Time for a new mower?

[ronnyd]

My new mower has a  DUCAR engine, and metal carb also  DUCAR.

No doubt it is of chinky manufacture and churned out in the millions.

All the way from sunny Chongqing. 

[TheBoy]

Neighbour's identical mower keeps stopping again, so he says I can have it for spares.  Ordered a new diaphram/gasket for the carb, see how that goes.  If it fixes it, he can have it back, as I would have had my £5.29 of fun pissing around with it .

Change the plug also, these smaller engines have a common trait whereby the plug goes OC as they get hot

Yup, it had a new plug a few weeks ago, but never solved the issue.

[TheBoy]

YZ - I read the destructions for my mower, and it says to tip mower on side to drain oil out of filler.  I will check if there is a plug underneath next time its out, but guessing from that that probably not.
.........

Most of the B & S mowers I've worked on have been the older series 35 and Quantum's with the drain plug but I did come across an article mentioning the lack of drain plug on later mowers. As B & S are now mostly owned by KPS Capital Partners, I daresay removing the drain plug thread from the casting was a cost cutting exercise. 

Mine is the series 35 I think. Badged 375 Sprint.

[YZ250]

Neighbour's identical mower keeps stopping again, so he says I can have it for spares.  Ordered a new diaphram/gasket for the carb, see how that goes.  If it fixes it, he can have it back, as I would have had my £5.29 of fun pissing around with it .

Hopefully it sorts it but if you want to have more fun tinkering with it you could whip the top cover off. Although the ignition coils on them are very reliable, they can be cleaned up. The magnets are on the flywheel and the contacts are on the ignition coil. If you take the flywheel nut off you will see a key which holds the flywheel in position. The only time I've seen a key break was when the blade had hit a lump of concrete, causing an instant stop on the flywheel. To re-time, just position the flywheel magnets in line with the ignition coil arms, place a playing card (feeler gauge) between the flywheel and coil and tighten the bolts.     Generally though, other than kill switch issues, the coils are pretty reliable.

[TheBoy]

Yeah, pretty sure I heard it hunting before dying last time he used it.  Wonder if it's going a bit lean and killing the plug through overheating it.

It'll keep me out of mischief for a few hours one day over the winter