Muddy42

All sorted now. Thanks to those who highlighted the valve hole was misaligned with the inner tube. I welded the existing hole shut using a piece of copper as backing. I then re-drilled a 12mm hole in as central a position as possible. I ground and filed everything smooth, applied a dab of paint and reassembled the wheel. I was very relieved when the valve stem didn't disappear afterwards.

Don't go near the water until the saw is stripped down and you have all the exists to the cylinder closed off. The water just helps you tell where a pressure leak is from the bubbles - its the best method out there. I remove as much as possible, cases, exhaust, starter mechanism etc.) Then as above you need to plug all bar one hole into the cylinder. I generally plug the exhaust port, spark plug hole and inlet manifold (behind the carb) and apply pressurized air to the impulse line. You can DIY a bike pump to do this. Once pressure is applied you might hear the leak but if not dunk the whole saw and test mechanism in a bucket of water to reveal where the bubbles are coming from. Then dry the saw out, it won't cause it any harm.

Id take any such claims with a pinch of salt! How wet, how long is the grass? Surely the ability to pick up weight should be physics, so look for a big engine relative to the width of the deck, high lift blades and a very open 'throat' between the mower and the bag.

I agree it sounds like an inconsistent air leak somewhere. If you have exhausted the other checks it needs a pressure test. If you are relatively handy you can strip a saw down and test it with a bicycle pump and a bucket of water. BUT as I said above replacing seals is not the easiest repair. So if you need to get help they might as well do the testing as well. Or sell on ebay as 'spares or repair' some of the prices being achieved are crazy.

Another thing that hasn't been mentioned is that its harder to claim you are self employed if all of your work is for one company. Personally employing people has become so complicated and beurecratic, I can't see why a small company would do it anymore.

As above, take off the exhaust and check if the piston is scored. Other than that, get back to basics. Id clean the air filter and replace the spark plug. 260s will be old saws now, rather than just cleaning the carb, Id put in a carb kit, the various rubber bits will be inflexible and brittle. Is the saw tuned or at standard carb settings? Then check fuel, spark, compression and report back. Meaning does the spark plug look wet after a few pulls, can you smell fuel in the cylinder? Can you see a spark on the plug when turning the saw over and the spark grounded against the cylinder? Does the saw dangle on the pull cord (meaning it has compression)? If it passes all these tests, then you are into pressure test territory - first the fuel line then the whole cylinder. To answer your question, a bad crank seal leak would make the saw hard to start. But you need a P&V tester for this job and its a fairly advanced repair to tackle.

Thanks, i didnt know there was such a things as a valve extender until now. I can actually get access to the rim from behind the mower, so I’ll be OK, especially given i only generally add air once a year because the pressure is so low.

Thanks, I will investigate later, but I am pretty sure that is the problem now. I feel a bit of a spanner for not realising sooner that this would be a problem. The existing hole in the rim is pretty extreme, but I guess being tubeless originally it was not meant to hold a tube. Luckily the rim is offset, allowing good access to the inside for a new hole.

Thanks, having paid for this inner tube now, I think I'll just make it work. I'll investigate the valve position and there is a mismatch between the rim and the inner tube, I'll see if I can move the hole. Maybe I could weld up the old hole in the rim. The pressure is off on grass cutting now so I have time.

Thanks. Sorry what do you mean by foam, a foam you squirt in or a new run flat tyre made of foam? I'm always warry of that quick fix goop stuff, I once had to throw away a tyre rather than repair it because of the solidified mess inside that I couldn't remove.

Nice thought process that I hadn't thought of. The inner tube valve is offset but maybe not enough. The valve stem was quite a tight fit already. The tyre is very low pressure already, practically run flat, I thinks its specified at 12 psi.

