make the time go faster... on the other hand it's not much good if I can't test it out. My project is beginning to take over my life - it's already taken over the garage.

That black stuff that you can see in the picture is not from the fuel tank. I have done a bit more research and it is coming from the black "rubber" fuel line. A common problem when fuel is allowed to sit for a long period. The alcohol fuels may make it worse. When I get home I'll replace it.

With my old cars i cant use bio fuel or ethanol based fuel because it eats away at fuel lines-gaskets etc...ken

So I've found out, too.

Well, I got a recipe for several carby cleaners off the net. The one I used was a mixture of kerosine and paint stripper. I left the carby sitting in it for 24 hours and I didn't think it would work as it was a very lumpy mixture. Anyway I blew it out with compressed air and poked all the orifices with a stripped wire tie. I changed the fuel in the mower and put the carby back on. You would'nt believe it but it started on the 3rd pull and ran like a new mower. There are still a couple of problems though.

1. It revs too high and the throttle control doesn't seem to make much difference.
2. I have to reconnect the kill wire if the coil is OK.
3. The amount of smoke was lethal.

If anyone has a picture of the throttle linkages for a B&S 12F series mower it might help.

This isn't really a restoration, it's more loke a repair but I did feel good when the mower started.

It's all done. Even a coat of paint here and there. I'll put up a picture later. Thanks for the help.

P.S. the kill wire was strpped and was earthing out. A bit of insulation tape fixed that.