Farewell Briggs&Stratton

[Wayne M.]

I’d have twin stacks and rain caps on that sucka.

Real Donaldson air cleaner. Hmm

 

[EDankievitch]

Remember those crank spring starters B@S had for a few years? Wind up a large spring set the choke an let it rip. On a good day they’d start first time when new....

 

[TFucili]

If/when the starter clutch froze up, those wind up starters made things much more "interesting" than sucking the rope in on a recoil starter.

 

[EDankievitch]

They sure did! Lol

 

[Tuesdak]

Recoil repair? Some tools from my archive. From left: flywheel holder, starter clutch tool, fixture to hold the blower housing, winder for the pulley, and governor adjusting tool to bend the tabs to hold the pulley.

View attachment 122941

I repaired the ropes and broken springs the hard way: without special tools. Dad brought home a go cart with a shot Tecumseh engine on it. Then drug home some worn out B&S engines for it. Got them running but they smoked badly. A Jacobson aluminum desk lawnmower was also drug home.

One Xmas a new engine was drug home for the go cart. It had the flint stone carb and it would like to come loose from the engine. What a PIA that 2nd bolt was to get to.

I moonlighted part time in small engine repair and ran my own lawn care business for a few years. That wore out the B&S engines of mine quick!

Some tools and now I use an optical tach to set engine RPM. Tool to lap the valves, ring compressor, and vibrating reed tachometer. The valve spring compressor was used on something else not intended for and is no longer with us. Spark tester and feeler gauges are somewhere else.

The last two B&S engines I owned was a 2004 OHV rototiller that would smoke good when you worked it hard and a 5HP chipper for a clean up project that used oil without smoking. Cleaned up a yard for a Disabled Veteran before the damned town condemned the property. The number of these "weed" trees growing in it was impressive. The engine was working so hard it tried to commit suicide by eating an air cleaner bolt. It just jammed the throttle open however.

 

[endoscott]

We had one of those super duper Samsung water saver washers die at 5 yrs and 3 days. Just after the service agreement expired.Loud sucker and took an hour to do a load. I went and bought a Speed Queen with manual controls while I could. The salesguy said the touch screens were going to replace the manual knobs soon. This thing will outlast me.

Dont be TOO sure about that! When our 30 year old Maytag failed we got the Speed Queen too. Right around 5 years water coming out the bottom. Pulled the front off and the whole wash drum was rusted out. They had some problems with porcelain peeling off. To their credit they sent me a new one and also the special tools necessary for the install. I hired it out tho. lazy in my old age. It was NOT super easy and I helped him (Youtube was good). Hope it doesn't happen again. Otherwise we love the Speed Queen.

 

[Wayne M.]

I was gung ho on the Speed Queen too, but it didn’t pass the sniff test with the better half. Too industrial, not enough settings etc. So I rolled the dice on a US made Whirlpool. We’re about 6+ years in and other than the door switch needing a re-slam now and again, it’s been flawless. I will be looking and hoping this variant is still available and as good.

 

[Wayne M.]

Tuesdak, in that drawer, you have “something that’s different from the rest” in there- The old GM ALDL code key. It’s been a long time since I saw one of those! I can just see the check engine light flashing right now, and hearing a MC solenoid clicking away.

 

[jgillott]

Tuesdak, in that drawer, you have “something that’s different from the rest” in there- The old GM ALDL code key. It’s been a long time since I saw one of those! I can just see the check engine light flashing right now, and hearing a MC solenoid clicking away.

Sure beats using a paperclip.

 

[HEMI®Dart]

Does it seem like Tecumseh is still the engine used for Snow blowers?? In other words manufactures lean towards using Tecumseh vs. other makes??

 

[TFucili]

Does it seem like Tecumseh is still the engine used for Snow blowers?? In other words manufactures lean towards using Tecumseh vs. other makes??

They were basically the first to build a dedicated snow blower engine, and it sorta stuck. Honda has their own. Ariens has their own. So I guess they get the rest.

 

[EDankievitch]

Right up until tecumseh went bust. They had the snowblower market. Briggs made a bunch afterwards. Who knows who will be supplying them after current inventory runs out.

 

[Wayne M.]

I didn’t think tecumseh was still around?

 

[Wayne M.]

I caught this the other day. Someone bought B&S up.

https://www.rermag.com/mergers-acqu...da|8039H3560389G4C&oly_enc_id=8039H3560389G4C

 

[TFucili]

It's been a while, but I thought they were using the Lauson name that was always hanging in the background.