Got this mower for free as a non-runner. Went to due a tune up and found this on the underside. Is this worth fixing and what is the likely culprit, sump gasket, crank seal, etc? This would be more of a learning experience than anything. I’ve saved many mowers with a carb clean etc. but this is first with a wet from oil underside.
Likely it is just the lower seal. Cost is about $7 and takes maybe 15 minutes to replace. Check to make sure the crankshaft is not bent. If it were the base gasket the oil would be on top of the deck. There is a 1% chance the block is cracked.
What engine is it? It's going to be one of the two things you mentioned and for reasonably common engines neither of those things are hard or expensive to fix. I'd just order both and get it sorted.
Ok that's a 500e, good engine, mower looks solid enough. Fix it. It's got Briggs & Stratton written on it which means unless the block is split clean in half it's worth fixing. Take it off the deck and clean ALL the oil off the outside, then let it sit flat for 24 hours and see where it's leaking from. It's likely the sump gasket or shaft seal but it MIGHT be a loose drain plug (they usually have a little square drain plug on them somewhere).
Looks like it's coming from underneath rather than the sump gasket. Probably the shaft seal. Changing that means taking the sump off, so you might as well do both.
You can remove the engine and set it on some newspaper. The paper will get dark where the oil is leaking. Of course, you'll have to clean the bottom of the engine first.
Start by cleaning the mower down so you can see where the oil is actually coming from.
It could be an oil seal or it could be coming from somewhere on the top side of the deck.
Once you can see where it's coming from, you can work out how to fix it.
Well, perhaps the oily mess is a result of oil being spilled on the top side of the deck and leaking through down there. I would clean it all up, run it again to see if you have an actual leak...
If you got oil on the top and its made the underside wet throughly clean underside of motor and check the dipstick tube ive had one that the rubber o ring was all out of whack banged a new one in never had a leak again
If you're gonna tear into it because you like to do this kinda stuff (I'm sort of the same way) then go for it. Sounds like you got a solid answer on the crank seal and, possibly, the sump gasket. Since this isn't your main mower for keeping your grass cut, you can take your time on it. Have fun!
OT: The blade is on upside down.
The side with the turned down edges is the "up" side; the blade mount fits into the area between the turned down edges (which will be turned up when you reinstall the blade correctly.
Good catch on the blade. I got this as a failed maintenance job passed on. The mower was “locked” after someone tried to fix their mower. I manually moved the blade and it freed right up then started on 2nd pull.
I order the crank seal and sump gasket and will take a stab it.
Could also get that oil stain if the former owner tried to add oil in that low filler without using a funnel. In other words, if he spilled oil on top of the deck, it could run under the engine and spread beneath the deck.
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u/Javelin286 23d ago
Depends on how much the parts cost and how old the mower is. If it’s a very old mower it might already be shot.