mowers

Cleaning, fixing, using, repairing, best and worst of your mechanical aids in the garden...

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robo
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Cracker bloody speal chicker
Gerry
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Robo,

If I upset you I apologise.

Regards, Gerry.
robo
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I don't get upset that easy gerry no problem
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Ricard with an H
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Location: North Pembrokeshire. West Wales.

I've been caught out a few times with steel chicken, more because I hadn't read the text before sending it. Sometimes it can be very funny, at other times it looks as if the aluminium saucepans finally had their effect on the grey matter.

Some of Peters text recently was like a different language though clearly sent from a mobile rather than a desktop. I got to be very lazy since I had the iPad, previously I had to go up the stairs to the office and fire-up our Mac. The Mac spell checker isn't as daft as the spell checker on IOS devices.

Presumably the majority of you-all are on mobile devices ? Sitting on the potty checking the mail can be very convenient. Eh ?
How are you supposed to start and maintain a healthy lifestyle if it completely removes a wine lover’s reason to live?
Richard.
robo
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I've been busy the last three weeks working on a four wheel trailer I've bought to take the tractor to Spain, it makes it hard work when you are only working on half power I can only do short stints then have to have a minute but I've got there, bought a topper on line today I have to collect it over the next two days this is working out expensive but I new it would
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Ricard with an H
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I've been doing a lot of research and learning about two stroke engines on our garden machines. Peter is remotely responsible when pointed me in the direction of Aspen fuel.

The upside to all this is that I repaired a machine that I had paid to have repaired, they didn't repair it, they just got it going enough so they could get paid but didn't isolate the problem.

Fact is, if you're using fuel with ethanol in it your carbs are suffering in more than one place. Mostly it's cheaper to buy a new carb.

I won't go into all the detail because there is a lot of detail and it's no longer a black-art in my book though finding someone who is genuinely skilled in this area is a black art.
How are you supposed to start and maintain a healthy lifestyle if it completely removes a wine lover’s reason to live?
Richard.
robo
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I always give my 2strokes a squirt of carb cleaner before starting it works a treat
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richard p
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i usually giveit a few pulls to get some oily petrol in the cylinder to lubricate things, then if theres no sign of life a squirt of carb cleaner or easystart.
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Ricard with an H
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When you take a diaphragm carb to pieces you find a lot of places that need carb cleaner, not to mention the diaphragm itself and reed valves. Whilst squirting cleaner into the airway has helped my machines occasionally it's actually a good idea to get used to taking the carb apart and clearing all the holes out.

Initially I found this worrying because I didn't have spares though I soon found confidence then found that perfect looking diaphragms were either worn out or leaky. You need a test pump and you need to immerse the wholes carb in water to check for leaks.

I found carbs can start working ok but still be trouble because ok isn't quite spot on and those carbs are very technical.

I bought a rebuild kit for a Walbro carb for £8. Someone else wanted to charge £20 and yet again one was advertised for £4. The one I got contained diaphragms, gaskets and metering needle pin and rocker, there are plenty of other parts to a carb that can cause trouble if you've been using ethanol rich fuel and those parts are not in a rebuild kit.

I had a new complete carb delivered from China for £8. It worked perfectly and had Walbro stamped on the casting.

In another case I rebuilt the carb with parts available but it didn't work properly until I pressure tested the carb in water and found bubbles escaping from a gasket that was very well tightened up. Oil on the gasket solved the problem and carb works perfectly. Without a pressure test I would be in the dark.

Then we have the magneto that can cause problems and spark arresters get binged up. In most exhaust mufflers I've seen you can't get at the spark arrester. I soaked a muffler in a strong caustic solution, that works.

Just a few of my findings.

The reason fuels like Aspen and Motomix were created was because responsible manufacturers realised their carb parts were not up to coping with ethanol so rather then making better parts thier stand is that you should use the fuel they recommend and it's very expensive.

I noticed on my new machines there are warnings about ethanol in fuel and although they give an acceptable percentage do we know how much ethanol is in our fuel ?

Ethanol is the new demon like fats were in our diet. Now, those making claims about fats in our diet are hanging thier heads in shame, it's another topic.
How are you supposed to start and maintain a healthy lifestyle if it completely removes a wine lover’s reason to live?
Richard.
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