I have a 2006 19" VSX160 mulch and catch, 4 blades, which I believe may have been one of the last 2 strokes made in Australia?
It's been running reliably for 15 years, only issue was that sometimes it wouldn't shut off when I pulled the lever to stop, and then 3 weeks ago it just wouldn't start no matter how much I tried. The chassis is like new, it has been kept under cover it's whole life, even the plastic has hardly faded.
So far I have:
- replaced air filter
- replaced spark plug
- rebuilt carby with new parts (except float), including the boot for the ignition wires
- replaced the pull start mechanism (the cord snapped after all my starting attempts)
The spark looked weak even with a new plug so I pulled out the ignition coil. It measured 15k Ohms so I went to get a second hand replacement, the only one I found was from a later model and measured the same, so I put mine back in and reassembled everything, using folded bits of paper to measure the gap. Third pull and it started, I left it running for 5 minutes while i whipper snippered the lawn edge and then started cutting some grass.
After 5 minutes it cut out and twenty pulls later it still won't start.I have pulled out the ignition wires from the carby to eliminate that as a factor, and the spark seems to be pretty strong now.
When I had it apart I looked at the muffler (clean) and peeked inside at the piston. There was a fair amount of scoring so I am thinking that maybe there could be a compression issue. It's getting beyond my level of commitment, I have been quoted $340 to rebuild the motor and wondering whether I should go further down this path or just spend an extra $100 get a new one from Bunnies with a 5 year warranty. Is this why there are so many of them sitting on the side of the road?
