Hi.

I have an old lawnmower with a 3.5 HP Briggs engine. The engine is worn out
after about 20 years of abuse. It has a 21" blade and the shaft measures
about 2 7/8" to the flat part where the blade is inserted. The blade holder
is attached to the crankshaft with a big nut. I cannot see the threads.
Anyone know if this is reverse thread or regular? I found some new engines
on eBay for cheap but they don't appear to be threaded on the outside of the
shaft. Is it very difficult to find parts to fit a blade onto other kinds
of shafts? I don't seem to be finding any with outside-threaded shafts.

Thanks.

Threads should be reverse.

Searcher

I don't know where to find the engine, but I can tell you a quick way
to tell which way to turn the nut to loosen it:

carefully pull the start cord on the engine and note which way the
shaft turns (may need a helper so one can watch and the other person
can pull the cord). The nut/shaft will be threaded so that the shaft
rotation tightens the nut (otherwise the lawnmower would throw the
blades off every time you started it up).

"louie" wrote in message
ups.com...
I don't know where to find the engine, but I can tell you a quick way
to tell which way to turn the nut to loosen it:

carefully pull the start cord on the engine and note which way the
shaft turns (may need a helper so one can watch and the other person
can pull the cord). The nut/shaft will be threaded so that the shaft
rotation tightens the nut (otherwise the lawnmower would throw the
blades off every time you started it up).

OK, thanks (to both of you). :-)