Why do so many Craftsman lawn tractors have blown engines? There always
one for sale, "Nice machine but engine is blown".



--
If your doctor isn't taking new patients,
he ain't curing any of them.

On Apr 19, 6:20*pm, LSMFT wrote:
Why do so many Craftsman lawn tractors have blown engines? There always
one for sale, "Nice machine but engine is blown".

--
If your doctor isn't taking new patients,
he ain't curing any of them.

lack of proper maintence oil changes etc, plus most craftsman are
lower cost shorter life

On 4/19/2011 6:20 PM, LSMFT wrote:
Why do so many Craftsman lawn tractors have blown engines? There always
one for sale, "Nice machine but engine is blown".



Lack of upkeep, in most cases. (Duh! I didn't know you had to change the
oil!) Craftsman, while not 'pro grade', are not total junk either, and
usually have the same Briggs or Kohler engines as the 'real' brands.
Craftsman are OEM'd by the same companies that make all the other store
brands, and while the chassis and accessories may be 'decontented' to
make Sears' price point, engines are pretty much a commodity item for
consumer-grade equipment. A lawn service company would probably be
foolish to buy a $1500 Craftsman versus a $4k commercial unit, but for
one lot, they should be plenty good enough.

--
aem sends...

"LSMFT" wrote in message
...
Why do so many Craftsman lawn tractors have blown engines? There always
one for sale, "Nice machine but engine is blown".


I had a Craftsman 7 horse rototiller attachment for a garden tractor. Bought
it used First owner had a blown engine. He replaced it with a like type
Craftsman engine. That one threw a rod through the case soon after I bought
it. (same as the first one.) I replaced with a different brand. Used it
for 10 years on a 3/4 acre garden. Moved to a smaller property. Sold tiller
to a friend an he never had any problem with it.. WW

WW wrote:
wrote in message
...
Why do so many Craftsman lawn tractors have blown engines? There always
one for sale, "Nice machine but engine is blown".


I had a Craftsman 7 horse rototiller attachment for a garden tractor. Bought
it used First owner had a blown engine. He replaced it with a like type
Craftsman engine. That one threw a rod through the case soon after I bought
it. (same as the first one.) I replaced with a different brand. Used it
for 10 years on a 3/4 acre garden. Moved to a smaller property. Sold tiller
to a friend an he never had any problem with it.. WW



Hi,
Today's Craftsman anything is jink. I quit going to Sears years ago.
Their price is not good either. Things I bought (tools) ~50 years ago
are good, I still use them. Craftsman is only name sake now.

bob haller wrote the following:
On Apr 19, 6:20 pm, LSMFT wrote:

Why do so many Craftsman lawn tractors have blown engines? There always
one for sale, "Nice machine but engine is blown".

--
If your doctor isn't taking new patients,
he ain't curing any of them.


lack of proper maintence oil changes etc, plus most craftsman are
lower cost shorter life


Sears, Kenmore, and Craftsman are not products of Sears. Sears does not
make anything. Craftsman engines are most likely B&S.


--

Bill
In Hamptonburgh, NY
In the original Orange County. Est. 1683
To email, remove the double zeroes after @

On Tue, 19 Apr 2011 18:20:17 -0400, LSMFT wrote:

Why do so many Craftsman lawn tractors have blown engines? There always
one for sale, "Nice machine but engine is blown".
Usually because Craftsman owners seldom or never check or change the
oil????????

On Tue, 19 Apr 2011 16:09:30 -0700 (PDT), bob haller
wrote:

On Apr 19, 6:20Â*pm, LSMFT wrote:
Why do so many Craftsman lawn tractors have blown engines? There always
one for sale, "Nice machine but engine is blown".

--
If your doctor isn't taking new patients,
he ain't curing any of them.

lack of proper maintence oil changes etc, plus most craftsman are
lower cost shorter life
And I've seen some very old, well maintained Craftsman equipment -

On Tue, 19 Apr 2011 17:20:29 -0600, "WW"
wrote:


"LSMFT" wrote in message
...
Why do so many Craftsman lawn tractors have blown engines? There always
one for sale, "Nice machine but engine is blown".


I had a Craftsman 7 horse rototiller attachment for a garden tractor. Bought
it used First owner had a blown engine. He replaced it with a like type
Craftsman engine. That one threw a rod through the case soon after I bought
it. (same as the first one.) I replaced with a different brand. Used it
for 10 years on a 3/4 acre garden. Moved to a smaller property. Sold tiller
to a friend an he never had any problem with it.. WW


The "craftsman" engine WAS a tecumseh engine, built to a spec - but
that was used on the lawn mowers and real low end riders. The bigger
stuff got normal Briggs, Kohler, Tecumseh, etc engines that were the
same as everyone else got.

