Working on Small Engines - What do I Need?

[Dberglind]

We just recently moved from a single car garage to a 2 car garage house, and I have a little more room to tinker, but still not that much (park 1 vehicle inside).

I work in the lawn and landscape industry, and usually get laid off for 2-3 months each winter. I try to spend some time ice fishing, but like to spend time in the garage as well, and would like some projects to keep me productive. I figure since I use them during the summer, it would be good to know how to work on trimmers, blowers, chainsaws, (and Ice augers ).

I have the basics; wrenches & sockets and so on. What else do I need?

Any good references or information for me?

 

[Graymills - Craig]

We just recently moved from a single car garage to a 2 car garage house, and I have a little more room to tinker, but still not that much (park 1 vehicle inside).

I work in the lawn and landscape industry, and usually get laid off for 2-3 months each winter. I try to spend some time ice fishing, but like to spend time in the garage as well, and would like some projects to keep me productive. I figure since I use them during the summer, it would be good to know how to work on trimmers, blowers, chainsaws, (and Ice augers ).

I have the basics; wrenches & sockets and so on. What else do I need?

Any good references or information for me?

Find a cheap, non-functional lawn mower on Craig's List (great time of the year to look!) and take it apart.

 

[SGKent]

Find a cheap, non-functional lawn mower on Craig's List (great time of the year to look!) and take it apart.

That is a great suggestion. I would also pick up some small books on rebuilding the brand mowers you use. Learn to recognize a part that can be replaced vs an assembly. The parts diagrams will often show you what pieces can be replaced as individual parts and which as full assemblies.

 

[87FoRunner]

Parts washer, and itty bitty carb cleaning brushes for the carb jets.

 

[east_tn_emc]

The correct tools (available from Briggs or Kohler) for taking flywheels off! (yeah, SURE you can knock it off with a hammer, as I go look up how much a new crankshaft costs once you ******-up the threads on it).

A small-engine sized ring-compressor.
A valve spring compressor for small engines as well as a valve facing lathe (hand-tool, costs about 20 bucks) and a valve lapping tool.

 

[madjack]

Angle grinder and a blade balancer. Spend the money and get a good one. Mag-matic is what I had.
Kinetic flywheel pullers are my preferred pullers

 

[metaleltr]

What is the need for special fly wheel pullers? I have yet to see one that can not be removed by a steering wheel or standard gear puller.

 

[theoldwizard1]

Parts washer, and itty bitty carb cleaning brushes for the carb jets.

You will be doing a lot of carb rebuilds. A good work bench and stool or better yet, an old metal desk and desk chair. Good lighting is a must.

Get an old 9x13 baking pan and do all disassembly inside of it so that small parts don't roll away and get lost. An old cupcake tin can hold parts until you reassemble.

Get a gallon bucket of ChemDip.

 

[signcrafter]

The basic tools are flywheel puller, ring compressor, valve spring compressor, valve lapper tool, leak down tester, spark tester, nut drivers, torx screw drivers, tachometer for setting chainsaw carbs, special screwdrivers for setting chainsaw carbs, flywheel holder, inch/pounds torque wrench, along with many more that you can buy as you need them.

Manuals, manuals, manuals. Briggs manuals are great and will tell you what tools you need and how to trouble shoot. Tecumseh has some manuals also as does honda. For chainsaws you can go to arboristsite.com and they have a manual request post where I have got any chainsaw manual I have needed in a matter of an hour, great site for fixing chainsaws. Another site is perr.com for small engines, lots of good info there also about fixing all sorts of small engines.

 

[brownbagg]

a different hobby, small engine are design to throw away ever couple years

 

[cattleranchmarch]

I just got done with a small engine class at school. This is my list:

Plus a spark tester (I already have one).

