Will it damage a lawn mower engine if I start it with no blade installed?
INV772 asked:
I have a lawn mower I picked up on the side of the road for free. Looks like its almost brand new and they said it ran but I’m afraid to start it with no blade installed. Could it possibly damage the engine if I did?
This entry was posted
on Sunday, January 25th, 2009 at 12:00 am and is filed under Maintenance & Repairs.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
I have a lawn mower I picked up on the side of the road for free. Looks like its almost brand new and they said it ran but I’m afraid to start it with no blade installed. Could it possibly damage the engine if I did?
January 27th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
not at all.
January 29th, 2009 at 8:00 am
when i buld engine i don,t have the blade on. so go ahead and started it up.
January 30th, 2009 at 7:49 am
You can run it without a blade. What would damage a engine is a blade that is badly off balance.
January 31st, 2009 at 12:34 am
You can start it to see if it runs, but don’t run it long without a blade. It may overspeed but I would be more concerned about the crankshaft balance provided by the blade. The blade acts as a harmonic balancer when it is installed.
February 1st, 2009 at 1:42 am
Hmm, no, you probably can’t hurt it. You probably won’t be able to get it running at all. The flywheel on push mowers is just aluminum, they use the blade to provide the inertia to keep the motor spinning on the compression stroke. An engine that is designed to run no-load will have a cast iron flywheel, to provide inertia.
February 1st, 2009 at 3:15 am
yes, it will. The engine is balanced with the blade on it. IF you run without the blade, the engine will (could) vibrate itself to pieces.
February 2nd, 2009 at 2:04 pm
you need a blade on it to start. the blade is the balance for the engine