Spring is Coming…Is Your Small Engine Ready?

Do you know why you need to look at giving your small engines a tune up now vs. in the spring? It’s simple …convenience, and time. If you take your lawn mower into a small engine mechanic in the spring you will be fighting the hoards of other procrastinators.  Taking it in now, you won’t have to worry about how long it takes, because most areas that experience any kind of winter are not usually using their equipment that have small engines unless it is attached to their snowblower. If that is the case, you might want to hold off until a later date. 

What to Expect with a Tune up

Why would you take your small engine into a specialist for a tune up? Most people do it because it saves them the time of doing it themselves. I was raised around mechanics and have a pretty good grasp on how to perform a tune up.  I simply don’t want to take the time to do it myself. For the convenience of not doing it myself, it frees up time that I can spend doing what I want. 

What should you look at when doing a tune up your lawn mower:

• Scrap the deck–You need to drain all the fuel and disconnect the spark plug. Then tilt the mower up and use a putty knife to remove the grass clippings from the underside of the mower.
• Sharpen the blade–When you have the mower up after you scrape the deck you can remove the blade and sharpen it. I would recommend letting a professional do this unless you have the proper tools to sharpen your blade. The blade needs to be balanced when it is on the mower, or it could cause damage to you lawn mower.
• Service the air filter–Most mowers only need to replace their air filter once a year, but if you use your mower more than normal or in a high dust environment, you might want to look at replacing it more often.
• Check your spark plug–Depending on the amount of hours you operate your mower, you should only need to replace the plug once a year. If you use your mower more than 100 hours a year you should look at replacing it more often than annually.
• Check the oil–use this time to check your oil level and if your mower has been used more than one season or 50 hours, then you should change the oil too.

Choose a local Small Engine Repair Shop

This list isn’t all that you have to do but it is a good guideline to follow when you are looking at a tune up.  Like me, I’d rather just take it to a small engine mechanic to do this service. Now is the time to think about it too, because if you wait until the tulips are coming up you are now fighting the crowds other procrastinators. Call your local small engine repair shop at Legacy Feed & Fuel today!