Winterizing Mowers.

kok328 · 10-27-2009, 09:16 AM

Just put mine up yesterday. I drained the gas tank by removing the gas line. I then removed the float bowl to find even more gas in the bowl. This is where the gumming of the gas can really screw things up. However, my mower came with a little container of stabil that you attach to the gas cap and it releases a drip every once in awhile to treat the gas through the winter months. This is fine but, you have to stabilize the fuel in the float bowl too. Add some stabil to the gas and then run the mower to get the treatment into the areas that count the most.
If you not sure of the moisture in the area that your storing your mower, you can use the old oil from the oil change and apply that to the underside of the mower deck to retart rusting. Now my focus is on getting the snowblower ready - I'm not looking forward to winter at all. Just another reason to leave MI.

woodchuck · 10-27-2009, 09:57 AM

I know that I don't have the hard winters that some of you do but I continue to use my lawn mower into January for blowing leaves out of the yard so I don't do anything with it. I actually use my ATV's more in the winter so I don't winterize them. I just make sure I have antifreeze in the tractor because I use it during the winter also. I have had trouble with the generator but not because of winter. It sits for months at a time and recently gas started leaking from the carb overflow. Crud had built up on the needle valve in the carb bowl and started leaking. I cleaned it out and ran all the gas out of the carb. The gas was treated with stabil but I'm not positive it was in the gas in the carb. It would be nice to know for sure if it will protect the carb and hoses.

racsan · 12-28-2009, 12:07 AM

i use stabilizer in the fuel for the last 2 mowings, and when its ran for the last time i spray fogging oil down the carb until its smoking real good or stalls out, change the oil, sharpen blade, clean the deck undernath and spray down with WD-40. service the foam air cleaner element, take out the spark plug, turn the engine to top dead center, spray fogging oil into clyinder until coming out the top. put the plug back in and top off the fuel tank with stabilized fuel. come spring i take out the plug and spin the motor over a few times to blow out any excess oil, put in a new plug and its good to go. ive seen many problems due to not putting things up properly, its well worth the time to maintain equipment. the first fire-up is a smoky one, but it sits 6 months out of the year and for a 1985 briggs mower, its still as good as new operationel wise. i rarely have to do anything but add fuel during the summer when the mower is in use.