Norm, One of the funniest attempts at fixing a mower was on a 70s Rover I picked up at the local tip shop a few years ago. Someone obviously must have had trouble starting it, so they had stretched out the spring on the carby about 20cm and had it fastened to the back of the cowl with a screw. I'm not sure what they hoped to achieve by this. I can only guess it was done out of sheer frustration. The reason why the mower would not go should have been obvious. The tank and carby were full of gunk. I flushed everything out and replaced the carby spring, put in some new fuel and oil, gave it a pull and it ran like a new machine.
A friend was telling me about a whipper snipper at a tip shop. Someone had brought it in because it wouldn't go. The first thing he noticed was the spark plug lead was not connected. He puts the lead back on the plug, gives it one pull and away it goes. Hard to believe, but someone had actually taken this brand new Stihl whipper snipper to the tip because they did not realize that a spark is needed to make an engine run!
The long line up of Chinese mowers at our local tip is a good case in point. Clearly the motors are the main issue, as the bodies still always look good. In fact some of the machines could be mistaken for being brand new. They stop and people just take them to the dump and go out and buy a new one. It is a sad indictment on our modern throwaway lifestyle which must soon come to an end.
As for batteries I ended up going for a highly dangerous Lithium battery. I made sure to also buy a flame-proof bag to charge and store it in and got one that has a trickle charger. Apparently it is the "fast charge" ones that are dangerous. They charge too fast ad overheat. It is amazing how much power can be locked inside one of these tiny batteries that could almost fit in your pocket.
vint_mow, all you need for the battery is a tiny 12 volt trickle charger which you can leave on charge all the time. That way everytime you go to use it it is fully charged, ready to go
Yes I get tired of seeing all the mowers Norm and Vm that have duct tape holding the handle bars together where they fold in half because they have lost the bolt or nut ,I've seen a lot of knives , forks, spanners and screwdrivers stuck to broken handle bars with sticky tape to hold them together.
My gripe with dodgy online sales continues. Thought I might save myself a buck on making up a battery holder to secure to the frame. Bought a small steel billet to hold the battery, only to find it is about a mm too small for the battery. Very roughly made too. The welding must have been done by Captain Jack Sparrow using a coconut for a set square. Nothing about the thing is square. Essentially just metal folded around a few times, spot welded, then two fasteners attached on a skew. The spot welds on the top will probably break due to vibration in a short time. It is advertised as a universal fit for motorbike batteries but it is a mm shy of fitting mine. Looks like I will have to make one after all!
Slightly off topic here, but this Rover is not one that I am familiar with at all. It was found on a UK website. I can only guess they were released in the UK and not here? Bit of a mystery to me this one. Can anyone tell me anything about it, like model, year made etc.? It is like a re-modelled version of the popular Heavy Duty Australian one. The red paint could put it in Rover's "red" period, so probably 1980s/90s, maybe as late as about 2013. Would the OHV be the original engine I wonder?
Slightly off topic here, but this Rover is not one that I am familiar with at all. It was found on a UK website. I can only guess they were released in the UK and not here? Bit of a mystery to me this one. Can anyone tell me anything about it, like model, year made etc.? It is like a re-modelled version of the popular Heavy Duty Australian one. The red paint could put it in Rover's "red" period, so probably 1980s/90s, maybe as late as about 2013. Would the OHV be the original engine I wonder?
