OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Finding and Swapping Tip & Curb Side Finds John Deere Walk behind JS48

I got this for $50 (then I broke the electric starter and that repair was another $60 DOH!). It had a bent crank and a sheared flywheel key. I noticed when reading reviews about this model several people had "junked" their mower after bending the crankshaft. They complained bitterly about this, saying that their other mowers would not have had this severe problem for minor prangs with ground stuff. Might be a fault with them. There's a lot to be said for swing blades.The mower looks like a new one but the plate says 2012. I think it's been sitting in a shed for a long time. I have included a picture of the engine plate and if somebody could confirm the date is 2012 I'd appreciate it. It looks too good to be 4-5 years old. It came with charger and accessories too.

Their ride on mowers don't get a good rap either

Not a bad looking mower at all. Who makes the engine, B&S?

Yep, the story about bent cranks sounds right to me because I picked one of these up for nothing because it had a bend. Still sitting in my wanna fix one day bucket. Just waiting for the right engine with the right size shaft. Isn't it a pitty about the manufacturers persisting with the bar instead of the swing back engineering that we mostly like?

I always viewed the bar as a cynical cost saving exercise that reduces the momentum a disc provides. I never thought about potential damage to the shaft. I guess they were too mean to thicken the shaft to withstand an object stalling the engine.

Yes. Briggs and Stratton 190cc OHV. That's what is so odd as Briggs engines are pretty tough to keep bending cranks like that. It has to be the solid bar blade design/weight. I don't like bar blades either.

I have always said pretty don't cut the grass, a tough motor does and the Briggs just ain't tough motors,never have been, but the public love them because they are a 4 stroke. Give me a Victa 2 stroke any day, even the little 125's will blow the doors off all these new fancy looking mowers on the market now. The people are being dudded and they don't even know it

Went past a local mower shop the other day and out of fifteen client's mowers parked out front, only two were 2 stroke, both Victa powertorques.
Last time I looked about two months ago, the ratio was a lot better but still way outnumbered by sheeple's four strokes.

We in the US have what you guys are referring as bar blade as long as I can remember.(currently approaching 58). These mowers are only meant to cut properly maintain lawns; not for cutting stumps, tree roots, garden hoses, chains, kid toys and the like. Now do use swing arm rotary mowers but they primary use fields and roadsides. We refer to them as Bushhogs, and many of them have stump jumper discs.

Yes I do see bent blades and bent crankshafts on walk behinds as said they are not meant to be abused. As for our JD riders here most fairly well built other than those dang plastic hoods. The problem now is they have come out with consumer grade machines that are well in my opinion just that and they just don't hold as well. Main here see the public demand for a cheaper product so JD had to reduce cost somewhere.

I do see my fair share of bent blades on the riders too. Most are from hitting tree roots. So far in the last 7 years I have only seen 2 or 3 bent spindle shafts but have more with stripped star blade mounts where the user had either failed to put the blades properly on the stars or simply under torqued the retaining bolts. Now the old Murray Ohio riding mowers did use a 5/8" spindle shafts that were prone to bending but the 3/4" shafts seems to hold up much better.

As for a 2 stroke having more power it makes sense as they producing power on every rev when compared to a 4 stroke that coasts through every other rev depending the flywheel effect.

Anybody I have convinced to go for a 2 stroke would never go back to a 4 stroke. I have no fear if I sell a 2 stroke but with every Briggs that I sell, I always live in fear of a blown motor, but that is the way it is with Briggs. You never see a Victa with a leg out of bed, it is always a Briggs

My own mower is a 2 stroke Victa. A really tough beast but can be fussy-I find everything on a 2 stroke engine has to be perfect or they just won't go. My "customers" don't want 2 strokes as they say they don't want to mix fuel (but never mention they have to do it for their line trimmers). I have noticed the recycle centre used to have lots of old Victa's but now not so many there. 2 strokes are dying off just like us old farts. Oh! and by the way my John Deere has been sold to a good home.

