Also check that the crankcase vent hose hasn't detached.
We really should do a basic troubleshooting list for small engines as the same stuff comes up over and over.
Without curveballs like this, you'd have no reason for expletives when doing a repair, which is very refreshing to the soul. It's especially enjoyable to listen to a disembodied pair of legs poking out from under a car/tractor/agricultural machine bemoaning,'"the ef*** c who last put this together, if I find the B***x, I'll shove this Eff*** metric wrench up his 3/4"......" etc, etc. Happy memories from the very distant Imperial-to-Metric past. I discovered that the same heavy repair motivational technique could be applied to almost any challenging situation as a personal aid, no matter the task.
I think thats only out in the county where they keep buckets full of old rusty nuts and bolts just in case.
One job I was on they kept and straightened out old used fencing staples.
Hi, looking for advice on taking an oil level on a Husqvarna CTH 151 ride on lawnmower. The type of dipstick is as shown, has a double o ring and needs to be pushed down into the hole to fully secure. If taking a oil level do I need to push it down into the hole or just rest it on top of the lip? I done an oil change and 1 litre will get upto the full mark if I fully press the dipstip down which seems way too little oil to me.
Oil capacity on that (from the manual) is 3 pints. Now is that US pints or UK pints either way its a lot more than one liter more like 1.4 liters if US pints or 1.7 liters UK if UK pints so put in another half liter and I bet its much nearer the top mark when the dipsick is resting on that lip.
However the manual states
Use gauge on oil fill cap/dipstick for checking level. For accurate reading, insert dipstick into the tube and push down firmly into place before removing. Keep oil up to, but not over, the “FULL” line on dipstick. Push dipstick down fi rmly into the tube when finished.
You can get the manual from manualslib.com
Edit> Do you have the standard CTH 151 or the XP version? XP version has a fuel filter and takes a little more oil 3.8 pints if you change the oil filter.
From reading the manual the dip stick should be pushed down fully which leaves 1 litre oil to reach the fill mark. Leaving dipstick on the lip drops oil level halfway between the low and full mark. Every vid Ive seen on youtube says this engine requires ~ 1.5 litres of oil but they have different type of dipstick. I'll end up massively over filling or under filling the oil level. 😥
Personally I'd go by the actual volume of oil they say you need for the engine. See where that is on the dipstick then use that as your mark. tbh you can't 100% rely on the manual, can't remember what it was now but I know my Honda manual has at least one major error in it.
However that engine comes with that silly easy oil change feature and the question is did you completely drain the oil? Any chance there was still half a liter left in the engine after you drained the oil? I keep an eye on how much comes out on an oil change, not because of your dipstick issue but because its quicker to know that you had enough old oil and that you drained out say a liter because then you can bang a liter of fresh oil in without having to keep checking the dipstick.
Its not like you have to worry about burning out a catalytic converter with too much oil, too little on the other hand won't do you any good.
What I think I'd do here is check what engine that is exactly it may be branded Husquvarna but I think its a Kohler. Dig around and find out exactly which one then find the manual for that engine and see what that says about the quantity of oil required.
Edit> So its a Kohler Model SV470 which according to this http://www.kohlerengines.com/engines/onlinecatalog/pdf/sm_20_690_01.pdf only takes 1.04 to 1.3l of oil so you seem to be in the right area with one liter.
And again from the Kohler engine manual
Ensure engine is cool.
Clean oil fi ll/dipstick areas of any debris.
1. Remove dipstick; wipe oil off.
2. Reinsert dipstick into tube; press completely down.
3. Remove dipstick; check oil level. Level should be at top of indicator on dipstick.
4. If oil is low on indicator, add oil up to top of indicator mark.
5. Reinstall and secure dipstick.
Does it have an oil filter? Did you turn engine over to fill it and other cavities, then stop and recheck level. Maybe you didn't get a full drain of the old if you were on a slope. Equally, don't check oil level on a slope. Lots of things will throw the amount filled (some cars' auto transmissions only drain about 60% of its oil by design, I had a CVT Audi like that). If the oil is up to the full marker after running for a few minutes then you're grand. If the oil is slightly discoloured from fresh, it means you had reasonable residual from the drain
Its also worth checking that you have the correct stick, if you bought it used it could have the wrong one. Look for a part number on the stick.
So wiht special thanks to @deezell for all the advice, we bought a brand new Mountfield 827H. It was delivered during the week, and we took it out today.
It looks amazing, but blows a lot of white smoke when started and more when moving, so we've had to stop.
