Hmmm, no comment from Walt, guess he is mad at me. Anyway, I did take time this past weekend to remove the cover, muffler pipe assembly and air intake hose from the engine in order to remove the cylinder head. Once the head was removed, I noticed that the piston was about three quaters toward the front of the cylinder. I then turned the crank to see if the piston would move, but this time, I was only able to turn the crank about one quarter turn, seems for some reason I have lost most of the travel in the crank area. The piston did not move. I was able to push the piston back into the cylinder a little more than half way, the piston moved freely without any binding when I did this. I then turned the crank again several times back and forth, but did not see any movement in the piston. Sort of sums up the fact that the piston is no longer connected to the crank. Not sure if it is just the crank collar or a broken piston rod at this point, but on Monday I did speak with a gentleman from a mower repair shop who was familiar with this type of engine, he said he actually had one in the shop for repair, about 7 years old that apparently has a broken rod. He indicated to me that this model engine (31H777-0202) seemed to have this problem after a few years of usage, and that the newer model (31P777-0202) should have better parts to last longer. When I asked for an estimate of the cost of repair, which I assume would require a total breakdown and rebuild of the engine, he was not able to give me an exact figure, but indicated that there would not be much difference in the repair cost and the cost of a new engine. I have not done any more research to verify if this model engine does have this type of breakdown history, but if this is the case with this model B&S engine, then regular maintenance of this engine may not have made any difference in this outcome. At this point I need to put more of my time going in the direction that will get this tractor back on-line, so the plan will be to acquire a new engine for the best price. Guess I will shelve the old engine until I can either find someone who is willing to buy it from me, or use it for parts, or rebuild it myself. If I do a rebuild of this engine myself, I guess the suggestion of taking pictures will be beneficial for future hobbyist. Thanks for all of the input guys, I will stay in touch. Howard

Walt I drained the oil last night and it was clean with no signs of any fragments. I also did try and set the governor shaft at the farthest most clockwise setting and setting the governor arm at full throttle. By doing so the engine would not start, it always starts on the 1st or second pull. I then moved the governor shaft and arm to the farthest counter clockwise position and it started on the first pull, however, still racing. In desperation, I tried moving the governor shaft to the counter clockwise position and adjusted the governor arm so that it was mid throttle, same result, races. Then tried setting it at it's slowest throttle speed, still races. One thing is for sure, the governor shaft must be in the counter clockwise position, otherwise it would race even faster. The spring and linkage all work freely so I'm at my wits end of what is causing this. I suspect it's internal governor issues. Fisher40037 Thanks for your suggestion regarding the throttle plate screw, pulled the carb and everything is fine.

oh my new compatriota how much better I feel...I am not alone in the neighbors from h---. The difference is I have every single one of your complaints all wrapped up up in one set of smelly,disrespectful,intolerable,inconsiderate to quote a previous posting : animals pretending to be human. They stink and it is not just the cooking of the daily meal there is a trash odor and a sour unwashed human edge to it on top of the food , the child screams high pitched wails and stomps all over at all hours,and she ( I think its a she I honestly cant tell if the child is a she or not but "s/he" has a lot of jewlery on arms and ears despite being so young so I think its a girl)must ahte baths because there is often this loud splashing rubbig sound when they have filed the tub with water and then ear pearcing screams for about 15 minutes.Vaccuming o for it to be 10 am no the I suppose female adult run the vacum at 8am sunday morning!The great thing is its gets me to early mass but this week she did it sat morning at 8 am and my pregnant daughter was here visiting and she flipped. She is very worried about my health because of the noise and smell and my heart condition.That is another problem in the h-ll here.We chos r this place because they promiced us handicapped reserved parking places -put up two signs and for 3 years no problem. Suddenly this woman moves in with a boyfriend who has handicapped placard and she complains to the township that the management gave us reserved spaces.Some guy at the township says PA doesnt resrve handicapped spaces So the manager takes our apartment # off the signs. I call the police who confer with DMV who states the township guy was wrong and in PA if its a posted private property they can indeed reserve the space. I go to managers and tell her and she says well I dont want to post a private property signs we dont want anymore signs up but if some one parks in your spot just take the plate # and Ill write them a letter saying it reserved. It keeps happening but a ltter a week later wont help the situation at the time I dont think her letter will do squat!I need to get the law from the cops and go to corporate and get those spots marked as reserved -I just adds to my frustration at the whole mess and feeling like I have no rights about anything.It sounds like going to corporate helped this guy but I also dont want to PO the manager shes anice gal. Its such a mess and I kniw apartment living requires tolerance but why do only I have to tolerate anything and not these other u know whats

