I tried starting my good condition lawnmower I paid $2 for from the tender center 10 years ago and it just wouldn’t fire. I pulled out the spark plug to check for fouling but it looked alright to me.
After removing the chunks of carbon from around the electrode I reinstalled it but it still wouldn’t fire. One of the safety features of this mower is it requires the user to hit the start cord housing on top of the mower to make it retract, just to make sure you really want to start it. What else could be the issue? It couldn’t be the air filter as I only cleaned that out 4-5 years ago ( could be a little longer)
Firing up the air compressor I blew out the dirt and grass and found paper pleats under the layers of crud. It should start now shouldn’t it? No it doesn’t. I check the oil and it is pretty low but not empty so I top it up but still nothing. It is a little easy to turn the ending over so I pull out the spark plug again and check the compression with my finger. Practically nothing, and I can hear a not so good scraping noise coming from the position as it moves up and down. What is the fix for this? Tip the lawnmower up so the oil covers the back of the position to seal up any grooves/ loose tolerances in the cylinder and turn the blade by hand a couple of times to make sure oil is filling up all the scores, put it down and pull the cord again with the spark plug replaced. It fires and also doubles as a smoke machine. I can now do some mowing.
