lawn mower wheels

The Murray with the 12inch rear plastic wheels, well they developed some wobble. You can sort of lube plastic wheels but doesnt last long. I did price aftermarket Arnold 12 inch wheels with metal center and replaceable bearings. No doubt outlast the Murray mower, but $20 each plus tax.

Looking at my junk mowers, two of the old self propelled I bought for engine parts long ago had front wheels with replaceable bearings. One mower they were worn to point had bit wobble. But loose enough got bit oil in them and they spin. The other mower, the bearings rusted tight but no slop. I drilled little hole in the metal seal and squirted some oil in, then held center with vise grips and used some pump pliers to wiggle outer part bearing back and forth. Took some time but they eventually turned freely. You can spin wheel by hand and it continues to spin.

After some research did find that nearly all the mower and wheelbarrow wheels with replaceable bearings use what they call "unground" bearings. The metal that seals the bearing is also the outer bearing race. Its a cheap way of doing it and lot more prone to slop. Next step up is "ground" bearing. Little to no slop but rubber/plastic seals. Ok until seal fails. Top of line are ground with metal seal. And even different grades of them, the best having close tolerances and capable of 20k rpm. The lowest end ones looser tolerances and max of 1000rpm which is still good for mower/wheelbarrow/etc. Standard sizing so you can upgrade from unground to ground if you want.

By way my front wheels on old Yazoo mower were very wobbly. Assumed they used the 1/2 x 1-1/8 common size for small wheels and order some from china. Then was thinking for now just borrow the bearings from the old junk mowers. Well took off one Yazoo wheel and it uses 5/8 x 1-3/8. Like the wheelbarrow. So have couple cheap old wheelbarrow wheels I experimented with, stole bearings out of them. They are unground, but was able to get rid of most of the slop in them. Whole lot better than what was on there. Mower pushes lot easier.

Oh ordered pkg of 10 new bearings thinking Yazoo used standard small wheel 1/2x1-1/8 only to find it used the 5/8x1-3/8 like a wheelbarrow. Got them today. So I have bunch of new small high quality bearings, seriously these are the metal sealed ground bearings that are head and shoulders above usual unground kind used in low speed wheels. I do have four wheels that can use these bearings, its standard size for mower wheels that have replaceable bearings, though one has rust through in metal center area. Just thinking be interesting to piece together a small wheel mower (all four wheels same size) with the super high quality bearings, just to see the difference. each wheel needs two bearings.

Well today modified rear axles on Murray replacing the factory short ones with longer half inch bolts.  I at first was just going to weld them, but instead ground off the end on the factory ones and drove them out of the little plate they were pressed into and drilled the hole for half inch bolt.  

I just did the rear ones for now.  Got rid of the golly wobbles since these have real bearings, and I think it pushes easier, though these wheels are 14in, the old ones were 11in or 12in.  So can set it higher.  That helps too.  I will eventually do front ones.  

The slop in the handlebars and flex in deck does take away some of the benefit.  All that rain the grass has gotten tall so need to adjust governor for bit faster rpm, the engine is only 140cc.

No rest for the wicked. Yesterday Murray started easy but got weaker after couple rounds and stalled. Cleaned air filter today, nope. Tried running it without gas cap, nope. I assume its the ignition module, at least the Chinese make a $10 generic coil+module for this engine. Briggs wants $40, meaning they dont expect anybody to actually repair the engine, just buy a new cheap mower.

I finished big patch with the Yazoo. That new carburetor on the Honda GCV160 is amazing. Super quiet and didnt bog down once in tall thick stuff. No comparison. The Honda is only 20cc bigger, shouldnt be such a difference in power. But honestly after the new carb it has more power.

I will try fixing the Briggs, it does start easy and until recently ran ok. Like say, no powerhouse, but ok. My advice buy a genuine Honda engine and learn about its quirks. The Honda on the Yazoo used to be royal PITA engine and set unused for ten years cause I truly hated it, but last summer learned how to make it an easy one pull start kind of engine. Even with a Honda, no guarantee its going to pleasant experience until you do learn its quirks.

I would like to think same about the Briggs, but seriously have my doubts its going to get quieter with more power, no matter what I do to it.

Waiting on new coil and plug... But mower in shade and so was I this afternoon. Noticed bit wobble in one rear wheel. Yea the bolt I used as axle had loosened on the adjuster plate a bit. I took everything apart and added a lock washer on each side. No more wobble and shouldnt loosen again. BUT...

I also noticed the deck flexxing some from where I had opened up the grass chute area so it didnt plug in tall grass. It will cause metal fatigue and deck will crack between chute and the center area where engine mounts if left alone.

So got to thinking best way to reinforce the deck. Looking in my scrap pile came up with some outer parts of an old steel car rim I cut up long ago for another project, I just used the centers. Well obvious it was from a too small diameter wheel (13" wheel if I remember) so the curve is too deep. Would interfere with muffler, etc. Need one off a bigger rim, say a 16 inch rim. And I would cut it in complete circle. That would give all kinds of rigidity to whats a relatively flexxy thin gauge steel deck.