Hi- Some of you clearly have not spent much time in apartments. Normally you hear light walking and the ocassional ruckus when they have a party, which is bearable, especially if they are kind enough to let you know in advance. When you have truly noisy neighbors they ruin your life, you have no privacy nor peace, no ability to think or decompres in your own home. Your TV is overwhelmed by TV or music from upstairs and the base from their music waked you up every morning. It is intolerable. Your ignorant suggestion that everyone in an apartment disturbed by other wear earplugs is ridiculous . . . I can just see my husband, or guest, and our housekeeper all wearing earplus all the time. No normal conversation, no ability to watch tv, etc. Sounds like a good life. As a very long-time apartment resident, I have the followign advice . . . Please carefully check your lease for a "quiet enjoyment" or similar clause that not just requires carpeting, but also entitles you to the landlord's protection from other tannant's misuse. Contrary to some of the posters comments, the laws in many places don't just require some random floor covering but "adequate carpeting or similar noise-reducing materials" � their rugs are not adequate at noise-reduction. If people want to live in a communal place in a manner that significantly disturbs others it is their own responsibility to correct it. I'd call the police and ask them to visit your place, have some friends who visit your apartment and document the noise they hear, and ask the Mgt to come by. Then tell the Mgt SPECIFICALLY what you want -- say either: (1) they give the people upstairs the choice of 14 days to fully carpet with (over foam or similar padding) the place; or (2) tell them to move to another apartment in the building with the understanding that if they get similar complaints from their new neighbors they will be evicted. Tell the landlord that if they can't do this for you, you will have no choice to go to LL-T court -- that you really don't want to, but if you've mamaged for 13 years w/o significant complaint, they can't say you are difficult or unusually sensitive! We live in a NYC Co-op and the people above insisted on not carpeting their apartment b/c they have allergies the are the world's heaviest stompers, are often making noise at 1, 2, 3am, have a hyperactive 4 year-old (not normal child noise) who they allow to play with balls, etc., and run nonstop as early as 6am and as late as 1am, and another child learning to walk using a roller-walker. Also, they like to move the furniture around a lot on the HW floors! They were allowed to wake us up at 1am the night before my brothers wedding with their stomping, but if we call (while their child still is running around at 9pm) they complain we wake up their other child, so we stopped calling. It got so bad my husband started hitting the ceiling with a broomstick when it got to the point we were going to rent a hotel room. We have been living in nonstop hell for 4 years and are moving to another apt in the bvuilding just to get away from them (we own the place so we lost a good mortgage rate and had to pay more for the new place) -- that is how bad it is. We first called up a few times, then asked the doormen to call after they'd swear and yell at us to suck it up. Then after numerous houseguest and visitor, and even my housekeeper (working in NYC apts for 25 years) says they are the worst she's ever heard, we started documenting the noise -- loud bangs, thumps, running literally going on four hours to a non-human degree, etc. We had 6 months of tears, frustration and very detailed documentation and presented the info to the Board - along with the doormen's documentation of the calls. The management finally investigated and immediately insisted they carpet the place with padding. They complained about their allergies, but I have very serious dust and mold allergies and was able to find hypoallergenic carpeting and just vacum regularly and use air-purifiers. It is my problem, not someone elses. The carpeting helped the furniture and the heavy walking, which now is annoying dull thuds, but did nothing for their child who PREFERS running on the HW areas, and they pull up the carpet do let her play with balls, and for the younger one to use her roller/walker. The Board member assigned to our matter when the noise didn't stop just said he sometimes heard the people above he and deals with it -- he doesn't understand we sometimes have 18 hr days of noise -- every single day! The neighbor to the side of them just sound-proofed his own walls with quietrock at great expense, and we were advised that ceiling sound-proofing is significantly less effective than floor sound-proofing. Some people take no personal responsibility for their actions and really should find places to live where they can be on a ground floor! Sorry for the venting, but I totally sympathesize with you and am so sorry you have to live with this. As these people who have never heard it can tell, it make people very irritable and ruins your quality of life . . .