I received this Briggs and Stratton lawnmower from my Father in Law who bought it from a flea market 7 years ago for $40. In those 7 years I’ve abused the dickens out of it and only done 2 oil changes in that time. It started being hard to start or randomly shutting off. I figured I finally killed it, but decided to clean the carb, changed the oil, etc, and saw the governor spring had been stretched out. Seeing as I had already given up on it, I clipped it shorter and tried to start it. Second pull and started purring like new.
No one around me cares, but I figured this group would appreciate how good these small engines really are. I’m sharpening the blade and going to cut the yard tomorrow.
I bought a water tank trailer for cheap off Facebook market place to water our fruit trees before we could set up something permanent. It came with a 80’s or 90’s vintage Mitsubishi petrol water pump. The seller had stopped using it and replaced it with an electric pump and told me it didn’t work any more. I replaced the rusted out petrol tank, cleaned the carb and lubricated the governor and it started right up. Very satisfying
It’s funny how simple these old machines are that just some TLC and a push to get started makes them run just fine. Im going to start looking at old carb motorcycles on sale.