Hiya,

My mower (it is a Mountfield with a Honda GCV135 motor) needs a service
before I start thrashing it across the lawn again this summer. It runs
great but I haven't touched it for over 2 years (embarassing!).

I am not particularly mechanically minded but there doesn't seem much to it
so I thought I would have a bash at it myself:

Change oil
Clean air filter
Change / clean plug
Clean and lube the moving bits
Not sure how I sharpen the blade - maybe use a large file or just buy a new
one?
Errr, cant think of anything else........

Has anyone got any tips or am I way off the mark here? Any good links?

I can buy some of the bits he

http://www.bartrammowers.co.uk/

Has anyone used them?

Thanks!

Jolltax

Xref: 127.0.0.1 uk.rec.gardening:168138

That's pretty much what I did to my mower. Obviously give it a good scrub on
the underside to get rid of any caked on crud, some people use a pressure
washer for this.
Rinse the air filter through in soapy water. rinse again in clean and leave
to dry, then add a little clean oil to the filter before replacing.
I took the blade off and sharpened it on a bench grinder. The nut fastening
this was set fast but a combination of a good spray of WD40, a little heat
from a blowtorch and brute force eventually got it off.
To be honest I can't notice any difference in the performance of the mower
but hopefully it will last a little longer

HTH

Jim





"Jolltax" wrote in message
. ..
Hiya,

My mower (it is a Mountfield with a Honda GCV135 motor) needs a service
before I start thrashing it across the lawn again this summer. It runs
great but I haven't touched it for over 2 years (embarassing!).

I am not particularly mechanically minded but there doesn't seem much to
it
so I thought I would have a bash at it myself:

Change oil
Clean air filter
Change / clean plug
Clean and lube the moving bits
Not sure how I sharpen the blade - maybe use a large file or just buy a
new
one?
Errr, cant think of anything else........

Has anyone got any tips or am I way off the mark here? Any good links?

I can buy some of the bits he

http://www.bartrammowers.co.uk/

Has anyone used them?

Thanks!

Jolltax

"Jolltax" wrote in message
. ..
Hiya,

My mower (it is a Mountfield with a Honda GCV135 motor) needs a service
before I start thrashing it across the lawn again this summer. It runs
great but I haven't touched it for over 2 years (embarassing!).

I am not particularly mechanically minded but there doesn't seem much to
it
so I thought I would have a bash at it myself:

Change oil
Clean air filter
Change / clean plug
Clean and lube the moving bits
Not sure how I sharpen the blade - maybe use a large file or just buy a
new
one?
Errr, cant think of anything else........

Has anyone got any tips or am I way off the mark here? Any good links?

I can buy some of the bits he

http://www.bartrammowers.co.uk/

Has anyone used them?

Thanks!

Jolltax


That's about it really except to run a spanner over the various nuts to make
sure they are tight and check the gap on the spark plug, best oil to use is
a fairly thin good quality car engine oil, I use Mobile 1 0W/40 or Halfords
5W/30 (which is much cheaper) -- don't use 20w/50 or 15w/40 as they are not
so good from a cold starting aspect.. Drain the oil when warm -- as it is
much easier. For maximum benefit oil changes should ideally be done at the
end of the previous season as this get rid of any acids in the sump before
laying up. Read the manual for any warnings before working on the mower
often you will find that you have to avoid tipping it in a certain way
otherwise oil will spill to where it shouldn't go. If the engine feels
stiff when you try to turn don't force it -- remove the spark plug and
turn it over a few times then replace the plug and try again.

Blade sharpening is best done by someone sound engineering knowledge who has
practice using a grinder - from the safety point of view and the importance
of keeping the blade in balanced and not destroying the heat treatment of
the cutting edge.
If the blade is out of balance it will create excessive wear on the engine
and cause nuts to loosen off as well as making the mower unpleasant and
noisy to use. I have some fairly rough grass to cut so my blade needs
sharpening regularly -- so I made a jig to balance mine however I change
the blade every couple of seasons anyway. Blades for horziontal mowers
aren't dear so it might be best if you changed the blade rather than sharpen
it.

In message , Jolltax
writes
Hiya,

My mower (it is a Mountfield with a Honda GCV135 motor) needs a service
before I start thrashing it across the lawn again this summer. It runs
great but I haven't touched it for over 2 years (embarassing!).

I am not particularly mechanically minded but there doesn't seem much to it
so I thought I would have a bash at it myself:

Change oil
Clean air filter
Change / clean plug
Clean and lube the moving bits
Not sure how I sharpen the blade - maybe use a large file or just buy a new
one?
Errr, cant think of anything else........

Has anyone got any tips or am I way off the mark here? Any good links?

As a further question, given that I'm in a similar boat (wanting to
service it myself, not run it since last year), what would be the best
thing to do - service before running it again, or run it a bit to
loosen/warm all the old oil etc then service it?

Tony.