Owning a lawn edger is like owning a car. To keep it running smoothly, periodically you need to perform maintenance on it to keep it operating the way you want. Here are the maintenance steps you need to take to keep your McLane edger with Briggs & Stratton engine in good working condition.
1. Oil - When you first purchase your lawn edger, you will probably need to fill it with oil (about 2/3rds of a quart). McLane edgers are not shipped with oil in them and running the motor before you fill the edger with oil can ruin the motor. Use a synthetic 5W-30 or 10W-30 grade motor oil. After the first 5-8 hours of operation, you will want to empty and replace the oil. After that, you should normally only need to replace the oil after every 50 hours of operation. I personally like to replace my edger's oil at the start of every mowing/edging season.
2. Air Filter - McLane edgers can come with two types of filters - either an oval filter or a rectangular-shaped filter with a pre-cleaner pad. If it uses an oval filter, you will need to clean and/or replace your edger's air filter every 25 hours. If your lawn is extremely dry and dusty, you will probably want to check your air filter more frequently than that. If it uses a rectangular filter with a pre-cleaner, you will want to check and either clean or replace the pre-cleaner after each 25 hours of operation. You can easily clean the pre-cleaner with water and liquid detergent. Make sure it is completely dry before you put it back on your edger. You won't need to replace the rectangular filter until after 100 hours of operation. However, when I check the pre-cleaner after 25 hours of operation, I also take out the rectangular filter and hit it against my other hand to remove some of the dust that it will have collected.
3. Grease - McLane edgers have two grease fittings on the cutter head body. You will want to add grease to these two fittings twice a mowing season. I recommend doing it first at the start of the season and the second time halfway through the season. Use #2 multi-purpose grease in your grease gun.
4. Spark Plug - At the start of the mowing/edging season, remove your edger's spark plug and check its condition. After that, check it after every 50 hours of edger operation. After 100 hours of operation, you will want to replace the spark plug. Be sure and check the spark plug's gap using a gap gauge (the correct gap is .30" (0.76mm)) before you reinstall your old plug or install a new plug.
5. Blade - At the start of the season, check the condition of your edger's cutter blade. If it is worn down, replace it with a new blade.
6. General Maintenance - Several times during the season, do the following things: (1) check and tighten all bolts and screws on your edger - especially the cutterhead pulley guard, the blade guard, and the blade mounting nut (which undergo a lot of vibration during the operation of the edger); (2) inspect the pulley belt to make sure it is not showing excessive wear or deterioration (if so, replace it); and (3) lubricate the edger's front axle & wheels (e.g., using 3-in-1 oil or a spray lubricant).
Performing these maintenance steps will help keep your edger in good working condition for many mowing/edging seasons!
For more information on lawn edgers, you will want to check out this article on lawn edging.
iAutoblog the premier autoblogger software
No comments:
Post a Comment