and today i have mostly been...

[steve_earwig]

There's always tomorrow...

Today the fingers of my right hand are blistered and swollen, bloody tillers

The neighbour here has kindly* ploughed the bit of land out back, I've spent the afternoon removing tractor tyre tracks from it with the big* tiller (not that big but at least it bloody runs). I keep telling SWMBO it creates more work than it's worth but not having the land ploughed does not compute for some reason. In fact the only bits of it that have tilled up nicely are the bits he missed.

[Welly]

Wiggy can't you whiz the injin round with a drill/socket combo on the crankshaft while frigging about with throttle? you'll have to hold on like a Gorilla though.

Have you got a can of Start Ya Bastard?

[steve_earwig]

I've no idea what the local equivalent to that would be, "Upali, pićka ti materina!" maybe. I'll not be asking for it...

Have pipe, have primer bulb, a rather modest but more than I expected 6 quid. The Homelite once more has a fuel system. I had to take the fuel tank off to get the pipes into it, to get that off I had to take a bearing plate off the top and under that was, oh, the big end. Maybe this is where I should attach the drill... Anyway, I just came in to check the mix ratio so I can make up a fresh batch of 25:1 because I don't trust myself to work it out in my head...

Let's see now, 5 litres at 25:1 is... 200ml. Splendid. Listen out for the screams

[steve_earwig]

Bleurgh It runs, it idles, it dies. A morning wasted and all it'll do is a fast idle, whatever I do with the screws it's got no power. I've looked up basic adjustments but it's nowhere near where I have it, so I think I need to change the diagrams. They look fine but if they're weak I know from biter experience I'm wasting my time.

[Welly]

I had to replace the diaphragms on my current B & S mower it was NOT happy with the old weak rubbers and yet to look at them you'd think they were ok to use. It was running rich and wetting the plug whilst trying to start etc.

[Doggy]

I spent hours trying to get our mower started a few years ago - stripped the carb, cleaned the plug, proved it was sparking, getting fuel, had compression, removed the exhaust, air cleaner, nada.

Finally I tried setting light to a sample of petrol* and found it wouldn't burn. (May have had something to do with my son leaving the fuel can out in the rain without the cap).

[Welly]

Finally I tried setting light to a sample of petrol* and found it wouldn't burn

Doggy's Fault Finding Technical Manual 2015 edition 4.3:

Chapter One;

Non-starting spark ignition engines between 1993 and 2002:

#1 - Will the engine start?

No

Does it has petrol innit?

Yes

To test - light Petrol with a match.

[steve_earwig]

Oh for fork's sake

"Dead" fuel was discussed over on AS recently, so this is fresh, although owing to a slight accident there's only 3 liters left ( kick with foot, glog, glog, glog...)

So, anyway, yes, the Mantis is, er, dead. Same deal as the Homelite only I couldn't get it running for long enough to try anything. I changed the fuel lines, the main one crumbled beneath my touch. Fresh fuel tipped into carb, ran for about 3 seconds, took carb to bits (It's a Zama) and blew it out, repeat as nausium- Anyway, after 3 more hours of pull starter fun* it too was the victim of an accident* Who'd have thought the main casing was so fragile? Official story: it fell off the table. Reality: I snapped and chucked it. It's only got itself to blame.

[Welly]

steve_earwig in throws engine onto floor shocker

Funny how things can rattle our cage so much sometimes, I may have destroyed one or two things over the years for non-compliance

[steve_earwig]

I feel really guilty about it, I've not done anything like that for years. Worse still, I just happened to look on ebay and found there is a wealth of parts available for them, unlike the Homelite. So anyway, I found out which part it was I broke (clutch casing) and I was going to order a new one from the US (31 quid the part, 47 quid postage) but I found someone in California selling one second-hand, 41 quid delivered. I also have rebuild kits for both carbs on the way, I could've bought a new carb for the Mantis for not much more than the rebuild kit, only I can't figure out which one I need -it looks like there are 3 similar carbs, all starting C1U (which is all that's written on it) but all with different jets presumably. I even have the parts catalogue with me here but all it gives is the Mantis part number which I can't translate into anything useful.

And later today I'll be trying to start 2 of the strimmers, tranquilliser on standby...

[Welly]

3 x lots of different stuff for the same* carb to me would point to different power* outputs required for various bits of kit?? any of the kits would work I guess? it this the engine for the cultivator type thing? that would need some OMGBHP wouldn't it?

[steve_earwig]

What I'm calling Mantis and Homelite are cultivators yes. I don't think they need much power as they're tidgy and meant for stuff like flower boarders.





The Homelite tiller is not to be confused with the Homelite Super XL chainsaw I currently have in bits, a chainsaw so old it pre-dates 2-stroke oil and has a petrol:engine oil mix ratio of 16:1. This is the chainsaw my dad bought 2nd hand when I was a kid and specifically the one I was shouted at for even touching, which is probably why I still have fear of them and have never owned one before. And now I have 3...

[steve_earwig]

IT'S ALIVE!!

At least something bloody works...

[Welly]

Ace! now it can take you for a walk around the garden

[steve_earwig]

A chainsaw? For now I'm quite happy to run it a bit and then kill it, I have work for it but I think I'll let Max do that - it scares me.