Is anyone else being driven insane by mowers that don't cut ?

[Roger Wilkinson]

Interesting, are you running 12volt glow plugs? The owners manual says they need 1minute minimum when new! Yours must have very, very good compression to start that easily

Yes, 12 volt. 30 seconds is a guess. I cooked the indicator yonks ago and now either guess or look for a little smoky puff up the exhaust pipe before engaging the starter motor. I bought the tractor more than 30 years ago, its having done about 1000 hours. For a while it was my main tractor. Now I have 4 tractors bigger than it. It has done about 2700 hours, so I would expect the engine to be not worn much at all.

Roger

 

[alexander]

Stuff that doesn't work.... Hmmmm.
Most of it.

Just about anything these days bought from the discount joints, or off the net... or elsewhere.
My list includes:

Scissors.
Phone cables.
Electrical parts.
Jumper leads.
Stuff in tubes that goes off after one use. Ditto many other products in plastic bottles, tubes ...
Glue that doesn't stick.
Sticky tape that isn't ... (unless you mean "to itself" which it does very readily, but not much else).
Sticky tape that always shreds rather than unrolling at full width.
Masking tape that splits and doesn't adhere well.
Self annealing tape that doesn't.
Self adhering anything that doesn't.
Screws ... that break off heads as soon as a modicum of tightness is reached.
(Or the driver bit strips first).
Ditto bolts, nuts, etc.
Nails that bend.
Insect repellant that doesn't.

Pens ! (Every time I get one out the box, it has ceased to write).
Now, you inspect the $2 housing and find that even when new, the ink in the reservoir is 1/15th of the way up even when it was new...

Shavers, or anything much with a blade.
Government bureaucrats that you rely on for anything.
Many tools that fail quickly, or work very poorly right from the outset.
Driver bits that strip under any duress.
Brushes that shed hairs.
Residual insecticides that have no residual effect.
Cleaners that don't clean.
Sewing thread that breaks when pulled tight.

Any organisation that tells you that you are valuable then treats you like abject shit, and keeps you on hold
for 45 mins telling you how great their products/service is.

Automated telephone answering sequences that reads you twelve pages of "info" (including how you can go
to the website, which you have done, to get the phone number you are now ringing) and finally gets to option #100 which should
have been #1 ("to speak to someone...press 99").

Tech drafting pens that constipate after the first drawing.
Most machines that have a couple of cheap plastic bits that govern 99% of the operation and which break
after two uses, rendering the expensive machine useless..

Spray cans:
a) where the nozzle clogs, or:
b) the plastic stem snaps at the slightest sideways look.
c) that give up half way through.

Packets of fresh nuts that aren't.

I'm sure there are many more to be outed.

sounds like youve had quite a bad run recently!

 

[DoubleChevron]

Yes, 12 volt. 30 seconds is a guess. I cooked the indicator yonks ago and now either guess or look for a little smoky puff up the exhaust pipe before engaging the starter motor. I bought the tractor more than 30 years ago, its having done about 1000 hours. For a while it was my main tractor. Now I have 4 tractors bigger than it. It has done about 2700 hours, so I would expect the engine to be not worn much at all.

Roger

It would be hardly run in These have the glow resister in the dash board and series non-pencil type glow plugs. There is actually 5 glow plugs, the glow plug indicator is the 5th. So if any of the plugs die (including the indicator) you have nothing as it's a series circuit.

They would be well known for there lazyness from what I can tell. If you upgrade the the pencil type 9volt glow plugs (yours obviously has) they start in about 30seconds! (rather than 1->4minutes)

seeya
Shane L.

 

[jaahn]

Hi
I have no agenda here so do what you feel comfortable with. But there are ridge removers. 10 minutes work with a hire tool or just buy one off ebay. Or you can chamfer the top ring a little !!
I see the injector rebuild referenced actually involves buying the important bits. And those ones are modern VW injectors. You can also do your old ones if you wish to learn how
jaahn

 

[DoubleChevron]

Hi
I have no agenda here so do what you feel comfortable with. But there are ridge removers. 10 minutes work with a hire tool or just buy one off ebay. Or you can chamfer the top ring a little !!
I see the injector rebuild referenced actually involves buying the important bits. And those ones are modern VW injectors. You can also do your old ones if you wish to learn how
jaahn

Yes I was trying to work out how it's doen. They are a needle and seat type tapered end without the holes of modern injectors. More like a needle and seat in a carby. I whipped one apart tonight so I could clean the base of it of carbon with a brass brush.

seeya
Shane L.

 

[jaahn]

Yes I was trying to work out how it's doen. They are a needle and seat type tapered end without the holes of modern injectors. More like a needle and seat in a carby. I whipped one apart tonight so I could clean the base of it of carbon with a brass brush.
seeya Shane L.

