Successful lawn mower repair

Last Sunday I went to mow the back yard and the recoil starter cable broke. I wish I had known at the time how easy it was going to be to fix, I would have done it right there and finished mowing. Instead, I had a nice dinner with my family and did a little research on the problem.

I first found a repair forum thread called Broken Pull Cord on Gas Mower. It shocked me to see the wide range of opinions on this repair. It sounds to me after doing mine that some mowers have incredibly strong springs in the recoil spool. The spring on my 8 yr. old Craftsman was not too strong for me to hold in place with one finger while I re-threaded the cord. I guess with some mowers, you might really risk hurting your hands.

This description of the repair helped me psych myself up to take care of it without further ado. I also found enough pages of a Briggs and Stratton repair guide on Google Books that I felt like I could be successful (my Craftsman model has a 6.5 hp B&G engine). I pretty much just followed the directions from the repair manual. As it turned out, the cord had broken just a couple inches from the end. I didn’t even have to buy a new cord. All it took was a clean cut of the cord, a little melting, winding up the spool, and re-threading the cord. Nice.

I think the best part of home ownership for me has been these experiences where things break and I am able to fix them. Never been more proud of myself than being able to save some money by relying on my own brain and patience.