My old LawnBoy meet its demise after a broken con rod,it give many years of service and it was so light I didnt mind pushing it around after the self propelled feature quit,a dealer around here was sort of glad they lasted that long,but while the old one kept on ticking He didnt sell many new ones.
I’ve said it before and once again,sheet steel is the perfect material to make a car body from,because its strong ,well understood and it goes away on its own after a few years(I wonder if it was ever considered to make the car bodies from Cor Ten steel?)-Kevin
And as an afterthought, HD truck manufacturers have had a long and sucessful run of fiberglass front ends for large trucks(one prominate manu used aluminum cabs and plywood floors in its heavy duty trucks for a long time)-Kevin
Wow, look what I started with the comment on rust. While anything will rust, the Geo Metro uses such light and thin metal that any rust is much more critical. There have been cases of the front control arms breaking off these cars because the front subframe is so prone to rust. I had to replace the engine and the donor engine came from a car where the front subframe had failed. The one control arm and part of the CV axle were nowhere to be seen.
That being said, the Geo Metro is like the VW bug of the 1990’s. It is simple, basic, and easy to maintain. It will also run forever if taken care of. It does have the problem of rusting out rather quickly.
As for the two stroke Lawn Boy mowers… We had several when I was a kid and it never seemed like they worked halfway decent. I know many swear by them and greatly miss them but my experiences with them were never good. I guess my dad had them growing up and liked them. I can remember him starting to complain about one before I was old enough to mow. This was bought new but finally just became such a pain that he rolled it down to the curb and bought a used one. Now this one was used but it wasn’t good either. It made a “WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP” noise when running and I am not sure what that was all about. It seemed like it took longer to start the mower than it did to mow the lawn. My dad took over as he wasn’t about to admit buying a used one was a mistake and would rather suffer than hear my complaints. Although the oil was mixed properly, the engine would sometimes lock up and smoke rings would start to rise off the top of the engine. If you let it sit and cool, it would start up normally and sometimes not do this again for quite a long time. It never hard locked. You could always pull the starter cord but you could hear like a grinding or scraping sound coming from within the engine and smell this hot burning metal smell too. He was mowing the yard one day when there were some loud pops and an explosion of fire. The engine had sent the connecting rod through the block and that mower was no more. He then bought a new one and it seemed to be nothing but problems. I don’t know if they got bought and quality suffered out but it never seemed to run right. It was like it would run super rich and then lean. It must have leaned way out one time as it actually sounded like it was running decent and not all smoky but then it started the partial lockup deal. He went in the house to get some money and promptly went out and bought a new mower. It was just some cheap 4 stroke but seemed to serve him well. These don’t last forever either but seem a lot less problematic than the Lawn Boys. I am sorry to say but I don’t miss these at all!
I also have scrapped a few of these old mowers. The Lawn Boys did have a nice aluminum deck which is good for corrosion resistance as well as the pocket book of anyone scrapping one. It also seems there is a lot more to these in terms of mechanical complexity. Besides being a two stroke, there just seems to be more things integrated into the engine like the self propel and all. The blocks are aluminum and also nice to scrap.
I don’t know about wholesale costs but aluminum pays about 5 times the value as scrap than steel. Steel is around a 10 cents per pound on a good day. Aluminum is usually 50 cents or a little more. Making the bodies and frames out of this material is likely to dramatically increase the cost of new cars as there is a lot of metal in cars!
@cwatkin The LawnBoy mowers that I thought were great were made in the 1950s. My dad bought a LawnBoy mower in 1955. I picked up jobs using that mower. At the end of the season, I would tear it down, rough up the cylinder wall with crocus cloth, install new piston rings, replace the magneto points and condenser, put in a new spark plug, put a new needle and seat in the carburetor, clean the air filter, sharpen the blade and it was ready to go for another season of mowing. I think the cost of all the parts was less than $10 and it took about 3 hours to rebuild the engine. I don’t know about the reliability or serviceability of later LawnBoy mowers.
The aluminum decks were great. A relative gave me a LawnBoy with a blown engine–he had forgotten to mix oil with the gasoline. I had a cheap mower with a good 4 stroke engine but a rusted deck. The engine from the cheap mower bolted right up to the LawnBoy aluminum deck and I had good mower.
I have a Homelite mower with an aluminum deck that I bought in 1992. It has a 4 stroke Briggs and Stratton engine. I installed a new short block about 10 years ago. Unfortunately, it now burns oil again and has lost power. I am debating whether to scrap the mower and buy a new one or replace the short block again. I don’t seem to be able to find a mower with an aluminum deck in the stores.
Well one thing I would like to see again is made in USA. I go into Hobby lobby, and try to find something not made in China, did not see a one.
Amen to that. OT but I bought new Honeywell thermostats (Honeywell was based in Minneapolis) and you guessed it, made in China.
