Just had a mower come in for a repair and service.
A rover with a Chonda motor.
Lady said "It just wouldn't start. My son and husband both think it's a blocked carby."
No problems says I; I'll take it out the back and have it back to you tomorrow.
WELL.
It started on ether so thought yeah fair enough. cleaned out the carby (There was a SLIGHT blockage). Still wouldnt start without ether so off the carby came again, cleaned out again and took a closer look. The bowl gasket was just a random (incorrectly sized) O ring, changed that out. still wouldn't start so I adjusted the throttle cable and while I was doing this I found that the linkages weren't closing the butterfly in the carby ... Why??? There were twisted and bent so weren't working properly. Straightened them up and vroooom, all good BUT vibrated so much I was worried it would start bouncing down the road.
Flipped it over and the blade plate was tight and intact and 3 of the blades were in good condition and tight ... the fourth however was a plate (About the same size as a blade) of 3mm steel!
Guess the owner figured a chunk of metal would do the job. she swears blind that no-one had ever touched the carby or throttle linkages though...strange how these things always change form without anyone touching them!
Goes to show, when doing repairs for people take nothing for granted and check everything!
In the garage I have an old victa with the front axles held on with fencing wire, I've had a honda with gasket goo throughout the carby, I've had govenor linkages hooked up to chokes, fuel lines hooked up to air intakes and a piston with no rings (That one "Just stopped and wouldn't start again").
Would love to hear the worst/funniest "Home fix attempts" you've seen...