Their snow blowers got the same "sno-king" Tec as everyone else.

On Tue, 19 Apr 2011 17:27:13 -0600, Tony Hwang
wrote:



WW wrote:
wrote in message
...
Why do so many Craftsman lawn tractors have blown engines? There always
one for sale, "Nice machine but engine is blown".


I had a Craftsman 7 horse rototiller attachment for a garden tractor. Bought
it used First owner had a blown engine. He replaced it with a like type
Craftsman engine. That one threw a rod through the case soon after I bought
it. (same as the first one.) I replaced with a different brand. Used it
for 10 years on a 3/4 acre garden. Moved to a smaller property. Sold tiller
to a friend an he never had any problem with it.. WW



Hi,
Today's Craftsman anything is jink. I quit going to Sears years ago.
Their price is not good either. Things I bought (tools) ~50 years ago
are good, I still use them. Craftsman is only name sake now.
Well, for one thing, Tecumseh is gone as an engine source, so who
knows what chinese crap they (and all "lower end" equipment is using.?

On Tue, 19 Apr 2011 20:42:15 -0400, willshak
wrote:

bob haller wrote the following:
On Apr 19, 6:20 pm, LSMFT wrote:

Why do so many Craftsman lawn tractors have blown engines? There always
one for sale, "Nice machine but engine is blown".

--
If your doctor isn't taking new patients,
he ain't curing any of them.


lack of proper maintence oil changes etc, plus most craftsman are
lower cost shorter life


Sears, Kenmore, and Craftsman are not products of Sears. Sears does not
make anything. Craftsman engines are most likely B&S.
Craftsman engines, with the craftsman name on them, were tecumseh
made to Sears spec. The part numbers differentiated them from other
Tecumseh engines.

On 4/19/2011 6:20 PM, LSMFT wrote:
Why do so many Craftsman lawn tractors have blown engines? There always
one for sale, "Nice machine but engine is blown".
I don't know the intracies of Sears Price point high profit margin
mandated products but......
I had a shed full of the new Craftsmen Trimmers, leaf blowers etc. I
bought some out, of belief, in the brand name right after this new Sears
came on the scene. They lasted a few day or weeks or whatever. just long
enough for Sears to tell me to send them to wherever for warranty work
or the warranty had expired etc.
I have bought some of them and used them once or at least starting them
once and the quit or refused to even work the first time.
I bought and returned 3 push power mowers.
I bought one of highest priced riding mowers ever from them. From the
get go, I couldn't lower the deck of let out the clutch and it continued
to run. They came and got it.
I've bought several of their new hand tools which broke and or bent.
They no longer have a lifetime warranty. I have a quality Craftsment
ratchet form several years ago. The pwl in the rachet needs to be
replaced. Sears use to replace the cartridge, in a few minues, on the
spot and that was that. I took it in and they wanted to replace it with
the new limited warranty or no warranty, I don't remember which and that
was the end of the warranty. Now I don't think they honor the Lifetime
warranty on the quality product, at all.
My Daughter bought a hot water heater from them. They devlivered it and
couldn't install it.
The Craftsman name is now associated purely with junk.
The Sears name is universally associated with junk now days.
They took it back and issued a credit. A few months later they billed
her card for it again. Weeks of calls to them were to no avail. Daughter
had gotten rid of transaction records after a few months.
So Sear Stole 600.00 dollars.
As a Child then a young adult I went to Sears$ Roebuck, to browse and
buy tools, yard, tools, hunting and fishing equipment and supplies and
guns. I spent a lot, of time, perusing their catlog, particlarily
firearms. Sears and Roebuck was the American Insitution.
Sears now is a ghetto name an sorry products and warranties and sales
practices. They are just a reseller of the cheapest produced Chinese
junk available. They are still trading off the reputation and integrity
of the old Sears and Roebuck. I haven't darkened t heir doorways in a
ery long time. neither have anyone I know. We go shopping for quality
products, we have to shop long and hard to find quality American or any
other quality products that we use to get at Sears and Roebuck.
We went to town it was to Sears and Roebuck. Not anymore. the same junk
is available at WalMart or Target or whomever. Same for KMart. It is
nothing more than a tax writeoff. Ther is no concept of value for money,
reputation or trying to satisfy the demand of the American market.
Craftsman junk can now be bought a lot of places that sell other junk
labels.
Thanks Wall Street.

