Hi CyberJack,
The 590 sort of fell in my lap about 30 years ago. My folks had a neighbour who bought the 590 and never got around to using it. I think it sat in a box in their garage for nearly 10 years when I bought it off them in the early 90's for a hundred bucks. For a few years prior to that, I was using my dad's old Pope mower. Beggers can't be choosers. He bought a second hand SB430 so he offered me the Pope. He used to work on the Pope mower production line for many years, I think, at Dudley Park in Adelaide before Pope merged with Simpson. He then moved on to the whitegoods production line. Needless to say, he had heaps of spare parts in his shed for his the mower and washing machines. The Pope used to drive me crazy with dry grass and dust flying out from the side mounted wire mesh catcher and the carby was so temperamental the motor revs used to run away till the thing just about took off. So the 590 was like upgrading from an EK Holden to a Rolls Royce. Having the lawn catcher at the rear has certainly been advantageous when manoeuvring around lawn edges along a moss rock retainer wall. The motor has never really missed a beat. Only recently had the starter spring go on me but luckily it was right at one end where it inserts into the starter cord reel so I was able to use a file to reshape the end into the same form and reuse the same spring. I treated it to a new pull cord while I had that apart. Everything else is original except one squeaky bearing I replaced several years ago, oil, air filter and the spark plug. I find adjusting the reel to bedknife clearance very easy which I now do at the start of every Spring. I don't adjust it that close that it cuts paper but until the reel "kisses" the bedknife. I still have a good 5mm of meat left on the reel but I think my bedknife might be close to needing replacement. I must go into a shop or look for some pictures to see what a new one should look like. I suspect I might be shocked to see how much mine has worn. I've never seen the need to have the reel and bedknife sharpened because the thing seems to cut the lawn so nicely. Going so long without sharpening will probably make the purists among you shudder. If you want a better resolution copy of the Instruction Manual emailed to you, let me know. I also have the associated Briggs and Stratton Operating and Maintenance Instructions for Models 60100 to 60152, 80100 to 80192 but I suspect they are readily available at a dime a dozen.
Happy mowing,
Diplomatic