Small engine tools

Small Feeler Guage - Blue Point FB310B $8
Tachometer - Harbor Freight 66400 $35
Starter Clutch Remover - Amazon B001OK8SOK $15
Puller Set - Harbor Freight 37824 $18
Compression Test Kit - Amazon OTC 5606 $54
Piston Ring Compressor - Amazon Lisle 18500 $12
Dial Indicator - Harbor Freight 623 $15
Magnetic Base - Harbor Freight 5645 $15
Telescoping Gauge Set - Harbor Freight 5649 $15
Micrometer Set - Harbor Freight 66512 $40

There are a lot of other specialty tools that you might need but these are the basics.

 

[bdamico]

tiny tools

 

[Thruxton]

Good advice above, and I'll only add one thing: rebuilding small engine carbs (esp 2 stroke) is sort of interesting, but I think you will find it is more cost efficient to replace, rather than rebuild. Most of the units I have worked with in the last few years have had problems with fuel circuit check valves, which are not a maintainable item. Fuels with ethanol added greatly affect, i.e. destroy, these things, and R&R is the only solution I know to be practical. YMMV!

 

[Vegaman_Dan]

The one thing I see everyone has missed so far is having someone else handy to pull the starter cord for you the dozens and dozens of times as you fiddle with settings and gear worn out!

That's what teenagers are for.

 

[justanengineer]

Find a cheap, CLASSIC AMERICAN lawn mower on Craig's List (great time of the year to look!) and take it apart.

Fixed it for ya.

I'm partial to Cub Cadets from the 60s and 70s. Simple, rugged, and cheap. To me, learning to do anything is much easier when youre not working on a POS with crappy tools.

 

[Dberglind]

Thanks everyone, especially cattleranch for the detailed list. I'll start picking up a few tools.

A supply of stuff to work on shouldn't be a problem. There is a shelf full of trimmers and blowers at my job that I am sure the boss wont mind me playing with.

 

[CNGsaves]

Couple other obvious shop basics for that kind of work is good bench with vise, along with cylinder hone (ie to resurface cylinder walls so rings seat better).

Good luck on the small engine repairs/rebuild.

 

[jetmech09]

I saw someone suggest a valve lapping tool...attach a suction cup to a stick. I think everything else has pretty much been covered. Not too sure about small engines, but if anything has a magneto...maybe a buzz box? I'm sure others know more about this than I do.

 

[camarotoolman]

Parts are alot cheaper form ebay. Only work on the better makes, that are worth something, Stihl, echo ,husky,etc. The rest are throw aways, not worth fixing. I've been making money buying, fixing, and selling chain and demo saws on feebay. Also the parts sell OK too.

 

[joshmodelskidoo]

while i would agree theres throw away stuff alot of that can be fixed and done cheap as long as your fixing it yourself. for example, if you take a chain saw in to have it fixed because it isnt running and needs a carb cleaning because it has old gas that has gotten water in it then its probably going to cost $100 and for that you can buy a cheap saw from menards for that price and it will have a new bar and chain. if you fix it yourself usually all that needs done is a good carb cleaning and thats just some time and a can of carb cleaner

 

[theoldwizard1]

On older, non-electronic ignition (points) engines, the #1 problem is weak spark. Either spark plug or the points (behind the flywheel). Luckily there are not a lot of these engines around. The really old B&S engines (pre 1980 ?) can be easily and cheaply upgraded to B&S Magnetron ignition.


The #2 and #3 problems with small engines, are clogged air filters or dirt in carb. Newer engine without adjustable carbs are very susceptible to both of these.

#4, especially on small 2 stoke engines, is fuel line air leak/crack.


Learning how to look up replacement parts online and then buying them on eBay can save you a lot of money.

Learn the "smart way" to install a new rweind cord without disassembling the spring !

Check out donnyboy73's channel on YouTube,

 

[Dberglind]

Check out donnyboy73's channel on YouTube,

Thanks a ton for this suggestion. I have been watching a lot of his videos, and it is like taking a course in Small Engine Repair.

 

[Alaric.H]

Make you life easy and get one of these.

A rebuild table with a drain is a great tool as well.