Lots of batteries, starters, starter solenoids, key switches, on and on are bought when all that was needed was to adjust the valves. If the Exhaust Valve Clearance is too wide, the compression release will not work and the starter will not turn these engines without ACR. B&S does not have a high rate of problems with starters (unless the starter is held on too long trying to force it to turn the engine when the ACR is not working) though a couple drops of oil where the starter shaft exists the end will prolong their life. Walt Conner

Hi Dynamike, That 500 hours figure is conservative. I got the mower from some guy on Ebay [big lesson itself in that, buyer beware if you can't touch it and check it out yourself before bidding]. It was well used -- in fact it was pretty well run down -- when I got it. Motor was blowing smoke like a steam boat, steering was loose as a goose, spindles were shot, and blades were duller than my Aunt Irene's family photo album. So I spent the next few weeks going over it, refurbing and fixing at least the major problems. That's when I put the Sendec tach/hour meter on it, so that 500 hours is what I've put on it since then. I have a couple of acres I mow with it, plus there for a while I was using it to maintain a 25 acre ranch in Hayes County in TX. That ranch was pretty much a full time job in itself. Very demanding terrain, just about everything you could imagine. Plus it was way, way overgrown when I took the job, so there was a lot of severe bush hogging type work, slogging through field grass as high as the hood. And then there were wide open spaces like the baseball field they had out there, where I could drop the deck low and make it so beautiful... sigh. You know what, that property and if I may boast a little, some of my mowing is actually visible from space, on Google Maps... what a rush. Anyway that just to illustrate the kind of relationship I've had with this machine... sounds wierd I know, but that's me. That ranch terrain was so demanding... you could draw an imaginary line on the mower at about the chassis level, and pretty much every part on the mower from the chassis down was basically expendable. Blades. Spindles. Decks. Belts. Axles. Tires. You get the picture. These were the parts I wound up collecting as spares wherever I could find them. I put inner tubes and tractor tire Slime in all the tires. That *almost* eliminated flats, except for when something would reach up and gouge a chunk out of a sidewall. Eventually for time demands of my real job and family, had to let the ranch job go, and I only mow my own place now. But I should have been doing what you did and pull the wheels off periodically to grease the axles. I was a victim of my own tires, in that I hadn't had a flat in so long that when I replaced the transaxle, I couldn't get one of the wheels off the axle. It's still stuck on there! I used one of my spare wheels to get going again, but I need to find a machine shop somewhere I guess, that can maybe press that old axle shaft off my good wheel. You asked about what lube to use in the transaxle. I hadn't forgotten your question, just got rambling (old man thing you know). "The Book" says it's permanently lubed, which is of course only valid so long as you don't have to open it up for repair. When I rebuilt this transaxle that I transplanted into the tractor, I packed it fairly full of hi-temp wheel bearing grease. Then I poured in about a half cup of 90W Hypoid oil. This made a fairly cohesive mass of lubricant that both surrounds the large gears for their teeth, and yet flows into the bushing surfaces to lube them. I was able to test the tranny on the work bench by hooking up an electric drill to the input shaft and running the unit through it's functions, to check for smooth shifting and any possible binding. In the 50 or so hours of run time since this repair, I've not seen any oil seeping out from the bushings, so looks like the sealing is ok... good to go. Now if I can just restrain myself from excess speed over bumpy terrain, hopefully this tranny will go another 500 hours :). Hey sorry for the long post. I find this an enjoyable subject, fun sharing with others with similar interests.

thanks for the help. I just hosed it down good w some PB blaster, not real dunking, but I will get a new intake seal anyway for the old beast. Any tricks on installing the new seal? Today I was planning to clean up the carbon w a small brass brush, hoping that would descale the carbon deposits to clean things up. I found two different needle valves on the RepairClinic site I am getting parts from. I could probably try matching it visually, but the two choices are B&S part #231855S and #696136. First one is cheaper. They sell the spring compressor tool for $17 (#19347) I should probably get it or I pay the local guy to put it together for me?? Probably could use the tool again on my 10hp B&S chipper someday?? I will spring the $20 for new air filter and pre filter. Anything else while shopping?? You know how girls like to shop,lol. Thx again, determined to get the old relic going.

***" did i mabey get a bad battery?"*** It's possible, but it would be wise to find out if the engine's charging system is even working before you take the new battery back for an argument. Get a volt meter, set it to "DC Volts". Connect one lead to the battery positive post and the other to the battery negative post. If this battery is fully charged (which I doubt) it should show at least 12.6 volts and maybe even as high as 13.2 volts. Anything less than 12.6 and the battery certainly has not had a charge. Record the exact volt reading on a piece of note paper. Next, perform your jump start trick and do it as quickly as possible (meaning don't leave the jumper cables connected for longer than it takes to get your engine running). Disconnect the jumper cables as soon as your tractor engine is running. While running your tractor engine at max RPM, connect your volt meter to the battery again as you did before. Hopefully, the reading you see will be higher than the first time you checked the voltage. Write down the present reading. Let the engine run about 5 minutes and recheck the voltage reading, write down the reading. After 5 minutes run time, connect the volt meter to the battery again. This reading should be even a bit higher than the previous reading after the engine began running. If none of the readings show any increase in voltage (or if the voltage actually decreases) the engine charging system is defective. If that turns out to be true, we will need the model and type numbers of the engine before going further with testing.