Also think I have figured out a light weight frame to make mower into a belt drive with engine back between rear wheels and just deck spindle in middle of deck. Actually as previously mentioned, the engine needs to be just back of an imaginary rear axle. Like Kee mower of old. My Yazoo and some other belt drive mowers put it directly between rear wheels. You lose the couterbalance effect of engine on a "teeter totter". With it just behind rear axle, it then counterbalances the weight of the deck and spindle. With it directly between the rear wheels you are still using your own strength to lift the deck when turning. With a normal mower having engine in middle of deck you are doing lot extra work when turning as you are then lifting the engine. Modern walk behind lawn mowers tend to have evolved their design from manufacturers trying to lower the cost as much as possible, not the best design for easiest mowing. A belt drive mower requires lot more parts and materials.

Ok, installed the new spark plug and coil on the Briggs.  I was kinda shocked they used English size screws to hold coil, but figured it out after no metric socket I had fit.  There was some corrosion on old coil, especially where it hooked on the spark plug.... so that may been the problem.  But I had it apart so put new stuff on.  It ran, seemed to have bit more power than its ever had, but not equal to the Honda.  Its quite usable though.  Mowed enough to know it wont weaken/stall.  and it will immediately start after shutting down hot.


Gotta say you wouldnt want to deal with these screws after setting long time.  They made them as small as they could, bit more corrosion and they would easily snap.  I put some anti seize on the threads when reinstalling them.


Oh the engine had apparently been running ok up until recent problem, old plug was light tan color just like well running engine should be.  I didnt spend the time to find out, it could been the module or it could been the corrosion I mentioned causing the 5 minute stall out.  Seriously anti-seize and thermal grease should been applied at factory.  But they are cynical and figure nobody is going to hire a $200 mower worked on, just buy a new one.  Probably right, trip to the lawn mower shop be least $100.  So who pays a $100 to fix a $200 mower....

Anyway, anybody with one of these 500e Briggs with the weakening/stall problem after five to ten minutes mowing, check for corrosion. New coil cost me $12 total and Denso plug was $4.  I will save the old coil and plug.  Plug looked really good as I say, probably is still good.    BEtter, get some dielectric grease NOW and put in the spark plug boot, keep it from corroding.  You also wont regret using anti seize on any bolts/screws and on spark plug threads.  Make life easy for yourself next time.

Ok, got the old Zena fired up. Welded handle on the garden fork and wings on the blade on the Bear Cat mower. Basically turned a flat blade into a high lift blade. I wanted to see the difference before I spent money on a high lift blade.

The Bear CAt will now mow tall grass without leaving unmowed strips and really shoots clippings out the rear chute, so shouldnt have problem with grass catcher. When I fix the grass catcher..... Going forward that is, it will not mow worth a darn pulled backward. And this is a HEAVY mower. Its ok going back and forth or round and round on flat lawn. Its not pleasant to use mowing around stuff.

So learned something about high lift blades, yes Virginia there is a high lift blade and it does make a difference on a bagging mower. Oddly the Murray might leave the nicest looking lawn. They all have their weaknesses and strengths. The Yazoo can handle anything upto and including small brush. But when dang grass gets tall and ropey, it will cut it but tends to want to wrap it around blade and spindle to point it makes belt slip. In worst conditions, i have to cut the wound up grass every six foot. Thats annoying. Not sure what I could do to keep it from doing that.

Well sucked it up and spent the time fixing a grass catcher for the Bear Cat. Using aluminum screen on original Bear Cat catcher, meant making separate frames to keep wire stretched. Got to looking and think hardware cloth better. They have 1/8x1/8 which is basically old fashion galvanized steel window screen. They also have 1/4x1/4 which I am just wondering if it might not work, not sure. The common 1/2x1/2 is way too big.

So anyway had bought that Jacobson cloth grass catcher bag off ebay, mostly cause it was cheapest I found. But the cloth bag is like low end side discharge bags from 1960s and 1970s. Manufacturers went to those decks with just hole cut in side of deck and plastic chute in the 1980s. Cheaper, but that was end of side discharge grass catcher bags. From then on out if you wanted grass catcher, you got mower with rear discharge and bag.

Anyway pretty sure this Jacobson catcher bag I got was for side discharge though I couldnt find pic with one like it. Fits on the rear discharge chute of Bear CAt with adapter I just hang the end bag loop over the handlebar. It works as well as any of those gunny sack side discharge bags ever worked. Bag half fills with clippings then pulls off the mower to let one know to empty it. I tried it on the two or three old mower chasses I have with metal side discharge chute, didnt fit any of them. The Jacobson mower it was made for must been an unusual configuration.

Mowed for grass clippings today and put couple three wheelbarrow of them on garden. It will take a while to cover whole thing. When I get the bare dirt covered, start over and add more. Should help keep soil from baking into a brick.

Bag doesnt hold lot clippings before it pulls off the chute telling me to empty it. Still whole lot easier than raking. My old body doesnt like raking.