After taking an old (ie probably mid 60's) front tine tiller with an 3 HP B/S engine to a local dealer, and being told that the engine had no compression and therefore was nothing but scrap, a friend had her Dad bring his tiller to me. I checked it and sure enough, it had about 5 psi of compression. So I pulled the head, held my hand over the piston, spun the crank, and it sucked my hand down with it. This told me the rings were fine. Pulled the tank and carb, because it needed some attention too, pulled the valve spring cover, and checked the valve clearance. The intake was zero. Pulled the intake valve and sure enough it was nicely grooved all the way around. Checked and cleaned the seat and it was fine. Pulled the exhaust, and it was ungrooved so I just cleaned the valve and the seat, reinstalled it, and it was still clearanced to spec. So, all that was needed to fix the thing was a couple of parts. Bought a new intake valve, ground the stem for the correct clerance, and back together it went.
It cost me less than $20 to get the parts needed, and between checking compression, pulling the head and putting in a new valve, and getting it all back together, and pulling the carb off the tank to chase the threads and make sure it was tight enought not to leak, I've got less than an hour and a half into the project. So, for about $60 the customer will get his favorite old "junk" tiller back, with near new compression, and running better than it has in a long time.
Out of all the things I do, what I enjoy the most is bringing machines like this back to life, especially after someone else has told the owner that it's nothing but a piece of junk, and to throw it away ad buy something new. Like I told my wife, The way I see it, I'm just doing my part, even if it's just in one small way, one small, old engine at a time, to show my distain for not only dealers that are more intestered in selling a new piece of equipment than helping get a customers simple, older, and often favorite, machine operational for a FAIR price. Too, I also enjoy doing it as a way to basically thumb my nose at all of the governmental BS forcing even simple things like our push mowers to be as complicated nowdays as anything NASA launches into space.........The way I see it the stuff that's already 40 years old, with some TLC, will still be running in another 40 years when the plastic, electronic crap being made nowdays will already have been recycled, probably several times, into something else by then.
It cost me less than $20 to get the parts needed, and between checking compression, pulling the head and putting in a new valve, and getting it all back together, and pulling the carb off the tank to chase the threads and make sure it was tight enought not to leak, I've got less than an hour and a half into the project. So, for about $60 the customer will get his favorite old "junk" tiller back, with near new compression, and running better than it has in a long time.
Out of all the things I do, what I enjoy the most is bringing machines like this back to life, especially after someone else has told the owner that it's nothing but a piece of junk, and to throw it away ad buy something new. Like I told my wife, The way I see it, I'm just doing my part, even if it's just in one small way, one small, old engine at a time, to show my distain for not only dealers that are more intestered in selling a new piece of equipment than helping get a customers simple, older, and often favorite, machine operational for a FAIR price. Too, I also enjoy doing it as a way to basically thumb my nose at all of the governmental BS forcing even simple things like our push mowers to be as complicated nowdays as anything NASA launches into space.........The way I see it the stuff that's already 40 years old, with some TLC, will still be running in another 40 years when the plastic, electronic crap being made nowdays will already have been recycled, probably several times, into something else by then.