What broke my lawnboy was mowing in tall grass a ball of grass would get between the deck and blade and instantly kill the engine it ran great for many years and had a steel deck,still have never had a 4 cycle mower that good,mine lived in the 80’s.But I did have a Penneys with the Quantum Briggs engine that did rather well,but it was very heavy(finally wore the wheels out and the safety equipment fell off)-Kevin
I suspect that Lawn Boy was bought out and the quality went downhill. My dad obviously had good luck with them in his younger days but the more recent models seemed to be crap. On the other hand, I know people who had some of the late 1990’s models which were the end of the line for the two strokes and still love them. There might have been different grades of them. I seem to recall the ones my dad had having a steel deck so maybe he got the cheaper model/grade and they weren’t as good.
I like the comment about simply honing the cylinder bore and putting new rings on. I bet that cylinder became tapered, out of round, and oversize after a few rounds of this. I also wonder how much two cycle oil mixes have evolved through the years. I found some of that Lawn Boy oil left and mixed it for other two cycle equipment. This oil seemed so smoky compared to the other oils I have run so I only ran one gas can of this before changing back to something else. I now run the Stihl full synthetic oil and this seems to do really well without a ton of smoke. I have also heard the echo full synthetic is really good and may be the same exact oil as Stihl.
Those cheap 4 strokes like the Briggs Quantum do OK but they don’t last forever. I think my dad replaced the last two stroke Lawn Boy with one of these. It quit running and had no compression one day so I took the engine apart. The timing gear on the crankshaft was steel while the camshaft was made of plastic or nylon of some sort. The steel eventually wore through the polymer material and it failed. The mower ran well until this failure. The good side of this is that there wasn’t two mowing seasons of utter frustration before the failure. It just worked one time and died.
His yard is really hilly and steep so I am sure this isn’t good for the oiling of any non two stroke engine. He doesn’t seem to get more than a few years out of any mower even with regular oil changes. One he bought new was shipped without an air cleaner installed. The cover was there but no air cleaner was underneath. No one thought to check and see if the air cleaner was installed so this engine began smoking and burning oil profusely within one mowing season. It got to where you had to replace the plug each time you mowed because of the oil fouling. It was a Craftsman and Sears replaced the unit under warranty. I am sure the cylinder bore and rings were so worn and scratched up from sucking in all that debris.
Another story my dad told me from when he was a kid was about a mower with a magnesium alloy deck of some sort. Someone was mowing and it caught on fire. Of course the person thought it would be best to put out the fire with water which was a big mistake. It sounds like there wasn’t much left but a black area on the ground and some melted metal parts when it was all over. I lit an old magnesium chainsaw on fire one time and tried this. It is pretty amazing!
Although I worked for Outboard Marine (parent company of Lawnboy) in the 60s, that was not my main reason for having one. We bought out first house in 1970 and until 2007, we made do with just two Lawnboys. We sold the first one for $50 in 1986 since I needed a rearbagger to get through the shrubs and we sold the second one for $70 because my wife wanted a lightweight electric one. Both machines were in top condition when sold; I let the new owners start and use them first.
Total repairs for the two machines in 37 years were 3 spark plugs, two grass bags, 2 air filters. Other than sharpening the blades and gapping the plugs, virtually no maintenance was required. I did use the special oil they recommended, a premium low-ash product.
I really used the LawnBoy my dad bought in 1955 hard. With the yards I contracted to mow, I bet I used the mower an average of 4 hours a day. The manual had very clear pictures on disassembly of the engine, carburetor, etc. I reworked that engine at the end of each mowing season and I never had failure. I didn’t want to let my customers down. I had one customer with 2 acres of ground who was moving away and selling his house. I was to use his self propelled Homko brand lawnmower. I had it repaired a couple of times at his expense. I finally asked for more money and used the LawnBoy which wasn’t self propelled. I found I could cut the time by a third using that push LawnBoy over the self propelled mower. I never did buy the special LawnBoy oil. I mixed a half pint of 30 weight non-detergent oil to a gallon of gasoline as specified in the owner’s manual.
I would buy another LawnBoy if it was the same as the 1955 model. My present lawn mower needs a new short block and has some other problems. I don’t like to mow and my wife enjoys mowing. However, she has had two foot surgeries and two rotator cuff surgeries and I am not about to let her mow. She claims if we got a self propelled with electric start she would be fine. I’m not so sure, so I am trying to stretch the life of my present power I bought in 1992.
