Outdoor Power Equipment and Small Engines - Toro lawn mower will not start

I have a Toro 22" Recycler Lawn Mower Model No. 20017 that will not start. I tested for a spark and did not get one. I then removed the shroud and noticed a green wire coming off the Solid State Ignition and going under the flywheel. When I disconnect this wire, I got a spark. The mower runs fine with the wire disconnected. I am now assuming the problem has something to do with the dead-man bar. The cable running from the dead man bar does seem loose, but I don't see a way to tighten it. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to fix the problem?

Thank in advance,

Timoteo

You may have to replace the brake cable the part # should be on the cable itself.

Jerry

You may have to replace the brake cable the part # should be on the cable itself.

Jerry

Thanks, jsouth I'll try that and let you know.

Timoteo

I replaced the brake cable as jsouth suggested last night. I started it twice with no problems. I ran it for about 1 minute each time. I went to cut the grass this afternoon and it ran for about 30 seconds and then stopped as though I released the dead man bar. The only way I could get it to start was to disconnect the green wire coming off the Solid State Ignition again.

The new cable is much tighter and does a much better job than the old one. But, apparently not good enough.

Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance,


Timoteob

I have had to drill a new hole in the handlebar and mount the end of the cable a tad farther down on the handle to allow a longer length of pull when you hold the kill bar.

Actually this is the cause for this condition. The brake on the flywheel has become bent and is not releasing the brake enough to get the lever away from the ground. Tecumsh is good for this condition and some slight bending will solve this problem. You can check this by removing the flywheel and watching the arm move away from the little spring wire attached to the green wire from the coil. Make sure after you bend the lever that you make contact when the dead man bar is released. Make sure you have the brake bail(deadman bar) squeezed when you remove and install the flywheel or you will damage the brake pad. I really do not like this design and see more problems with it in the shop on these steel deck Home Depot models.

Just FYI, I've done the same thing on the engine end and drilled a new hole - just a bit forward (further from the cable) in the brake arm on the Tecumseh's. This, too, gives a fuller pull on the brake arm.

cheese, puey61,CAMINO KID,

Thanks for the tip about drilling a new hole. That idea crossed my mind a couple of time while I was working on it over the weekend. I guess great minds think alike! :) The main reason I didn't attempt it was I don't think it will work in my case. The reason I think that is I put a C-clamp on the mechanism that is squeezed by the dead-man bar/brake cable combo and I was not able to get any more movement out of it. So I think the brake under the flywheel maybe bent as suggested by CAMINO KID.

Any suggestions on how to get the flywheel off without a flywheel puller? I'm not sure how expensive they are, but I'd rather not but something that I'm only going to use once if I don't have to.

Thank you,

Timoteob

You will need a second person. Tie off the brake, remove the blower (flywheel) shroud, remove the flywheel nut and washer, reinstall the nut to flush with the end of the crankshaft, have the second person lift up on the flywheel taking all the weight (or as near all as reasonable) of the mower and using it as leverage by grasping the underside of the flywheel with their fingertips (gloves are helpful to lessen the shock), use a brass or other soft punch and a heavy hammer and whack the flywheel nut/crankshaft. It should "pop" off the taper of the crank in a whack or two.

Thanks for the advice puey61, I'll try it out and let you know how it goes.

Timoteob

I got the flywheel off. I was unable to knock it off using the method describe by puey61, so I broke down and bought a puller from the local tecumseh shop. It worked great; I got the flywheel off with no trouble.

Once I got the flywheel off, I did not see the bent brake described by AMINO KID. As far as I could tell, everything looked fine. See what you think; I took a couple of pictures:

With the deadman bar release:

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i169/timoteob/Deadmanbarreleased.jpg

With the deadman bar engaged:

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i169/timoteob/Deadmanbarengaged.jpg


I put everything back together and the it started twice in a row with no problems, but I'm not going to get my hopes up. I'm going to run it tomorrow and I see how it goes.

Thanks again for the tips and I'll let you know how it goes.

Timoteob

The first thing you need to do is clean it up, powerwash it or take it to the carwash, if I were it I wouldn't want to run either. Have a good one. Geo

It does look like everything is working like it should there.

I see by the pics that you have both fairly excessive wear and uneven wear with the brake pad. I'd recommend replacing the brake arm assembly. And you should consider replacing the brake control cable since it appears you may have trouble with this as well.

geogrubb, cheese, puey61,

Thanks for the replies, I ran the mower for a couple of hours yesterday and it ran fine and started every time with no problems. Since that was hopefully the last cut of the season, I'm going to take it apart again and clean it and replace the brake arm assembly.

Thanks again for your help.


Timoteob