Briggs & Stratton sucks

renovation · Post by **renovation** » Mon Sep 17, 2012 12:34 pm

this is my second time now with the same problem on a Briggs & Stratton motor , the first one was a 17.5 hp ohv 31c707 on my yardman rider tractor. now same problem again has happen on my 15 hp bolens rider motor with the same type Briggs & Stratton motor.
the electronic fuel shut off on the carburetor go's bad and after you turn the mower off. it stays open and floods the cylinder had with raw gas.in turn this raw gas soaks the piston and corrodes the rings. problem is your not aware this is happening till the next time you go and use the mower and it acts like a dead or weak battery . you have to pull the spark plug and turn the motor over and push all this raw gas out of the cylinder head.
the fix is adding a 1/4 fuel shut off in the fuel line. that is if you are lucky enough to find it before the raw gas destroys the piston or rings.
then when this happens the gas mixs with the crank oil and will /can be pushed out the muffler . the problem i have now is a large oil spot on my cement floor were the oil pass thiugh the muffler .also the motor has to sent to the shop for a repair or small block replacement. and a new motor is around $600 might as well buy a new riding tractor.
I will never buy a Briggs & Stratton power lawn tractor again !
and the warrienty on there engine's is 2 year . these motors are maybe years and very light use like maybe 2 hours a month for 8 months a year. :|

Pugsley · Post by **Pugsley** » Mon Sep 17, 2012 6:26 pm

I had one that would do the exact opposite. While mowing that thing would close on me and kill the engine. Took me about 2 hours to figure out that was happening.

renovation · Post by **renovation** » Thu Sep 27, 2012 10:21 am

broke down today and bought a new rider after calling to get the price of a replacement motor for my old rider they wanted $1100,00 for a new motor !
so i bought this

Husqvarna YTH21K46
http://www.husqvarna.com/us/products/ga ... ifications
21-HP premium Kohler engine
46" air induction deck for optimum cutting performance
15" high back seat with slide adjustment
Premium hydrostatic transmission

eGoCeNTRoNiX · Post by **eGoCeNTRoNiX** » Thu Sep 27, 2012 11:38 am

I had one of these, great little mower.. Did yours come with the wash-out connection on the deck? Mine did, but several of them did not..

eGo

wvjohn · Post by **wvjohn** » Thu Sep 27, 2012 12:28 pm

nice - I have the cheaper (troy bilt) version of that which I got used and it goes zoom just fine. Big step up from my 36" 11hp Lawn Chief

$1100 for a BS motor..lol! I've never had issues with Kohler motors.

renovation · Post by **renovation** » Thu Sep 27, 2012 1:06 pm

eco yes it has the washout !
funny thing is im paying big bucks $1600 for leaves . i need to have bagger just to handle all my fall clean up one year we used over 150 paper yard bags just on leaves !

eGoCeNTRoNiX · Post by **eGoCeNTRoNiX** » Thu Sep 27, 2012 1:56 pm

Get the mulching attachment and just mulch them.. Mow every 3 days and you'll make them disappear..

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Thu Sep 27, 2012 2:20 pm

My two (15 year old & 7 year old) 50" Sears rider mowers both have Kohler 24 HP engines. Nice reliable motor, and they've both taken a beating.

HOWEVER it's been tough mowing 19 acres (well we really only mow 12 of it) with these residential mowers. They've held up well, but during the rainy season you can actually see the grass grow behind you after you mow it around here.

SOOOO I finally bit the bullet and upgraded last month to a big-boy zero-turn commercial mower: a John Deere Z290A 54". This thing cuts grass 10 times faster than my old mowers. It's actually scary fast at full throttle. If you don't wear the seat belt, a bump in the grass or gopher hole will catapult you right off the thing.

I wound up buying the 54" version. I was looking longingly at the 60" cut but I was concerned of fitting it inside my garage. This thing is a beast. Doesn't matter, since it cuts 10 times faster anyway, the size of the cut is no big deal, and 54" fits nicely in a few tight spaces I have to go through. The blades are also more than twice as thick as my residential mowers. I just changed out the first set of blades and they had very little wear after a month - I'll be able to sharpen them with the grinder and use them again. The residential mower blades usually get ground down to nubs after a month due to all the sugar sand we have here in Florida.

My only other concern was the weight of this thing. It weighs 1400 lbs. I have 1 ton chain hoist in the garage to lift the front end of the mowers to change the blades, but I wasn't totally sure that the beam I have the hoist attached to could handle that. No worries though, it worked just fine, although I do feel a lot more concerned about this beast falling on me than I do about one of the old Sears mowers falling on me. I may build a safety rig to prop in in place in case the hoist fails.

Also while you can get away with changing the blades on the Sears mowers with a breaker bar, I wouldn't want to even try that on this thing. Fortunately I invested in a compressor and an air impact wrench several years ago. Lets me change blades in a few minutes, and it's really come in handy when I've had to rebuild the mower decks on the old mowers several times.

I considered buying a small tractor instead of the zero turn, but my property has a lot of trees on it (on purpose - we like trees) and it's tough navigating a tractor around them.

Loving this thing. Even the wife enjoys driving it.

Pugsley · Post by **Pugsley** » Thu Sep 27, 2012 3:58 pm

Its amazing how much better a commercial mower is compared to a "home" mower. My friend owns a landscaping business and has several Dixie Choppers and man they are scary fast. I can't imagine going that fast on my old lawn. Then again he rolls everything so that could explain how he can do things so quickly. I had to make him some .25" guards for is deck. man is that thing a tank. Also had to make him some counterweights for it so he can use it in the winter to snowblow.

CaterpillarAssassin · Wed Oct 10, 2012 11:26 am

Congrats on the new tractor! I have the yth23v48. Has the bs motor, though. We'll see how that goes. I did have a snapper with a bs motor that had the same problem!! Didn't know it was that widespread of an issue. Oh well, I'm pretty happy with the husky at this point and have had it about 2 years and put 26 hours on it with no trouble. The deck wash is nice but I got tired of dealing with it.