OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums General Discussion Forum Off Topics Talon Mowers - Some Thoughts ...

Has that cover been spray painted or is just in good nick? So that's a pig I mean Briggs under there?

I've never seen a Talon with a leg out, based on seeing about 20-30 at the tip and working on a few over the past few years.
Biggest thing is no oil, followed by back wheels falling off, then buggered pull starts. I have heard they hammer down their valve seats and lose compression, but its difficult to tell this from no oil damage.

Some just need a carby clean - just like many 4 strokes thrown out

Yes MF It was a bit faded so I gave it a couple of coats of School Bus Yellow I had here, freshened it up. It isn't a Briggs under there the muffler was very noisy so I put a Briggs muffler on it. I had to run a 1/4 inch tap in the muffler bolt holes because the Talon is 6mm and I needed to use the Briggs bolts which are 1/4 inch. A big problem with the Talon is the dumb idea that they used to bolt the cowl /pull start on, they get tightened down and then you can't get them out, really bad design. And when it all gets too hard and you need to get to the carby this is all you have to do.

Lawd! I think I prefer to deal with Victa's quirks. Good job with the yellow though. The cover looks great freshly painted like that.

That's what I have felt like doing many times to a talon Norm - trying to adjust things like the governor with that bloody cowl in place. I now have a old piece of starter rope with 20 knots in the end as a handle. I warm the engine up, then remove the cowl and I wrap the rope around the starter cup and pull start it that way.

I don't have a starter handle on the rope as one time the end snagged up on the mesh flywheel cover, snatched the rope back in, wrapped it around and flung the handle round full bore until the handle hit something and broke

Tyler for starting all these mowers with the cowl removed I just use an electric drill with a socket on it to suit the nut. Cutting the cowl is not a good option

I try to avoid that drill start, just because I am always worried the socket will come off and either hit the flywheel and break it, or hit the flywheel and bounce off and hit me or something else.

Combined with the fact that my cheapy cordless drill won't spin the motor fast enough, and I am usually too lazy to drag out a extension cord to get electricity for the electric drill

I probably wouldn't mind doing on the Talons, as they have the cowling over everything, and the mesh over the entire flywheel

I would never cut the cowl, just looks too ugly. I was contemplating drilling a small hole that meant I could stick a screwdriver in to adjust the governor, but I didn't like that much either

Tyler ,the socket doesn't cause any problems, sometimes the socket stays on the motor and just spins happily away, sometimes it gets thrown off and just falls on the ground and sometimes it stays on the drill, certainly doesn't cause any grief. I have put JB Weld on the threads into the top of the motor for the 3 studs to prevent them from becoming a problem later, I haven't done this one because I didn't need to remove the steel cowl

Ok, then I might give it a go again. It just worried me that a fin would break off the flywheel, or if the socket stayed on the bolt, it may bounce off eventually.

I think using an electric drill to start a mower is slightly daft and fraught with potential problems. It only has to fall the right way and next thing you know, you have a fin knocked off the fan and who knows where that could lodge among the moving flywheel? A drill isn't a starter motor. Why not just sort the starter first before anything else?

MF, you have obviously never done it then? I have been doing it for years and never had one problem

I attempted it once with an 18v cordless drill and it couldn't spin it fast enough. I imagine a plug in drill has the power to spin it as quickly as a pull starter. As long as the socket stays on well and it doesn't bind to the nut it's engaging with, it would work ok. It's a matter of lifting it off as the motor fires I guess.

My problem is I don't always have the coordination to lift off the drill quick enough - and I worry about buggering up the flywheel fan.

When used properly on a cowled motor (or at least mesh covered flywheel) I have no problem with it, but its when people do this it scares me (watch for about 20 seconds until the socket pops off and hits the (thankfully mesh covered) flywheel.

Seems to me to be a big deal about nothing, socket can't damage the flywheel, they are both travelling at the same speed, if the socket decides to jump off it just falls on the ground. Trust me I have never had to go looking for a far flung socket, and the only reason my socket might come off is because it is all a bit loose from years of hard work and as it doesn't cause me any more problem than having to bend down (that is the hard part) to pick the socket up off the ground. My setup is a 3/8th socket shaft that I turned down at least 30 years ago so it would fit in my drill chuck, then it has a 3/8th to half inch adapter and then a 1/2 inch drive socket to fit the nut on the top of the crank. I have been doing this sort of stuff for close on 60 years and if I thought it was dangerous I certainly wouldn't be doing it Each to their own, but I will continue to start and test run mine with my half inch electric drill

im with you Norm i use my drill and socket all the time,never had a problem except bending down to p/up socket

I've used the drill start method for donkeys years like Norm,gml, never had a problem and a lot of the time the socket gets stuck on the flywheel
nut , so don't weld your extension to the socket,then remove the socket after shutting down the motor .

Just to test how safe this method is I once spun the socket up on a drill at full speed then hit the socket off with a lump of wood,
the socket went virtually nowhere in distance just down to the ground,it's a similar concept when using a parting tool
on a lathe the metal being parted off does not fly up and smack you in the face.

It wouldn't be too difficult to make a socket like a crank starter that disengages when the motor starts.

Cheers
Max.

Am I the only one that just puts a Talon stright in the scrap pile? Had success repairing the starter - done 6 or 7 over the years but they are just a crap mower..... Not Husqvarna's best effort

I'm not so sure the Talons are that bad,ok they aren't that flash, sure they are no Honda, the top cowl was a fools idea,but you would have to rate them better than a lot of the Chondas now

Even the Victa V40?

i just shoved a 17.5 china motor in the stiga lots to do before it is running but for $500 and 2 year warranty we will see