by Damo » September 17th, 2007, 3:37 pm
I have a shitty GMC lawn Mower with a B&S 4 stroke motor, it's ran like shit since day one. Blowing black smoke, gutless etc etc. Started mowing the back lawn this afternoon and the thing was running like shit, cutting out as soon as I'd hit a tough patch of grass, coughing and spluttering etc.
Anyway I decided to give it a service, since it's about 3 years old and it's never been done. Checked the oil and the level was fine but it was black, so drained that and refilled, checked the air filter and it was completely black and filled with dirt and petrol and stuff, so I cleaned it up rinsed it out and stuff and let it dry, chucked a new spark plug in and fired it up. Now it was running even worse, making popping noises and eventually back fired and cut out. Checked the spark plug and it was already black and sooty looking.
Somewhere in between all this I tipped it on it's side to check the blades, what I didn't realise untill now after some googling. "When tipping your 4 stroke mower on the side for maintenance, it is very very very important to only tilt it so that the spark plug points to the sky, this is so the engine oil does not travel into the combustion chamber or the carburettor".
I failed at servicing my lawn mower and now it won't start lol. Is it fucked ? I only need to use this mower one more time, as i'm moving house very soon and the new place has no grass.
Anyone got any tips to try and get the bastard going ? Is there anyway I can clean the spark plug ?
sorry for the long and boring post.