Shusby: With all the work and replacement components go a few bucks further and do what I recommend numerous other do. 1st never use starting fluid via the carb venturi , if required only through the spark plug hole and only a short blast. Ether based starting fluids may dry and damage carb seals o-rings and gaskets and diaphrams within the carb. Use only carb cleaners for carburator starting spray use. Also drain out your old fuel by draining from the fuel line , do not tip over the mower to drain , you may drain crankcase oil into the breather housing and into the carb . Once drained add some carb cleaner & dry gas combination in case you have moisture within the fuel system. Let the new fuel and fuel treatment sit for about 30 minutes minimum. Then try the starting sequence via Carb cleaner sprayed within the carb venturi (throat) . Once started (may take a few tries) keep engine running until it will idle . This has been successful 90 % of the time . If not the carb jets will require removal and carb spray and compressed air may be needed to further remove dirt , debris within the carb circuits. Good Luck and let us know how you make out . I always try the KISS approach when gas starvation is indicated . Rather than throwing Time and $$$ at engine and component tear downs and Parts replacements that are not warranted.

Well, a couple of things spring to mind, and I hope it's the first one. Possibly the flywheel retainer nut was not torqued to its specified 55 ft lb and subsequently permitted the flywheel to slip on the crankshaft during cranking. If so, this could have amounted to the key being slowly sheared in half over time until the last straw was reached. The other scenario that comes to mind would be that one (to begin with) of the flywheel alternator magnets came unglued (literally) and got wedged hard into the alternator stator assembly, which would try to stop the flywheel from turning while the crankshaft wanted to keep on turning. I can't really think of another reason in this case.

Thanks for the encouragement, wendyb. hey_j, you got me thinking, too. Dangerous. Expanding ok, that's doable but not now and will think really hard about adding flowers. One row of hostas if they fill out like I hope should be fine and such an improvement over the mess before. I try very hard not to be impulsive like I was when younger, because mistakes can be costly in time and money, don't like running around carting stuff home but have to, of course, and try to consider all the options and not buy the first thing I see when I am out unless it's what I went after, etc. The extra layers of newspaper mulch, that will be fine for fall and spring on both beds and maybe other places, too, just learned about that this year, lined a long strip with it topped with mulch, really helped, but didn't want to bother cutting & folding it to fit around smaller plants and roses now that they've grown a lot and thorny ones. Oh you don't know how much I wanted to add something pretty lining both the outer edges, eliminated the scalloped because of the mowing and kind semi-artificial, like it where others have used it, no more black stuff w/rolled edges if I can help it unless as a temp fix 'cuz I have a couple extra pieces, and glad I had that done, but there are prettier ways of accomplishing the same goal. But I simply ran out of steam and had to turn to other things at that point, sure glad I got them better than they were and can do that myself even if it takes 3 times longer than it would some people. And glad I didn't if I'm going to run the borders out a bit more, 6" would be good and over the winter can plan ahead and smother (or Roundup which I've been procrastinating about mixing and using because I'm kind of afraid of it) what's there and not have to dig as hard by spring as what I did. It's so blasted hot and humid today, I did what had to be done and also pulled a few BIG weeds in front. I will try to test the moisture level as soon as I can get to it, and the bottles, if needed, wouldn't have to be buried as deep as I feared to hold them if I slant them a little and can find some spikes, can use those elsewhere now and then. I really hope I don't have to go to that extreme there now but will try to get some anyway just to have on hand. You have no idea how my mind gets going and I say too much, but I don't know how many times I've previewed my posts several times, got written what I want, and don't want to hit back to check if I read correctly, know you can do it and hit forward again, but fear losing it and having to start over, glad I'm not the only one who deals with that :-).

Hi there nutbunch, yes we had Ryan and funny thing is that he did my brother's pool and some other friends as well! Just have to say, at this point we just want to finish things up. We kinda feel that we were taken advantage of with some issues. Of course we all work with some sort of budget and that was his excuse! Now that we are well over that budget McCauley is not working with us on these isse(s). That we believe they should owe up to. And being that the economy is so poor, one would think that a pool company or sales person would be a little more willing to work with numbers and be GREATFUL! Rather than tell them they are complaining about everything! Seems as though you are having a good experience and that is great. Tile is very hard to pick and with that said I choose a tile that was a $500 upgrade. We looked at some glass tile as well. We realized that glass seemed more contemp. not so much a natural look. Not as thrilled with tile after all and I don't believe it was installed properly. Unless the same three tiles (from a pattern of 4) are to be placed all in a row. So, beware of the installation. And if it's any help to you my thought process was this: 1) Didn't want tile that would date the pool. 2) Didn't want something that would take away from the upgraded rocks and waterfall. 3) Nothing that would show ugly water lines and something that would be low maintence if so. But, then 4) a tile that would tie into the PT, the rock and over all look of the pool. Like that is not enough to think about. The tile I choose is pretty perfect to all on my list. Maybe to perfect with the one exception of placement. But, I will say that everyone that peeks on the process, one of the first comments is that they love the tile! We are almost at the last inspection before PT and now I'm second guessing that color to, torn betwn. Carr. blue and Tahoe.