Sunrunner Revival

[bnolte 22]

My Sig line says I got my old Sunrunner running, but it was running pretty ugly, and had some stubborn issues with the mower deck. I could get it started with ether, then keep it running partially choked, it would go into a rhythm of smooth running, followed by a period of misfiring, before starting to run again. I found a good bit of water in the fuel tanks the first time around, and drained most of it out with the tanks in place. After a trial run and a period of disuse, I started it again. It was still running pretty rough, so I pulled the carburetor bowl, and found it filled with rusty water again. In search of a project and a week to kill on vacation, I decided to do my best to get it running. I decided to drain both tanks completely, and found several ounces of water in each tank, and got every last drop of water out of the tanks. While I was at it, I decided to pull the blower housing and clean it out. Here is what I found:

After removing the mouse nest, I sprayed down the whole engine compartment with Simple Green and hosed out all the greasy stuff. It cleaned up pretty well. I had a parts carb that had a good main jet, which was screwed up on the original, which I replaced. I also replaced a badly abraded and greasy fuel line from the port tank, and got it all back together. It fired up fairly promptly, considering the fuel lines were empty, and after a couple of adjustments the engine ran well. sm01 Time hasn't been kind to the mower deck, mainly with the belt path and control linkages. One of the main issues is the blade brake, a tangle of levers, rods, and springs. The deck itself is solid and the spindles are smooth, but there is a noisy idler underneath the engine. The main problem seems to be that the linkage for the blade brake has stretched, and won't disengage properly. I looked at the geometry of the belts, and bent the fixed guide so it barely clears the belt, and shortened the linkage that engages the blade brake. I am not quite there yet. Getting this straight is tougher than working on the engine!|)