Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

Hi - having a real issue with the TORO this morning. Makes a weird grinding sound when trying to start it. Won't catch, not even with electrical start. Have used it only once this winter, had to use the cord to get it started but worked fine, now seems dead. Any ideas?

Any chance someone put straight gas in it and forgot to mix oil with it?

No, oil was mixed with the gas so no worries there. We got it going for a bit with the electric starter and yanking the cord, but died again.

   Check to see if the auger is turning when you try to start it.

The only things moving when you use the pull rope are:

Starter recoil assembly, flywheel and engine internals.

If the starter is not fully retracting it could be making noise with the flywheel teeth.

There could be parts of a mouse nest somewhere under the hood.

When a machine does not start you listen more versus one or two pulls and the thing starts so you don’t get familiar with the base sound…..you start to hear more.  ?

When you got it started did the sounds increased, decreased, gone?  

Since you got it started even with the sounds it did not run for long.   So hard starting, and won’t run after starting.  Is the gas new, couple of months, or last years?  It could be a dirty carb or restricted gas and a number of other things.  You could start by taking off the bowl nut and draining the gas in the bowl into a very clean cup and see what you have, particles, blob at the bottom indicating water & etc.

 If the gas is stale you could drain the tank through the bowl and fill with new gas. 

How did you take care of storage for the last few seasons? 

The blades were not moving with the grinding sound. When we got it started the sound was gone entirely. Gas is a few months old. Storage has always been in the garage with gas run out of it. We'll have to bleed it and see what is what.

was it grinding when you used the electric starter?  If so you have a problem with the starter gear engaging the flywheel.  could just be a dirty/greasy bendix.