GardenKit

Nice one Dean. Maybe time to increase your rates though, if she is typical of the way your customers perceive the value of your work. Double your rate, lose half your work, earn the same, have an easy life!

Assuming that the drive belts are in good order and correctly tensioned, and that the clutch cable spring is extending nicely when the bale bar is pulled up, then the mower should drive, even though it is a Hayter! The clutch lever should take up drive at about 50 or 60mm from the handle and the spring should start to extend until full tension is reached when the lever touches the handle. The spring and cable must be just slack when the lever is down. I am just wondering if the freewheels have been fitted the right way round? To test this, with the engine stopped, pull up the clutch bale bar. Try to push the mower forward, the roller should rotate and you should easily push it forward. Try to pull it back. The roller should not rotate and the mower should not pull back. If by any chance this process is reversed, the ratchets are the wrong way round.

Sounds like its just a little low on the LA (idle speed) and a little weak on the L screw for starters. As it runs OK when its cutting I doubt its anything to do with blocked filters or carbon in the exhaust.

I fear you may have to look for other reasons for fuel loss, as Aspen actually evaporates at a much slower rate than standard pump fuel.

Thanks Paul. Had an email 'ping' wake me at 00.01 this morning wishing me happy birthday from arbtalk!

Happy Birthday Eggs, have a good one! By coincidence it's mine too, 59 today!

There are very many perfectly good 4 wheeled mowers, and a few bad ones! Keep away from shed stores models and the lesser known ones off the web. Go for recognised brand names and for one that your local dealer stocks, as a good backup is important even for a quality brand. The strongest and most trouble free will have Ally wheels, Rubber tyres, Precision, sealed, ball or roller bearings in the wheels and a Briggs or Kawasaki engine (Honda as long as it is a GX, skip the GC, in my opinion). Forget ones with silly multi angle handle locks, they just break. The best for commercial use is, in my opinion the Kaaz (or variants) and it also has a shaft drive to the gearbox. John Deere R series are also very good, as are the Stiga aluminium deck machines. There are a few I would avoid but its not fair to name them on a public forum.

All roller mowers suffer drive issues in one form or another. The Kaaz are about the best in my opinion. Most of the roller drive problems on any make arise from using the mower in wet, muddy conditions, where water enters the bearings, gearboxes and ratchet clutches I don't see why they need to be used in these condition. Either don't cut the grass if its wet and muddy, or if you have to cut, uses a more resilient 4 wheeled machine. Save the roller for when conditions improve and the lawn needs to look its best.

Sleep well!

At the simplest it will be the belts. They wear quickly and start to slip, They can slip even more when worn. But these machines are also prone to failure of the clutch mechanism inside the gearbox. This also gets worse when worn. You may improve it for a while by adjusting the clutch cable. They do need frequent adjustment from new and if they don't get it then they slip themselves to failure.

I second Eddies comments Stubby. Sounds to me like it could be totally coincidental and nothing to do with Aspen. I would check the tank filter (unlikely) the tank breather (more likely) and the internal gauze filter in the carb, most likely. Also the impulse tube. But if the engine is cutting straight out at WOT after a little while rather than slowly dying out, then I wonder if the problem is ignition related. Easiest to replace the plug and try again, but the next culprit could just be the coil. just thoughts.

I would certainly rather be hit by a stray shot of fresh air!

There is a LOT of work for me to do editing both the text and the images. The webdesigners have built the site and imported data and images from my old site, which was a little out of date through lack of attention from me. They have 'cleaned up' a lot of the content, and have imported images as needed to make the site work, but some of the images are for product I don't sell! They have done well considering they know little about the machinery industry. But it is a CMS system after all, and the content is down to me, so I now have to check every product, category and page for errors, change all low res images for high res that can magnify on the zoom facility, etc. Did you see how you can use the mouse wheel to zoom into a product picture? I also have to set all the 'attributes'. This means coding every product so that it can be picked up by the search filter. Its not easy, as I will be doing it in the evenings, and I reckon its going to take around 3 months to complete. Keep watching for improvements and keep the comments coming, both good and bad.

Our new website has just gone live. At the moment it is just as the webdesigner left it having imported all the content off the old site. I now have hundreds of hours ahead of me to edit the content, change the pictures etc to make it really buzz. But what do you think of it so far? Garden Kit | Homepage | Garden Machinery

When I get calls telling me they can give me lower phone prices I put on my deepest bumpkin accent and drawl "I'm zorry, I dun ave a telyfone yer" There is usually a silence followed by a click.

If the free wheels are not spaced apart, the rollers will touch in the middle.

Thats a lot more play than I would expect to see. Did you install the 2 black nylon washers (2mm thick each) between the two freewheel hubs? (the ones that came out may have been steel, the new ones are nylon) These would push the rollers apart and create the centre gap. The remaining play will be taken up by shims between the roller bearings and the bronze top hat bushes.

Still cant get into the video. It seems to be set as private.

As you have already bought and fitted the overrun sprockets you dont want to waste the effort by welding the roller up. Save that for when the sprockets fail again next year! I could not open your video, but am guessing that you can move the two roller halves apart, probably by about 3 or 4mm? You need to make sure the bronze bushes in the roller ends are intact with the 'top hat' flange in place. If not, replace the bushes. Then add shims (washers) between the bearings and the bushes to push the roller halves together. allowing just a little play.

Christ! you two have stronger hands than me to hold a large saw by the flywheel with one hand whilst swinging the hammer with the other. Works for me up to 45cc ish but beyond that no chance. I usually use some very gentle tapped in wedges such as screwdrivers under the flywheel, against strong parts of the engine casing, just to apply a little outward pressure. Then a short, sharp tap on the nut just covering the thread. Make sure to hit it dead square though or you get a wobbly nut.

The method suggested by most manufacturers is certainly to store them dry. if this is your chosen method then fine, but ensure that you run fresh fuel through first. The solvents in fresh fuel are the strongest and will to some extent wash out the corrosive residues of stale fuel leaving the fuel system as clean as possible. The fresh, solvent rich, fuel will dry out faster and leave less residue than old fuel. But, without doubt, the diaphragms will harden when they dry, and I am not convinced they ever fully rehydrate when new fuel is added, so like Stubby and Adam, I prefer to store 'wet'. If using pump petrol make sure you use a fuel preservative like the Briggs Fuel Fit in fresh petrol and you should be good for up to year. But a post of mine would not be complete without saying that Aspen is by far the best bet for occasional users, not just as a storage medium but as the sole year round fuel.

I have just 'liked' your page as Garden Kit using the tips you suggested. Also 'liked' wills page too. Can you let me know if that 'like' appears on Liz's logs as not convinced I did it right! It would have been good to see you on Wednesday, but to be honest its just as well you did not call in. We were having a real bad day and I was a bit abrupt with a few folk that I should have been nicer to, which is not really like me at all, we may have fallen out:biggrin:

Just 'liked' liz's logs Beau. You really have to push the page and ask others all the time to get the 'likes'. I don't do this which is why mine is only on 59 after a couple of years. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Garden-Kit/741919342491375?ref=aymt_homepage_panel I don't know if I am doing it wrongly, but I cant seem to 'like' a page from my business page, only from my private page. It looks like a business cant like another business?

Thanks for posting the Pics Bill. Just goes to show that the engine manufactures know what they are talking about. I have not attempted to straighten one for years. Those I did were OK, but after seeing your pictures I will never do another.

Nice technique. Who needs a jig?