On Jul 12, 12:19*am, "James H." wrote:
But, since so many people have said to bang DOWN on the flywheel ... may I
ask what is the logic in that?

For the answer to this, you only need to look at Newton's laws of
motion.

Newton's first law, an object at rest will tend to stay at rest...
applies to the flywheel. When you smack the crankshaft, the flywheel
will want to tend to stay in place, while the rest of the lawn mower
will go in the direction of your hit.

You are basically knocking the mower out from under the flywheel. Why?
You can't hit the flywheel to knock it off the mower so this is your
only choice.

As for breaking the intake manifold, that's your fault. You should've
looked before prying. Pry on something that isn't the intake manifold.