On Tue, 19 Apr 2011 18:20:17 -0400, LSMFT wrote:

Why do so many Craftsman lawn tractors have blown engines? There always
one for sale, "Nice machine but engine is blown".

Maybe they're not always really 'blown' - maybe that's just the common
term for "engine stopped working but I don't know why" and might cover
all kinds of faults. There might be some good deals around.

And yes, running out of oil is probably the no.1 killer for engines that
really are blown. Neither of my B+S engines present a very accurate
picture of oil level because they have such a shallow sump and the oil
filler's off to one side - to check I normally just drain out whatever's
in them and then add the manufacturer's recommended amount so I know that
it's right.

cheers

Jules

Jules Richardson wrote:
On Tue, 19 Apr 2011 18:20:17 -0400, LSMFT wrote:

Why do so many Craftsman lawn tractors have blown engines? There always
one for sale, "Nice machine but engine is blown".

Maybe they're not always really 'blown' - maybe that's just the common
term for "engine stopped working but I don't know why" and might cover
all kinds of faults. There might be some good deals around.

And yes, running out of oil is probably the no.1 killer for engines that
really are blown. Neither of my B+S engines present a very accurate
picture of oil level because they have such a shallow sump and the oil
filler's off to one side - to check I normally just drain out whatever's
in them and then add the manufacturer's recommended amount so I know that
it's right.

cheers

Jules

I never see the oil go down on any small engine I have. Maybe it's
because I change it every year. I don't know how it could "run out of
oil" and blow up. Especially these new machines.





--
If your doctor isn't taking new patients,
he ain't curing any of them.

On Tue, 19 Apr 2011 23:19:10 -0400, Lil Abner wrote:

On 4/19/2011 6:20 PM, LSMFT wrote:
Why do so many Craftsman lawn tractors have blown engines? There always
one for sale, "Nice machine but engine is blown".
I don't know the intracies of Sears Price point high profit margin
mandated products but......
I had a shed full of the new Craftsmen Trimmers, leaf blowers etc. I
bought some out, of belief, in the brand name right after this new Sears
came on the scene. They lasted a few day or weeks or whatever. just long
enough for Sears to tell me to send them to wherever for warranty work
or the warranty had expired etc.
I have bought some of them and used them once or at least starting them
once and the quit or refused to even work the first time.
I bought and returned 3 push power mowers.
I bought one of highest priced riding mowers ever from them. From the
get go, I couldn't lower the deck of let out the clutch and it continued
to run. They came and got it.
I've bought several of their new hand tools which broke and or bent.
They no longer have a lifetime warranty. I have a quality Craftsment
ratchet form several years ago. The pwl in the rachet needs to be
replaced. Sears use to replace the cartridge, in a few minues, on the
spot and that was that. I took it in and they wanted to replace it with
the new limited warranty or no warranty, I don't remember which and that
was the end of the warranty. Now I don't think they honor the Lifetime
warranty on the quality product, at all.
My Daughter bought a hot water heater from them. They devlivered it and
couldn't install it.
The Craftsman name is now associated purely with junk.
The Sears name is universally associated with junk now days.
They took it back and issued a credit. A few months later they billed
her card for it again. Weeks of calls to them were to no avail. Daughter
had gotten rid of transaction records after a few months.
So Sear Stole 600.00 dollars.
As a Child then a young adult I went to Sears$ Roebuck, to browse and
buy tools, yard, tools, hunting and fishing equipment and supplies and
guns. I spent a lot, of time, perusing their catlog, particlarily
firearms. Sears and Roebuck was the American Insitution.
Sears now is a ghetto name an sorry products and warranties and sales
practices. They are just a reseller of the cheapest produced Chinese
junk available. They are still trading off the reputation and integrity
of the old Sears and Roebuck. I haven't darkened t heir doorways in a
ery long time. neither have anyone I know. We go shopping for quality
products, we have to shop long and hard to find quality American or any
other quality products that we use to get at Sears and Roebuck.
We went to town it was to Sears and Roebuck. Not anymore. the same junk
is available at WalMart or Target or whomever. Same for KMart. It is
nothing more than a tax writeoff. Ther is no concept of value for money,
reputation or trying to satisfy the demand of the American market.
Craftsman junk can now be bought a lot of places that sell other junk
labels.
Thanks Wall Street.
Welcome to America._Where there is always someone willing to sell you
something cheaper than the next guy.
Price is king, and quality be damned.
Doesn't stop the prices from going up, either.