Hi Shane
I must say I have never done any nozzle reconditioning myself. When I have done several tractor/diesel motors I have dismantled them and sent the injectors to a diesel shop for checking/reconditioning/setting as necessary while I did the other head work or whatever. Not expensive either as I remember. Usually I had plenty to do to get the machine back on the road/fairway and farming out the specialised jobs was good value and speeded up the process.

I only mentioned you doing it yourself as I know you like to do these things. There are different types of needles and the pintle type have a small cone/projection on the end and must be handled with care or they will not spray properly again if bent or damaged.

I have got past it now and like your grandfather neither need or wish to learn any more about stinking dirty diesels ??:joker: I never need to scrub my hands with a brush now !
Jaahn
Here is some discussion on the matter which might interest you !!
dang injector - PeachParts Mercedes ShopForum

 

[DoubleChevron]

Hi Shane
I must say I have never done any nozzle reconditioning myself. When I have done several tractor/diesel motors I have dismantled them and sent the injectors to a diesel shop for checking/reconditioning/setting as necessary while I did the other head work or whatever. Not expensive either as I remember. Usually I had plenty to do to get the machine back on the road/fairway and farming out the specialised jobs was good value and speeded up the process.

I only mentioned you doing it yourself as I know you like to do these things. There are different types of needles and the pintle type have a small cone/projection on the end and must be handled with care or they will not spray properly again if bent or damaged.

I have got past it now and like your grandfather neither need or wish to learn any more about stinking dirty diesels ??:joker: I never need to scrub my hands with a brush now !
Jaahn
Here is some discussion on the matter which might interest you !!
dang injector - PeachParts Mercedes ShopForum

Thanks Jaahn,

yes I think I will leave them well alone (unless of course my grandfather offers to show me what to do). I'll throw it back together, and if there is white smoke at idle, I'll get them checked at the local diesel place (as they'll probably be dripping).

seeya
Shane L.

 

[jaahn]

Hi Shane
Don't be a tight arse and have the injectors done. You will be pleasantly surprised at the difference it makes. Particularly for starting. That's the comment I got when I did a couple of head gaskets only and also the injectors while off.
Not to mention the bad effect dribbling injectors will do to your new bores and rings. Probably the cause of the funny marks in the bores now.;(
Cheers jaahn

 

[DoubleChevron]

Hi Shane
Don't be a tight arse and have the injectors done. You will be pleasantly surprised at the difference it makes. Particularly for starting. That's the comment I got when I did a couple of head gaskets only and also the injectors while off.
Not to mention the bad effect dribbling injectors will do to your new bores and rings. Probably the cause of the funny marks in the bores now.;(
Cheers jaahn

How did you know i was a tight arse :roflmao: I'll ask the guy out at bunningyong what he thinks (big diesel place out there).

These things sure are testing my patience....

I've managed to get three out ... the last one I've moved about 1mm and it's wedged solid. It appears only the faces of them are cracked. They aren't held in by the head gasket, and I can't see how they could possibly fall into the engine. But when you google pre-combustion chambers... This image comes up

I cna't see how this can happen, if you cracked all the way through and across the face of it, that could drop away, but the whole thing drop in and hit the piston I would have said "impossible". Cracked or not, it certainly seems the last one is staying there (lets just hope it'll go that 1mm back in that I managed to get it out).

seeya,
Shane L.

 

[DoubleChevron]

So who is going to give this a go ...

:roflmao: :roflmao:

 

[JoBo]

Looks to me it would be better to use an ultrasonic cleaning gizmo
Ultrasonic Cleaner | eBay

 

[daffyduck]

I don't have much to add here but having suffered dearly with a Honda powered unit of all things I finally threw in the towel on the POS and ordered a new unit after spending about a day online researching all things related to which new ones are good or bad.
What a chore. Took more effort than a year's worth of mowing. My yard is small and I'm crippled: the mower handles keep me propped up and a little bit of work is therapeutic. If that goddamn mower will start!
My buddy used it aplenty and even took it to a shop where they "fixed" it and it was good for awhile. But two weeks ago we were back to the crippled guy cleaning out the carburetor again. I bet if I wanted to run the engine right now it wouldn't start.


Do the dance. Do the Daffyduck dance using the Aussiefrogs app. Be real happy if you can.

 

[DoubleChevron]

I don't have much to add here but having suffered dearly with a Honda powered unit of all things I finally threw in the towel on the POS and ordered a new unit after spending about a day online researching all things related to which new ones are good or bad.
What a chore. Took more effort than a year's worth of mowing. My yard is small and I'm crippled: the mower handles keep me propped up and a little bit of work is therapeutic. If that goddamn mower will start!
My buddy used it aplenty and even took it to a shop where they "fixed" it and it was good for awhile. But two weeks ago we were back to the crippled guy cleaning out the carburetor again. I bet if I wanted to run the engine right now it wouldn't start.


