The Saga of the Ride on Mower (cont). For laughs?

[AJB Temple]

Purely for the amusement of friends on here. Some of you may remember that I posted about this mower before, this is the update and a salutary tale. Recap: Stiga Park 4WD ride on front deck with Briggs & Stratton Intek series 4 500cc petrol engine. 4 years old, low hours and pristine and properly serviced by supplier who recently retired and closed his business. Starting became iffy then would not start, except aided by mains jump charger. Methinks battery kaput so replaced it. Still would not start and in excessive enthusiasm with jump unit I fried the starter motor.

Now I introduce local mower specialist. Let’s call him Keef as his real name sounds ever such a lot like that. Keef turns up in his white van, seems ok, and takes my mower away. A few days later he texts me saying mower is fixed, please pay £360 (this included blade sharpen and engine service). Mrs AJBT pays within 15 minutes. Keef says he will deliver the mower that afternoon. No show.

A day later I chase the mower. Keef says it started fine when he text me, but now doesn’t start. He's tried a heavier duty battery. He says it’s a common fault, and is a camshaft compression release problem. The remedy: new engine at £1,480 fitted. This is his “discounted price”. When I get back from hospital having fallen off my chair, I text Keef and tell him very politely just to return the mower please.

Couple of days later Keef turns up in his van and backing down my drive he reverses into a tree with a loud smack. :shock: No one has ever managed to do this before as the tree is not in the actual drive, but in a border to the side. I’ve had lorries and 8 wheelers in here with no problem. Van dented and indicator unit smashed. I say nothing as luckily the tree is unharmed. Mower is unloaded and Keef says it might start with a bigger battery, say off a car, then departs, moaning about his damaged van. He has put his stickers on my mower which is a tad annoying (requires solvent to remove). He calls me “mate”. Trust me, we are not mates. I assume he meant mug. He has ripped me off and I am not pleased, but say nothing.

Next day I text Keef suggesting politely that charging me £360 to not fix my mower seems a bit unreasonable and would he like to suggest a solution? Keef ignores me. I repeat contact attempts a few times over the next two weeks, building up an evidence trail to show how super reasonable and patient I am, and Keef ignores me as expected. Keef then receives by signed for recorded delivery a Letter before Action advising him that without full refund within 7 working days he will be sued on-line in the county court system for full refund plus costs of service, costs of removing his stickers, and interest. I advise no further warnings or notice will be given.

Amazingly Keef finds his phone which he had apparently “mislaid” he said, hence had not seen my texts and offers me 50%. Obviously,I believed this ludicrous story as why wouldn’t I? Still I’m perfectly happy to take Keith to court and make this crystal clear as the process is a) dead easy and b) I am used to it and c) my business partner is a practicing solicitor. We felt the judge would side with me as charging to fix a mower, then telling me after payment that it’s not fixed, is not a good look for Keef. :| He feels I ought to pay him for collecting and returning the mower and I say I am happy to do that as long as he pops over straight away (his 7 days is nearly up) and removes his stickers. Keefy agrees he return £320 (the £40 is for reconditioned starter motor) and refunds Mrs AJBT.

No one in their right mind replaces an entire engine just because the camshaft needs replacing. A genuine Briggs & Stratton camshaft, engine gasket, oil pump rung and some gasket silicone and Loctite blue cost me £76. Local landscaper mate Sean volunteered to help whip the engine off (15 mins), strip it and re-assemble (2 hours as we followed a US video). Refit engine took half an hour. No special tools needed (just sockets and a small torque wrench). Bought an oil sump vacuum drainer for £8 to make life a bit less messy.

For anyone interested, this is the online video. Very well explained (in Yankee accent) on lots of small engine stuff. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ura-9Fq4X6k&t=958s

Will do my own servicing from now on.

 

[AndyP]

Good job Adrian, on both Keef and the mower.
So did the camshaft replacement etc solve the starting problem then?

 

[AJB Temple]

Yes Andy. This is a dead simple single cylinder engine with old style pushrod design. The camshaft has a little cam lever that is thrown outwards under centrifugal force and relieves cylinder compression for starting. This is a known failure point on these engines apparently. A new genuine camshaft is £48 but it is a bit of a faff to fit. This was the cause of the starting problems all along. Knock off cams can be had for £20 but the guy on-line counselled to avoid cheapy replicas. Not worth trivial saving as it takes a well to strip and re-assemble the engine. We would be much faster now that I know how to do it though.

Keef went on and on about valve valve clearances and other stuff that was a total red herring.

 

[AJB Temple]

Edit - text was in wrong thread.

 

[9fingers]

Yes Andy. This is a dead simple single cylinder engine with old style pushrod design. The camshaft has a little cam lever that is thrown outwards under centrifugal force and relieves cylinder compression for starting. This is a known failure point on these engines apparently. A new genuine camshaft is £48 but it is a bit of a faff to fit. This was the cause of the starting problems all along. Knock off cams can be had for £20 but the guy on-line counselled to avoid cheapy replicas. Not worth trivial saving as it takes a well to strip and re-assemble the engine. We would be much faster now that I know how to do it though.

Keef went on and on about valve valve clearances and other stuff that was a total red herring.

I had wondered what the outcome of the mower was so thanks for the update both technically as well as the saga of your "mate" Keef.

Bob

 

[AJB Temple]

Thanks Bob. I am no mechanic - but starting to get my confidence back. Part of that was was talked by an elderly but very sprightly man in our lane to joining a web forum that he portrayed as neighbourhood watch. It's called Nextdoor. It's 80% people moaning about the roads or discussing missing, possibly squashed, cats. However....I posted up that I was looking for someone to guide me fixing this engine at home. Got a few replies, one of whom is a landscaper who does all of his own machine servicing and is 5 mins away in the next village. He found the useful you tube videos for me (I had looked but missed the good stuff as I was searching the wrong thing) and was adamant that this was a pretty easy fix.

I was going to give him beer money, but it turns out he was looking for someone to do a bit of repair to an oak frame, which is straightforward for me to help him with in return.

 

[NickM]

Glad you've got it fixed. It sounded a lot like an electrical problem!

I'm servicing my ride on myself now that it's out of warranty. There's often something going wrong with it, but I'm beginning to learn most of its foibles. My 16 year old son enjoys getting stuck in too and has a much better feel for mechanical systems than I do so he's usually the first to diagnose a problem.

 

[AJB Temple]

Ha, my offspring is better at this stuff than me too, but he's stuck in the Netherlands courtesy of exams.