Well, I had the original engine running, but it seemed to rev too high and sparks were shooting out the muffler!! The wear pattern on the back side of the blade tells me this was used in an area with sand and maybe the sand has affected the engine.
After going through some of my spare engines, I found a 3.5hp Briggs Classic engine that had the correct length crank and slot cut for the Snapper woodruff key. The engine is a model 95902 from a 1992 Land Mark brand (never heard of that one) mower I rescued and scrapped except for the engine. That was the only one of the half dozen or so Briggs/Tec engines I have to have a woodruff slot cut. That shaft had 2 woodruff key slots and a 3/16 inch key way. Most of the rest only had the 3/16 inch key way but were also too short. The Lawnboy Tec engine was tapered the same as a 2 stroke engine, but the crank was too short.
Anyway, after cleaning the carb, the new (to me) engine fired right up. Yeaaaah, now I can try picking up some leaves with this thing. Wow, do these Snappers ever pick up stuff. The lawn looked like it had been vacuumed. That was with the factory Snapper blade with the 3/8 hole type 2 mount. I don`t know if it`s the metal rear guard, but the Snapper sure does leave nice lines in the lawn which is great if you like cutting patterns! So when the lawn is cut there are definite visible lines unlike my Lawnboy C21CPN where the lawn looks more like an almost un-patterned carpet. The only small complaint I have about the Snapper is the wide tires with course tread tend to push the grass down and keep it there unlike the bald narrower Lawnboy wheels which tend to slice through the lawn. That`s my only concern and won`t stop me from using this fine mower. I also want to note I didn`t notice any uncut blades of grass as I`ve seen with many 4 stroke mowers and specifically some Craftsman products I`ve tried.
Now I just need to find a Robin engine and I`ll be in 2 stroke heaven!