The internet says it's mostly likely oil, and i could see how oil might havebeen spilled in the course of delivery. dipping the oil suggests it's a little too full.
Any advice? We can't use it as is, as it's polluting u the neighbourhood. the people we bought it from are closed on Saturdays
Do an "oil change" drain all the oil and leave a little longer than normal so you drain as much as possible. If you can measure how much oil was in the engine so you know how big the excess was. Then refil to the correct dipstick level and see how much you have left.
Brilliant - thank you
If its not massively over then post back as we can look into what it could be.
So we rang the seller, who advised running it for a while to burn off the oil that was causing the white smoke. that seemed to work, to be fair. We figured out how we needed to clear the grass output, as it had stopped collecting. We're probably making all kinds of rookie errors since this is our first ride-on lawnmower
But now the thing won't start at all. It's not dead when you turn the key - it makes a rattley noise - but the engine doesn't kick in
It's brand new, so surely it can't be the battery? The spark plug and all those things seem to be connected pretty well. We've topped it up with petrol (and yes, petrol was the right choice)
the seller, of course, closed at lunchtime :(
What are we missing?
Battery terminals probably need to be tightened. Pre sale prep seems to have been botched. These are often delivered sans oil, battery not installed.
If it won't start are you sure none of the safety mechanisms are engaged? Out of gear in neutral (or no pressure on the pedal) blades off, grass box on, sometimes brake on, someone sat on the seat?
@the
Thanks and yes, we've checked all those.
Will try the battery terminals, as @deezell suggested
The battery connectors (on the bottom left of the photo above) seem fine. there's this other thing (bottom centre) that looks designed to take two wires, but there's nothing there.
is that normal?
and apologies for what are certainly stupid questions ...
That's a charger port or an accessory port. If you don't have a meter, see if the instrument lights, If any, go off when you're keying. Clicking on starting is usually a poor connection, or a nearly flat battery, which loses continuity under the starter load, which releases the solenoid, then voltage rises again and solenoid closes again and so on. Check push on connectors in the battery, pull off and clean, they should be really tight. They really should be screw down for starter current. Does that mower come with a charger? Some smaller mowers don't have an alternator, so you have to keep it charged. If you've been starting it a lot then it might need a charge.
thanks soooo much, @deezell
We probably need to pick up a charger
There is no mention of needing to charge the battery between uses in the manual and the parts list for the engine indicates there is a "charge coil assembly" so while it could be a flat battery in regular use you should not need to charge the battery.
Don't pay the rediculus money for the genuine charger. Any half decent car battery charger will do the job. You know the one I recommend if you go back a few posts.
i think it is a flat battery. Turns out my other half left the key in the on position when it was in the shed for a day or two.
will pick up a charger, and start anew. Thanks all
don't mean to flog a dead horse - but if the board is faulty then would the lights on the dash light up? cause all of them do
What all the time or just when they are supposed to?
when suppose to
Then its working bar the bit that isn't :-) I'd keep looking elsewhere for the problem, cabling and switches.
There's no limit to the symptoms of any particular fault on a circuit board. A single dry solder joint may manifest as just one function failing, e.g, lights or buzzer or whatever, or it could take out the whole board if it occurred on a power rail. With a meter you trace the lack of signalling to the board from the grassbag full lever. Good practice to start in the middle, say at the board where the switch circuit comes in. If you're getting an open/close on the terminal, then something on the board is causing it. It should be easy to identify the buzzer pins, redo the solder on them, check there is some continuity on the buzzer. Theres a bit of logic circuitry between the buzzer and the full lever, but if the icon for bag full shows, then its only the buzzer or the circuit driving it that's at fault. This stuff is fiddly at best to fault find, especially without a detailed circuit diagram, but most times it's a bad connector, relay, or a dry solder joint before it's actually faulty hardware.
The only way to sort out if it is the main board is to trace back the cabling (the colour coding might help) and see where the connection is made on the main board. Once you have done that with that specific cable disconnected you can see if the light is still on or if it comes on when you short out the cable. If the light goes goes on and off along with the buzzer with the connections shorted and then not shorted or the other way around then the main board is fine.
If there is more than one connector block to the main board then removing them one at a time might help indicate which one is or is not connected to the grass full switch. - We are still on about the grass box full indicator?
yes, its just the 'box full buzzer' that's giving me gip - the mechanic i gave it to said its not the 'buzzer' its the board itself, and the simplistic thing to do is just replace the board
(maybe he doesn't want to spend time fault finding & diagnosing?)
