Hi All,
I recently bought myself a Yard Start STA17, a Chinese made Scott Bonner copy. These were sold at Bunnings in the early 2000's I believe.
Mine is a 2005 model with a Chonda 160f motor.
I've been really pleased with it so far and have enjoyed cutting my new turf with it. It cost me $100.00 and seems to have nothing wrong with it at all and was very well looked after by the previous owner.
Unfortunately about a week ago I had a shelf collapse in the garage which knocked the mower over so it was leaning on its handle bars. I suspect it was like that for a couple of days.
When I found it I stood it back up and left it alone for a few days. When I did go to start it the compression was so high I could no pull the starter cord more than a few centimeters.
I removed the spark plug and the top of the cylinder had oil (?) in it. I was able to move the piston up and down and pumped out most of the fluid through the spark plug hole. I dried off the spark plug and refitted it.
For good measure I removed the air filter and checked everything was OK there. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
Anyway as per the title of the thread the mower is now a non starter. I suspect there is still a little oil left in the cylinder that is wetting the spark plug and preventing it form sparking correctly.
I have checked the spark plug itself and it is sparking without any problems when I remove it form the cylinder.
It has been suggested to me I should put a couple of ml of fuel in the spark plug hole and light a match to burn off any excess oil. This seems a bit dangerous to say the least!! I was thinking I should use some Start ya Bastard or similar product.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
(apologies for the long winded post and if I should perhaps be posting this to the motor forum instead)
Cheers,
Horace
