Top 5 Lawn Mower Troubleshooting Tips

How To Fix Your Mower Yourself, Fast and Free!

Regular lawn mower maintenance helps prevent performance problems and lengthens the life of your lawn equipment. Normal wear and tear from hours of mowing the lawn increases the chances of hitting a glitch from time to time.

The Rope is Hard to Pull:

Typically this problem is that the engine flywheel brake (the bar you hold down on the handle that stops the engine when released) is engaged. Bring the bar down all the way to the handle before pulling.

This can also be experienced if your mower blade is dragging in grass or clogged with grass clippings. Move your mower off your lawn to a hard, flat surface. With the mower turned off and the spark plug wire disengaged, clear the underside of the mower of excessive clippings, then resume a safe mowing position, and give it another yank.

Your Mower Simply Will Not Start:

Make sure your lawn mower is filled with fresh gas first. Old gas can tend to lead to problems starting. If you have last years gasoline in your mower, drain your fuel tank and fill with fresh gas. Other possible causes include:

• Dirty, Loose or Disconnected Spark Plug in Your Lawn Mower: Check it out, clean off debris, re-connect and tighten.
• Gas is Not Reaching the Engine: Tap the side of the carburetor to help the flow of gas. If this doesn’t work, you may possibly need a new fuel filter.
• Dirty Air Filter: Clean or replace.

Lawn Mower seems to Lose Power:

Very often here is why your lawn mower may experience this symptom:

• Build Up of Grass Clippings: Clean the underside of your lawn mower.
• Cutting Grass which is Too Tall:  In this case you must raise the cutting height on your lawn mower
• Dirty Spark Plug: Clean or replace.
• Dirty Air Filter on Your Lawn Mower: Clean or replace.

The Lawn Mower is Smoking:

No your lawn mower is not addicted to cigarettes, your lawn mower’s engine may be smoking because the oil chamber is too full, or oil may have leaked into the exhaust muffler when you tilted your mower to the side. The smoke you see is simply burning off while the engine is hot. However, if you are seeing a distinct lighter colored smoke AND you are having trouble keeping your lawn mower running, you will want to take it into a small engine repair shop.