Do the dance. Do the Daffyduck dance using the Aussiefrogs app. Be real happy if you can.

About 5->10 years ago the petrol was really bad. It went stale in the tanks in a short couple of months. So each spring you had to strip down anything with a petrol engine and clean the carby out. Talk about a PITA.

Hondas out here have an excellent reputation for reliability. The fact every contractor has honda gear speaks volumes IMO. I'm not overly concerned about the old tractor. Once it's back together it's unlikely I'll have further engine issues.... welll "forever". I'll never wear it out. no doubt something else will wear out and break in time though.

the 18hp Briggs and stratton on my mower hear... has never failed to start within a few cranks of the motor. the 2strokes have never failed to p!$$ me off in everyway possible. But if you want a usable mower they are the only option I've found.

If your yard is small.. Why not an electric mower ?

seeya
Shane L.

 

[daffyduck]

If your yard is small.. Why not an electric mower ?

seeya
Shane L.[/QUOTE]

It's just large enough to make a cord impractical.

Do the dance. Do the Daffyduck dance using the Aussiefrogs app. Be real happy if you can.

 

[FIVEDOOR]

What about battery mowers? My neighbour seems to like his.

 

[DoubleChevron]

What about battery mowers? My neighbour seems to like his.

View attachment 92427

I was thinking battery mowers too... Battery technology has come so far in the last few years, you would think they would now be brilliant given how good quality battery hand tools are these days!

seeya,
Shane L.

 

[DoubleChevron]

Well I need to find that guy in the youtube clip above about injectors and send him a thank you... He sure is right. This will no doubt work for all the old Citroen and poogoe diesels from the 70's as well.

I'm glad Jaahn was so insistant I shouldn't be such a tightarse and look at the injectors.... I would have thrown these back in without a thought, as the tractor was running quite ok, ( when it started )...

Man there no real nice looking.

Yuk! how can that be not injector be seating well enough to not leak !

it's straight forward to unscrew the bottom without munching anything up.

Gee's ... I just couldn't get the needle out .... Those SOG pliers have the grip strength of very tight vice grips. They have geared reduction in the nose (you can easily cut coins with them). I tried the multi-tool chuck. it couldn't spin the needle, it just slipped it's chuck no matter how tight it was. I was starting to think I wouldn't be able to get them apart

I don't know what that needle is made of... but I didn't even mark it, even when I was getting pretty :cussing: at it because I couldn't even spin it, let alone extract it. Whatever it is made of is far harder than hardened tool steel :crazy:

Anyway, I did figure out a way of doing it. Lots of WD40 and working the needle in and out of it's seat for a short time did the trick.

This stuff works so effectively... I'm sure it must be a deadly poison that'll give you cancer just looking at it.

With the injector needle out of the way, I wasn't worried about wiring brushing it clean with a brass brush.

Look how dirty the seating area of the needle is. I'm not not even the slightest bit concerned of using anything like toothpaste to polish the finish... 'cos they damn needle is so hard, hardened tools don't mark it.

A little bit of oil and toothpaste works magic.

Then I just carried them inside (boss women wasn't home) and in the sink using really hot water and soap washed any traces of oil and toothpaste away and lightly oiled them for re-assembly.

Brilliant or what :jiggy:

 

[jaahn]

Hi Shane
Great job.
However IMHO job only half done. They need the cracking pressure setting too. Also a spray check to see if your work is good enough on the tip seal. Despite what that guy says it does matter and on an old injector like those it will be shit for sure.
It's a bit like putting in new plugs, cleaning the carby and not looking at the points and timing and thinking you did a tune up because there was a spark !!!
cheers Jaahn

 

[JohnW]

If your yard is small.. Why not an electric mower ?

seeya
Shane L.

I'm with Shane and Fivedoor. Battery-powered is the go. We bought one for our daughter. Absolutely brilliant. Hers is a Stihl. I suspect the Ryobi illustrated would be pretty good and they certainly are cheaper but seem fairly well made to me. I have a Ryobi extended hedge trimmer from their current series of things that use the same battery and it works well.

Back to topic.

 

[DoubleChevron]

Hi Shane
Great job.
However IMHO job only half done. They need the cracking pressure setting too. Also a spray check to see if your work is good enough on the tip seal. Despite what that guy says it does matter and on an old injector like those it will be shit for sure.
It's a bit like putting in new plugs, cleaning the carby and not looking at the points and timing and thinking you did a tune up because there was a spark !!!
cheers Jaahn

I'm sure your right ... I'll find out as soon as it's back together! I certainly shouldn't have hurt anything. I can still take them to a diesel place for them to test if there is any problems