Mower Wars

dewaltdisney · Post by **dewaltdisney** » Fri Jun 21, 2024 5:20 pm

I have an old McCulloch mower that I use for mulching cuttings and odd jobs. It is 14 years old and given good service with only a drive belt I had to replace a few years back. I was using it to chew up a load of hedge clippings to reduce the bulk for green waste disposal. Halfway through it stalled and refused to restart. Worse than that the pull cord almost ripped my arm off as it had a sudden dramatic recoil. I resigned myself to the fact it had died and it would be down to the dump. That evening I decided to diagnose the fault with the help of the internet. Sure enough, I found numerous accounts of the exact symptoms and I knew where to start. Apparently, there is a Woodruff key that holds the flywheel in position and this can shear if the blade gets jammed. The flywheel controls the ignition and it had moved a few degrees which caused the issues. I suspect that my pin had been weakened over time as I have abused it. Following Youtube videos I managed to overcome the frozen flywheel securing nut and then tackled the flywheel removal that is alloy so you have to be careful. Ideally, you need a puller but the one I have would not fit but some guy on YT showed me how to do it with systematic blows with a club hammer. I did not think it would work but I followed the process and I was about to give up when it suddenly jumped up on the shaft. Brilliant, I searched for the broken key and one half was in the shaft keyway and the other half was in the flywheel slot. I have ordered a couple of Woodruff keys from eBay (£2) and they should be here tomorrow.

I am posting this as it is a common fault and it might help someone else. Hopefully, it will start after reassembly but if not I am £2 down, with some bruised knuckles, and a frustrating afternoon. We will see

..........to be continued.

DWD

big-all · Post by **big-all** » Fri Jun 21, 2024 5:33 pm

well done that man

i love taking things and repairing them the old fashioned find a problem and solve it mostly via the odds and sods tin

dewaltdisney · Post by **dewaltdisney** » Tue Jun 25, 2024 6:33 am

My Woodruff keys arrived yesterday and I set about reassembling the mower. It was fiddly but after figuring out a few things like what screws went where I got it back together. I tried to start but it would not have it, so today I will take it back down again and check over everything again. My suspicions are the con rod got bent so I can see a trip to the dump looming. I will report back.

DWD

dewaltdisney · Post by **dewaltdisney** » Tue Jun 25, 2024 1:37 pm

I stripped it down again and checked everything. I could not find anything that appeared wrong, so I reassembled it. I gave the pull start a yank and it fired into life for a second but it made an awful metallic clanking noise and then died. I have concluded that the flywheel misalignment must have caused valve or rod damage and I have therefore decided not to go on. I am certainly not going to fire the parts cannon at it. RIP mower.

DWD

dewaltdisney · Post by **dewaltdisney** » Wed Jun 26, 2024 7:09 pm

I could not let it go, I stripped it for the third or fourth time, and low and behold the bloody Woodruff key had sheared again and the flywheel was out of time. That is why it was making a row and cut out quickly. The flywheel nut had come undone and the flywheel was loose. I used my copy Dremel to clean out the debris in the keyway and the second new key slotted in easily. I think that I got it wrong before as it was tight and needed to be hammered in. I suspect that there is a grain in the steel and it plopped in easily the right way around (no instructions). I reassembled it and gave it a pull and it actually started but as there was only the priming squirt of fuel (tank empty) it only used that. By this time I was tired as I had worked all morning on my Laurel cut-back project. I will continue tomorrow if I get a chance but we are out so it is unlikely.

DWD

dewaltdisney · Post by **dewaltdisney** » Sun Jun 30, 2024 7:34 am

I tried it again on Friday but I had no luck getting it going. It may well be the end of the line unless I take it apart one more time to see if I can see anything obvious. It just is not worth throwing money at as the deck has rusted areas that are large open holes. But it is still useful as a mulcher reducing green waste bulk, which is probably what killed it.

DWD

Nos · Post by **Nos** » Mon Jul 01, 2024 6:16 am

Know the feeling my 2005 MTD has had a busy life we have 1/2 an acre of grass the deck has been rusting away, have plated it up a couple of times but when it started cutting the grass on an angle

I knew it was time to do something, could have got a new deck 600€ all the pain of swapping it over and the rest of the mower would still be 18yrs old so got the Ok from the boss and bought a new front deck Husky, absolutely brilliant, well pleased with it.

dewaltdisney · Post by **dewaltdisney** » Thu Aug 01, 2024 8:40 am

I had one last go at trying to get the mower going yesterday. I stripped it down again but there was nothing obvious, the flywheel was still in position and I could not see anything disconnected. I checked for a spark which was good but even squirting carb cleaner in the carb failed to get a short run. I came to the conclusion that the valves were damaged when the flywheel slipped and it went out of time. I reluctantly decided it was the end of the line and I loaded it up and took it to the recycling centre. I had good use out of it for 14 years and at a capital cost equating to only £20 a year I cannot complain. RIP

DWD