A few years ago, we purchased a new MTD Yard Machines 4.5HP 21" wide-cutting lawn mower, to replace the decade-plus old Honda that my Dad gave us for a housewarming present. Even though it was about the cheapest gas mower The Home Depot had, it came with a Briggs & Stratton engine and all-metal construction.
I cleaned the air filter, maybe twice, and changed the oil once, at the recommended interval following a break-in period. It was no surprise when, recently, it started running poorly, then surging, then not running at all.
After:
Scraping the gunk off the air filter element and rinsing it with gasoline (wear gloves, it makes your skin stink for days)
Changing the BLACK oil out of the crankcase for some fresh Mobil1 (I rotated the engine manually, and the difference in internal friction was large)
Cleaning the heavily-fouled spark plug, including the rusty contact
Cleaning the matching rust out of the spark plug wire contact and spooging it up with some vaseline (a.k.a. dielectric tune-up grease)
Installing some new bolts to replace the ones that used to be holding the top cover and gas tank on, which literally rattled loose somewhere in the yard
Wrapping several layers of black vinyl electrical tape over the slits in the spark plug wire from the top cover cutting into it
and Cleaning several years of schmutz off of the stuff normally concealed by the cover
Pulling the cord several times to get the gasoline out, that was drawn in by rotating the engine by hand
. . . it runs great, now! Thanks to Jesus for letting me be a 'handy' man.
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