Yes its a ride on mower or a lawn tractor as the purists call it with the engine up front. But its very old and beaten up and I am trying hard not to spend money on it other than my time. Foam tyres sound too expensive. The mower deck has been welded several times, but is getting to the stage where there is very little good metal left. BUT this particular mower leaves an amazing finish in rough areas. I've normally quite good with air filled tyres. Im looking for help with this valve issue. Thanks

Can someone help me with a very frustrating problem. See attached photo of a rear mower wheel - size 23x10.50-12 . The wheel was tubeless but is old and frayed and I think the chances of it remaining tubless are slim, so I was hoping to rescue it with an inner tube. So I bought a matching sized inner tube and fitting it with lots of detergent as lube around the rim. I got the tube on all fine, using vice grips to hold the valve in position. I aired up the tube and left it for a few minutes to settle before removing the vice grips. Then whoosh the sodding valve got sucked into the wheel and vanished. I turned the air blue. This has just happened for the second time now. The first time I damaged the tube getting it off. Its very hard to remove an inner tube without damaging it when it has air in it. Can I rescue the wheel in the photo? Assuming not, how do I stop this happening for a third time? Is there a type of valve stem that has a knurled metal ring to hold the valve in like on a bicycle? Would it help if I pumped the tyre up beyond the specified pressure for a few minutes? Should I leave the vice grips on for longer? Thanks,

With glyphosate, surely there is a question of scale. For example I mix up 500ml at a time and dab it on cut stems with a paintbrush (rhodo, thistles, docks in the garden etc). Then there are farmers that "spray off" a 5 acre field of grass with it before replanting winter crops.

What I mean is both burning and composting mainly produces carbon dioxide, water vapor, heat. Chemically all carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. Don't they? One fast, one slow process. Yes difficult to define manmade and the heat is wasted in a bonfire. Unless you toast marshmallows or use one of these on it, which makes seriously good toasted sandwiches .

Yes its just that burning organic matter feels fairly natural to me. Its just accelerated composting (but I suppose it can create smoke which is probably where the issue lies). Isn't the only way a licenced waste disposal company can get rid of organic matter to burn it or compost it? Shouldn't there be a difference between dumping organic waste and dumping rubbish (man made stuff)?

So bits of tree and plant are classed as waste, that's madness?

Watch out - not everyone agrees those stabilizers work and they could just be snake oil.

Say if they want the tree removed they have to pay for it and be done with it. It feels so wrong doesn't it, but that's how the law works. I had a similar thing happen to me. A neighbour built a house in his garden near our boundary. Just on our side of the boundary was an old and dying ash tree. They started claiming the tree was dangerous and would damage their house. I fended them off for a while by saying things like "the tree was here first" but they got good lawyers on the case. I didn't want to spend any money on this, but after doing some research I realised I didn't have a case. So I just felled the tree and a few days later I'm pretty sure they nicked the logs !

Yes I try and put the old fuel in the quad that gets used a lot in the winter. Its amazing that we have managed for mess up petrol so badly. It survived as a store of energy in the ground for millions of years and modern man has adding things to render it useless after a month. I haven't yet gone down the route of using dyed water to remove ethanol but I'm tempted to try this one day! It would be interesting to see if Esso premium has ethanol in it yet.

I agree, fuel tap off wont do anything unless the engine has been run dry. Ideally the tanks should be emptied because petrol doesn't last. Every autumn, I drain the E5 fuel out of my mowers' fuel tanks (and use it elsewhere) then run the engine until it dies. Then I leave the fuel caps off for a few days to evaporate everything then run the mower again on a splash of Aspen 4 stroke. No fuel issues so far.

I think the change happened from September 2023. However i bet it took longer to implement, so i bought it for a few months afterwards.

Annoyingly for the last 12 months even the esso premium has ethanol in it now. They made an announcement and changed their website.

Personally its about getting the job done quickly, so I care about engine size and deck width, the bigger the better!

I remove as much kindling and bark as I can be bothered and then add a shovel or two occasionally to a hot stove. Best avoided for an open fire. If the stove is too cool or you add too much it dampens the fire down too much and smokes. The eco angus boiler works on a fan so can accept much more. I cant see why this would cause any problems for your flue, as long as its dry.