Don't they still sell bottles with the exact amount of two stroke you need to make a 25:1 mix out of 5 litres of fuel? Just pour in and fill the rest with fuel and away you go turning jungle into meadows.

Briggs engines are, and always have been after they abandoned their cast iron models, made with low selling price as the primary design criterion. That is, pretty much as 'discard rather than repair' products.

And other manufacturers have had to 'design down' to be competitive, even in a slightly higher market niche.

I would instance Honda, for one. Until the 1970's, their horizontal shaft [they didn't make verticals, at that point] G series engines all had steel conrods, with needle roller big ends, ball main bearings, and a pressed-up steel crankshaft. And cast iron cylinder liner, too.

SO that means the old school Briggies with the exposed spinning top and side starter, around since the 50's, is a good one.
The 50s was quite a good era for enduring engine design. Ford's Windsor V8 and the Buick V6 to name a couple.

Mowerfreak I was discussing Briggs motors with an old ex mowing contractor and he was saying with the old vertical pull Briggs, just keep pumping the oil into them and they will keep going, said he used them for years, but you can't do that with the later ones. I just picked up an old Victa 24 for my grandson to use in his business, the thing is 40 years old now, my grandson 24 years old and this machine will outlive him even if he gives it a flogging, 100 times better than the fancy $1200 garbage on the market these days

I've maintained horizontal shaft Briggs & Stratton & Honda engines on water transfer pumps for several years and what I have noticed is the 1998 Briggs & Stratton Vanguard engines that were made in Japan by Mitsubishi for Briggs & Stratton will do more than 20,000 hours and still show cross hatch in the bore. However, the then USA made Briggs & Stratton Intek engines all wear oval by 4,000 hours. The Honda GX's have a reputation down here for flooding petrol into the sump if the fuel tap is left on and tend to burn oil at around the 5,000 hour mark but still start easily when worn compared to the small vertical shaft Honda's or the Chinese Briggs & Stratton's.

It is disapointing Briggs & Stratton are choosing to pursue a price conscious market. No doubt that is why Briggs & Stratton have separated the Vanguard model and now using it as a brand name for their comercial grade engines.

Has anyone had any experience with Kohler engines? The small 5hp Kohler engines are in fact rebadged Yamaha's. They are not as common as Honda or Briggs & Stratton engines down in this area.

Yep, the Japanese-made Briggs are a cut above the rest. So was the short-lived Kubota-made [IIRC] Briggs 4hp I/C 2-stroke vertical shaft mower engine of the early 1990s.
Pretty much.
Not with recent models. There was quite a long gap between Kohler engine distributors here, after Mobilco Ltd, the long time agent, closed down in 1976. These older models often crop up on Mobilco-made machines at clearing sales.

Well, nope; the alloy block/alloy cylinder bore ['KOOL BORE', in Briggs-speak] Briggs engines first came out in the early 1960's, IIRC. As did their first vertical-shaft engines. I'm sure CyberJack will know for sure.

As for '50s US engine designs, you've somehow overlooked the major classic - Chevrolet's 'small-block' V8 family, starting with the 265ci in 1955, with the legendary 283ci coming out in 1957.

And Ford's first OHV [they had made side-valve V8's since 1932] V8 was the 1954 239ci 'Y-block', also first of a family.

I swear I saw a mower ad in a 1950's National Geographic magazine depicting a B&S engine with the exposed circular spinning vent and being amazed to find they were around that far back.
As for Ford V8s, I was told the Windsor was developed to replace the rather lacklustre V8 predecessors.
As for Chevrolets, my knowledge is very limited. I only know about the LS1 that the VT series II Commodores started using and the 305 Chevy used in their U.S Caprice cars in the 1980s.

G'day Mowerfreak,
Holden's early V8 models, from the late 1960s [i.e. HK on], were all Small Block Chev powered. The engines that were fitted here were the 307, 327 and 350ci sizes.

Even after the Aussie 308 came out, the 350 Chev was still available in Monaros, in a high-performance guise - 4-barrel carby, big port heads etc. Optional in Statesmans for a while too, IIRC.