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With the spring season creeping upon us (some a little slower than others) I wanted to address a few maintenance issues you can tackle to get your equipment up and running smoothly after the snow melts. This week I will write up some repair/maintenance tips that are common for the start of the season.

The benefits of maintenance 

Your small engine equipment was a sizeable investment. Each piece easily costing anywhere from $100 to $15,000. It’s probably a good idea to invest in periodic servicing and preventive maintenance of your small engine. Replacing an engine every couple of years is expensive and probably not the best business decision. You could always try the old wait-until-it-breaks repair mentality but maintaining your equipment may offer more advantages.

• Service schedules: having a routine maintenance program will give you the confidence that your equipment will be ready when you need to use it.
• Preventive maintenance: will give you the opportunity to head-off maintenance issues before they become catastrophic. You will be able to see potential problems before they occur.
• Time and money: you can perform a number of services at once which will save you time and money. Purchase the needed service parts to tune, sharpen, and fix whatever you can at one time. That way you only remove compnents once.

How and when

Equipment owner’s manuals will tell you about the service needs of your equipment. Things such as what oil, spark plug(s), filter(s), and belt(s) to use and when to change them will be listed. More complicated tasks such as valve timing and adjustment, governor adjustment, and carburetor rebuilding will be listed in shop manuals that usually have to be purchased separate from the equipment.

As I said, this week I will try and address some of the more common engine issues that you or your technician can work on to make sure your equipment is ready to go when you are.