I adopted an old LawnBoy that came with the house we are renting. According to the serial number it dates from the mid eighties. I’d always used (and still prefer) an electric which, unlike the LawnBoy, didn’t leave me feeling light headed after ten minutes of mowing. I’ve tinkered a bit with this old beast: new plug, cleaned the air filter, adjusted safety and throttle cables. I even ran a bit of Seafoam through it which made it sound a little better but did nothing to reduce the smoke screen it lays down from what must assuredly be shot rings. On a windless day it damn near asphyxiates me. To avoid embarrassment and being required to buy carbon credits I always cut the back first because by the time I get to the front she’s running hot enough that you can hardly see the rich hydrocarbon spew. It’s always been a bear to start at the beginning of the season (coming up in the next week or two) so I’m into a daily upper body and right arm strengthening routine in preparation. Oh and I had to laugh at my neighbor on the Easter weekend who was trying unsuccessfully for a good hour (both him and his wife) to start their much newer machine which they thoughtfully left sitting in the backyard over the winter…
@london
If your LawnBoy has a two stroke engine, you might try the premixed fuel which is available in 50:1 and 40:1 ratio of gasoline to oil. Choose the ratio that the manufacturer specifies for the engine. This may clear up the exhaust fumes. I use this in my two stroke snow blower and it starts easier and runs without the smoke. The downside is that it costs about $5 a liter, so if you have a large yard, this would make mowing expensive.
If the engine is a 4 stroke, then your engine is shot. However, on the two stroke engine, it could be an over-rich mixture of gasoline to oil that is causing the problem. The Lawn Boy two stroke is not difficult to tear down and replace the rings. The cylinder is tapered so you don’t need a ring compressor. There are no valves to grind. Also, the carburetor may be set too rich, so you may want to adjust the mixture.
Personally, I never liked two cycle engines. We had one used mower I think we paid $10 for when I was a kid. It seemed to be very temperamental and never seemed to run right.
I bought my first mower in 1976. It was a $200 AMT self propelled and it was a piece of junk right from the start. In 1987 I finally threw it away and bought a $500 Toro self propelled rear bagger. I graduated to a rider in 1996 but still kept the Toro. Gave it to the kid and then got it back again. It still runs fine and in storage except I need to clean and adjust the carb when I get a chance. It was great for picking up leaves in the fall but now I just mulch everything and ride around.
@Bing–I really can’t complain about the service I have had from the Homelite-Jacobsen mower I bought in 1992. It has a 4 stroke Briggs and Stratton engine. I did install a new short block 10 years ago, but now it is due again for another short block. It is strictly a mulching mower with two blades–a short blade perpendicular to the main blade. It does a great job mulching grass and is really great in the fall when I mulch up the leaves. The deck is aluminum, so there is no problem with rust-out. I paid $250 for the mower. It is not self-propelled, so it doesn’t have the complexity of a mechanism to drive the wheels. Unfortunately, with a right shoulder that is beginning to bother me, I may have to get an electric start self propelled mower.
I always found the Lawn Boys to be very temperamental. It either seems you love 'em or hate 'em from the comments here. Any of them I ever used left a nasty smokescreen and made me get a headache. As I said, I think the Lawn Boy spec oil may have been a lot smokier than some of the others. All the Lawn Boys we had were 32:1. I see lots of 40: and 50:1 mix specs now so I suspect that both the oils and the engines have gotten better with time. I also suspect the EPA has a large part to do with this. I have been told that running 40:1 in something calling for 50:1 will lengthen its life so I usually run a tad on the rich side of things. My chain saws, trimmers, and leaf blowers still don’t blow the amount of fumes and smoke that the old Lawn Boys did.
My 4 strokes also seem to do just fine but I keep up on the maintenance and use synthetic oil. I had some used stuff grenade on me but none of the new stuff has given me trouble.
The original LawnBoy 2 stroke mowers had the muffler and exhaust under the deck. This did help mask the fumes and the whirling blade blew the exhaust out the grass discharge chute. I don’t know about the later LawnBoy mowers.
I don’t think there are any new lawn mowers with 2 stroke engines available in the U.S> any more.
I seem to recall the mufflers on all the ones we had being under the deck like you describe. The ones I scrapped were also that way. That makes me remember the one that backfired like a gunshot and blew something off the muffler. The mower seemed to run better after this but was LOUD as can be. It sounded like a dirt bike or something. You can tell I really had good luck with these mowers.
The Suzuki two stroke motor on our Toro for 18 years was a great little motor. It’s carb did secume to ethanol contamination and had to be rebuilt. The dealer we bought it from, great little business, said they no longer made the motor or the carb parts ( typical Suzuki) and the next rebuild might mean a lost motor. We gave it to my son who lives just outside of Boston figuring, if it needed repair, used parts "might " be more plentiful.
One thing I know can’t be duplicated in exactly the same way but in a more technical way, is the use of biodegradable and recyclable products for car bodies. We can recycle plastics so in some form, there is no reason we can’t have recyclable body panels that don’t rust but can be reused in new cars.