g'day mk,

yup my sentaments exactly i also reckon it is a worn out motor the
only real remedy is a complete rebuild, there could also be worn
crankcase bearings involved + +.

not all proffesional mower repair services are rip off's but i must
agree there are a lot of sharlatons around, when i repaired mowers i
had a large following of customers reckon i must have been doing
something right huh? but i must admit it is probably going to pretty
hard for the end user to find the good guy in the pile.

there is no real servicing on a 2 stroke mower apart from keep the air
filter clean and use fresh mixed 2 stroke fuel at the correct mixing
rate.

len

snipped
--
happy gardening
'it works for me it could work for you,'

"in the end ya' gotta do what ya' gotta do" but consider others and the environment
http://members.optusnet.com.au/~gardenlen1/