I acquired a commercial Husq zero turn as part of an land purchase. I don't know its history, but it was built in the early 2000's, Kawasaki (FH721V) engine, ~2100 hours. I think they were pretty good about fluid changes. They did work her hard though, and she's tired.

AFAIK, the hydraulics (separate hydrostat pump & motor) usually degrade over time. I am more worried about the engine. I am wondering, when it finally goes, is it usually a catastrophic failure? Or does it just become a money pit that people eventually get tired of spending on, or it wears enough that it no longer performs well, and a decision is made to send to the scrapper? So far, parts for the mower are cheap, and I am learning ton working on it. But I'm trying to mentally prepare for the day when I somehow lose her, and how much I should spend in the meantime.

Edit: I should have mentioned, I am new to small engine repair & maintenance - I had never even changed the oil in a push mower before this. So I don't really know what I'm doing yet.

WeedEater riding mower (who knew?) Tecumseh engine. Headlights get brighter with engine revving, but nothing going back to the battery. No voltage regulator that I can find...

In order (some of this was just wanting to maintain it, and not necessarily directly addressing the running issue)

• Hit something last year and it died suddenly on the lawn
  • Trouble starting thereafter
• New spark plug
  • No change to starting/running issue
• New air & fuel filters
  • No change to starting/running issue
• New fuel pump (Briggs & Stratton)
  • No change to starting/running issue
  • I did lose the bolts during that installation and the pump isn't attached to the side of the motor/plastic, where it should be, but it's not flopping around or anything... are they that sensitive?...
• Checked original carb, looked okay...
• Replaced original carb seals
  • No change to starting/running issue
• Fully replaced carb (B&S)
  • Staring issue cleared
  • New Issue: Starts and runs beautifully for 5 minutes, then only runs fully choked
• Removed gas tank, emptied/cleared of debris, refilled with fresh gas
  • Siphon was not clogged
  • No change to new issue
• Removed solenoid under carb bowl; NOT clogged, no debris in bowl
• Motor has under 150hrs
• Battery was new last year
• Fuel filter is full/remains so, as far as I can tell -- I believe it is getting fuel to at least there, and the issue is not upstream from that. I think.

NEXT MOVES

• I plan to replace the intake manifold, as there have been suggestions from my original post about an air leak there
• Other than that, I've seen a couple of votes for checking the valve spacing -- I'm wondering, would a hard hit, knock the valves silly, is that a thing/my problem all along?
  • Please tell me what to use, exactly, to replace the gasket on the valve cover after checking the valves

EDIT -- CURRENT STATUS

• This is the issue nailed down, currently -- it chugs and craps out when cutting through thick grass. It starts/runs perfect, cuts low grass no problem. But as soon as the blades are under any type of decent load, it chugs/dies. (Already has a new engagment belt and cord)

Hey guys, I’m losing my mind with Honda GX390 rebuilds and hoping somebody here has ideas. I currently have 5 GX390 engines. The weird thing is the FIRST engine we rebuilt smoked like crazy at first, then we rebuilt it AGAIN without really changing anything important, and suddenly it worked perfectly fine. Now the next TWO engines I rebuilt are smoking badly again. What was done:

• New piston rings installed
• Cylinder was NOT honed afterwards
• Cylinder walls are not mirror smooth, still have some texture
• Head was shaved to second oversize specification Symptoms:
• Massive smoke from exhaust
• Engines use oil quickly
• Compression feels strong/good
• Engines run otherwise normal
• No oil coming out of oil refill hole
• No oil inside carb
• No oil inside breather tube from valve cover to air filter I also tried running them for a while hoping the rings would seat, but they still smoke heavily. About the oil rings:
• Oil ring gap/clearance seemed okay
• But the oil ring expander tension felt pretty weak / low tension What confuses me:
• First engine smoked horribly after rebuild
• Rebuilt it again touching almost nothing
• Then it became completely fine
• Next two engines built basically the same way are smoking badly

Any help appreciated because this is driving me insane.

Hopefully this is the right place for this, a family member just called and said they left their gas can outside and it may have gotten rain in it, and when they put gas in their push mower, the mower “ran, and then stopped working”. I’m going over after work, but what am I in for? Can I dump the gas out of the mower and put in fresh? Should I try to fire it up and see what happens? TIA!

Need help troubleshooting a 9" meat slicer that won’t stay on. It's a 9" gander mtn commercial meat slicer. The original problem was the slicer would only run while holding the switch. I replaced the power switch with a new one, but the new switch does the exact same thing. Power cord looks okay visually What else should I check?

I have little to no mechanical experience.

I’m new to handling any kind of equipment so forgive me if this is a no brainer.

My handheld blower stopped working this evening after using it for a while in the afternoon. The primer bulb wouldn’t fill. I took the air filter cover off and poked around. the fuel lines looked fine. The bulb itself didn’t seem to have any cracks. After inspecting for several minutes, the primer bulb was suddenly filled with gas. I had tried to pump it a few times while I was looking at the fuel lines, but it did not fill while I was doing that.

So the blower is working now, but I don’t want to run into this issue again. Thoughts?