Raze wrote:
I gotta toss my .02 in over the quality of Snapper, my old man has a snow blower w/a 5 hp engine bought new 20 years ago, I change the plug and or oil ever 3-5 years for him when I visit and other than that just fill it up with new gas when needed, sometimes it gets used, sometimes it goes a year or two between runs, has both pull and electric start, thing still runs like a damn top, and beyond a little surface rust on the top where the powder coating has cracked it looks brand new, mind you it went through 6 hard years of Maine winters, followed by 14 or so on and off again Connecticut winters, overall I'd steal that thing from him if I ever moved north and needed a blower 
My dad was always a Snapper fan. I think I my lifetime he's gone through three old Snapper riding mowers, and everyone of them has died due to the bodies/frames rusting out, but they all still run like a top.
alex
HalfDork
8/12/09 4:24 p.m.
HappyAndy wrote:
alex wrote:
Three pulls later, I have a running lawn mower. It's alive! I cackle like a maniac. I simply cannot believe this thing started like it had been run last week! All I did was put more gas in it.
FYI, just incase it it runs like its been impropperly stored for years the next time you try to start it up, the fuel system components in these things don't like the new gas with ethanol. I had to repair the briggs engine on my air compressor several times before I got parts that are tolerant of the new fuel. Specificly, I am talking about the diaphram that pumps fuel out of the tank and to the bowl, the carb to tank gasket and the siphon hose in the tank. YMMV, hopefully.
Yeah, this new gas keeps small engine and old bike shops busy. I've done a lot of carb jobs on bikes that haven't been sitting around long enough, in my opinion. And Stabil only seems to make matters worse. I couldn't believe my gas tank still smelled like combustible fuel when I opened the cap, and not like sour varnish. I sure wish we could still get that old formulation.
I'm planning to run the mower at least every couple weeks during the season, and make sure the carb and the tank are dry when I put it up for the winter. Hopefully the frequent cycling and the and the off-season draining will be enough to keep it running for a while longer before I have to start throwing parts at it.
