B&S 3HP lawn mower engine kick back like a mule

Hi All,


Let me introduce myself; I am Jan and recently I stumbled upon a push lawn mower with a 3HP B&S engine from the 94500 series. Alltough it appears the engine is from somewhere the mid eighties and the mower itself is in a kinda 'used'shape. it ran like a charm.
so I decided to do a little tidy up on the mower.
I am not an experienced petrol head but i am not afraid to do some service on project like this.

I intended to clean the engine and the mower, maybe do some paint work, bust most important : the blade needed to be sharpenend since it was blunt like a brick.

So i tried to remove the blade with my impact wrench and immediatley learnend a very important lesson : "you can not tilt the engine in any direction". so i ended up with a carbutor and airfilter full of engine oil (including black pavement...)

I removed the airfilter pulled the cord and  luckily the engine started, coughing like an old man, spitting out smoke like an old MIG jet.
So i decided to take the carbutor and airfilter apart and clean everything thourougly.
I drainded the oil and succeeded finally in removing the blade to sharpen it.

But when i had put everything back togehter and tried to start the engine, the engine wouldnt start.
Instead  it produced a giant kickback. it felt like almost ripping my arm off. After several pulls the kickback even snapped the pullchord.

Reading about this kickback i checked the flywheel key, and it looks fine, in fact it is perfectly lined. I also read something about the plastic camshaft possible being damaged, but i am wondering if a broken camshaf can cause a backfire.

Don know if it can make a difference: i tried to start the engine without the blade attached.

So has anyone else ever experienced something similar?
 
Thnx for your help in advance
 
 
 
 

model 94502
type 5911-01
code 83030708

Did you reinstall the blade and torque the bolt to spec before trying to start it?

It also has to do with changing load conditions, a heavy flywheel equipped engine cannot respond as quickly.  A bbc equipped mower has to really work to get the blade moving and is sluggish when in heavy grass.

Hi All,
 
it's been a while, but this weekend I put my mover back together and this time mounted the blade.
It started within 3 pulls without any issue or kickback.
 
So a mounted blad indeed is mandatory.
 
thnx for your advice.
 
cheers

Always good to know the solution to a problem. Not only for those giving the suggestions but for someone else who has a problem and happens to see what looks like the problem they are having.
 
Also it is very important to give as detailed information up front in first post. Way to often on many forums I participate in some detail is left out that causes those helping to struggle sometimes for days to come up with an answer where if given the full story in the first post the answer would have been in the first reply.