For the vintage Lawn-Boy fans

[rickr]

I bought this 1976 Lawn-Boy mower used in 1979. It was taken out of service about 10 years ago. I just had it rebuilt, and traded in the 1980's Lawn-Boy I was using.

It is great to have this old mower back in service again! I love the "D" engines.

Between this 1976 self propelled model #8233, and my 1963 Lawn-Boy Automower that was rebuilt in 2006, I should be set for quite a while!

 

[rickr]

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Another shot

 

[goatfarmer]

Beautiful, Rick!

 

[danemodsandy]

Question:

Do Lawn-Boys have a cast-magnesium deck assembly, like Craftsman did for a while? I'm getting a little tired of sheet-steel decks rusting. The alternative, a plastic deck, is not terribly safe, as I found when a rock pierced the housing of a Black & Decker electric mower I had for a while.

The magnesium housing of our Craftsman when I was growing up was the one trouble-free aspect of the mower.

 

[rickr]

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nother..

 

[rickr]

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How much did it cost? Not that much, with the trade in...

This guy rebuilds everything. Gaskets, seals, carb, engine, self propelled system, and repaints the factory colours.

 

[rickr]

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Yes, the early Lawn-Boy mowers are magnesium, they switched to aluminum in the 1980's. Now they are Toro-Boys, and I think the new ones are steel. (because the are simply a green Toro mower now)

Here is my other Lawn-Boy mower. The 1963 Automower.

 

[abcomatic]

Great mowers. I wish I still had my 2cycle mower.
My dad, when I was a kid, had a Lawnboy Iron Horse mower. It was small but great for edging. Gary

 

[petek]

I love it... $140 for the works including painting... wow

 

[arbilab]

We got this one in 1957. Note the sprung leading wheel they soon abandoned. Not sure it really did anything. Ours was fussy to start.

 

[norgeway]

To Me!

NOTHING compares with an old Lawn Boy, My Dad bought his first one in 65, the summer before I was born, thats all he ever had afterwards.

 

[philr]

Arbilab,

 

Do you still have the '57?

I never really catched why they brought the sprung leading wheel on some of the 1957 and 1958 and later gold Lawn Boys. I have a Gold 18" Deluxe which isn't self-propelled and it works great but I never understood why they had the sprung wheel. Seems useless to me!

 

I used to have 2 19" 1976 solid state mowers that I gave to a friend two years ago and I have a 21" self-propelled (non solid state) that I got from Firedome). I had trouble with the solid states mowers as they both needed coils but my friend was able to locate two for cheap...

 

Today, I went to see my aunt's 5024 19" bricktop that wouldn't start and it had another kind of problem. The engine block is cracked and the cylinder no longer mates to it...

 

[arbilab]

Do I still have the 57?

Oh my no. That pic was off the net. Our handle was different but the deck and motor identical. Best I can say about the critter, it came apart easily. Good mechanical learning experience for a 12yo. Worst I can say, it came apart often because it wouldn't start otherwise. Mostly I could fix it. If not, it went to the shop which never really solved the problem because it always came back.

I've had Briggs since then that always started in 3 pulls. I also had a gokart with Clinton A400 and Power Products 2-strokes, nowhere near as cantankerous.

Oh, one other thing good about Lawnboys, the smell reminded one of water skiing.

 

[danemodsandy]

Most Cantankerous Mowers:

I still have very painful memories of the 1960's Craftsman mower we had for a while. It was one of those with a crank on top instead of a pull cord. It often took more than 100 tries to start. It went back to Sears Repair many times, always producing a bill and never producing an improvement in its behavior.

 

[philr]

Mine starts at the first pull every time (or almost!).
 
 
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[arbilab]

often took more than 100 tries to start. It went back to Sea

Yep, that's what the 5100 did. Just lemons?

 

[tolivac]

I used to have a Lawn Boy mower similar to the one in Rickrs picture.It took several pulls to get it going-but once it was going--GRASS WATCH OUT!!That thing cut really nice-it was a blade brake clutch model.Didn't use the grass catcher-used the mulch plate or the side discharge.Now I wished I still had that mower-you had to mix the gas and oil.Not a big deal.I am not a fan of plastic decks either--the soil here is abrasive-and I wore a BD electric mowers deck out.So far one of the cordless ones I have is holding up.I also have a Toro cordless mower-it has a metal deck.It doesn't work as well as the BD-the Toros blade needs more "lift" the blade doesn't have lift sails on the ends.Just sort of flat.Another thing on the LB mowers-the fuel oil mixture made sort of a nice smell while it burned in the motor!