"micky" wrote in message
...
In alt.home.repair, on Mon, 12 Apr 2021 14:19:45 -0700, Bob F
wrote:

On 4/12/2021 1:13 PM, TimR wrote:
On Monday, April 12, 2021 at 4:10:28 PM UTC-4, TimR wrote:
On Monday, April 12, 2021 at 3:08:27 PM UTC-4, Bob F wrote:
On 4/12/2021 8:06 AM, TimR wrote:
While mowing the yard yesterday the lawnmower made a clanging noise
and quit.

Pulling the starter cord seems too easy now and I hear it spin longer
than it should. And no, it doesn't start.

Should I give up on IC engines and buy an electric? I've certainly
had my struggles with gas engines the past couple of years.

Did you regularly change the oil?
I was wondering about that. I'm pretty careful about oil, but when I
checked it after the failure it was very dark.

Also, I ran out of gas halfway through the lawn, and had to take a break
for a couple hours, because this mower ran well but never did want to
start hot. I tried a bunch of times, then just let it cool off and it
started fine.

(Of course I tried it again the next day hoping maybe it healed. Nope.
Still pulls easy, still has the same amount of dirty oil, still doesn't
start.)


Does the piston move when you pull the starter? My first thought was
that you threw the rod. But I just thought that maybe you just have a
stuck valve. If the rod is the problem, you should be able to tell the
crank will just spin freely or clank as it turns. If a valve is stuck
open it will puff-puff as it spins, but may puff out the itake, or in
the exhaust depending on which valve is stuck. That could be a more
simple repair.

I think I once had a lwan mower engine where the pin that held the valve
spring in place broke or came out and the only problem was that the
valve never closed. So it had no compression. (But if that were really
the only problem, how come I can't remember fixing it?)

That's just the Alzheimer's, nothing to worry about.