Repairing/reselling power equipment

Anyone here ever had success with repairing old generators, lawnmowers, snow-blowers, gas powered chainsaws, etc. and then reselling them? I currently have 2 gas powered chainsaws, a lawnmower and a small generator. All were found in the trash in my neighborhood and tested for proper operation, the lawnmower and chainsaws run, but run rough, the generator runs good but isn't putting out any juice at the present. I plan to try fixing these up first before turning them in for scrap if I can't repair them on the cheap and then resell them for a profit.

if the mower and chainsaw are old ones, you'll probably need to pull the flywheel, and file and adjust the points, or maybe replace them

sometimes even just a new plug will solve that

I sell gas powered and some electric man tools to a small motor repair shop near me...Working or not. He's fair with prices enough to leave us both a little profit.

Spare parts are spare parts.

I sell riding mowers when i get them, Get them running, wash them and clean off all grease/crud.
Easy couple hundred bucks

I've had good luck selling the '80's and older garden tractors for around $200. Complete but not running. The easiest money I've made. They always sell 1 or 2 days after I list them, too.
There isn't as much interest in a good running refurbished push mower though, so I just scrap those.

Just never scrapp toro push mowers..american made..cheap ones that u buy at menards are made in mexico..real ones are worth decent money to a repairman..the real ones are superb..cutting blades made in germany n assembled here in the usa..supposely german steel is top of the line..we do biz w toro n thats what ive heard,just passing it,along

Toro huh? We have several small engine repair shops around town. Thanks scrappy! I think I'll have to make a few calls next week and see what I can find out. Who knows, maybe they'll take some others too. That'll be less time spent stripping them down. Even at say $10/piece I'd be money ahead.

I sell all working mowers to a guy..snowblowers are great too..ive only scrapped 2 mowers,before I found my connects...most ive got is 40, but a guy on here said he got 60 for a non working toro sbowblower..hold onto em till u get a buyer..toro is worth cash as others but thats what I look out for

I've had good luck selling non-running riding mower's on CL by parting them out. Usually get $20.00 for each tire if it's not dry rotted, $50.00 for good motor, $20.00 for a good seat, $25.00 deck, etc................

Many years ago my cousin and I used to buy non-running or poorly running dirt bikes and mopeds and then rebuild the motors. If it was in bad shape, we would take the motor apart and have a machine shop bore it out.. and then we would resell the bike in the newspaper and make a few bucks profit.

So I figure that if you know small engine repair.. or want to get into it, then this might be a profitable venture.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Big Tex

I've had good luck selling non-running riding mower's on CL by parting them out. Usually get $20.00 for each tire if it's not dry rotted, $50.00 for good motor, $20.00 for a good seat, $25.00 deck, etc................

---

craigslist must be hittin where you live, i love craigslist!

I used to give lawnmowers to my sister in laws dad to fix up, thats what he does. I picked one up that made a "popping" noise when pulled...come to find out the rocker arm came loose and fell off the valves...5 minute fix and it fired on the second pull...its a self propelled Snapper with a bag...clean as hell too...coulda sold it for some nice change, but decided to keep it and use it on my yard. Other than that I have a few weedeaters in my garage, a chainsaw, and two other mowers...It's to the point now the mowers I get are usually toast so I scrap them out and save her old man some of the parts...carbs and such.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Bear

if the mower and chainsaw are old ones, you'll probably need to pull the flywheel, and file and adjust the points, or maybe replace them

sometimes even just a new plug will solve that

---

Sometimes, what happens here, is. Pulling the flywheel will fix it!

What actually happens is, I'm using the lawnmower, I hit something & stall it, it never runs right after that.
Or, I hit something & it slows the engine down a lot & it never runs right after that. Or, it runs, but next time dosn't run right, or runs bad when the fuels low.

OK, Confused? I hit something & the blade stopped going around, the flywheel, 'couse its heavy, wants to keep going, but the stupid little 'woodruff key' (I don't like them...) stops it spinning on the shaft.
So the flywheel moves around a little, that mucks up the timing, the mower never runs right after that.

Take the flywheel off, actually just loosen the nut, give the flywheel a wiggle so its sitting in the middle of the 'slack' that the woodruff key gives it, tighten it up a bit, start it up.

Or pull the flywheel and replace the key with a new straight one, like you said, after you've hit something it'll sometime bend the key bad. Putting in a new key should put the timing back.

i picked a mtd front tine tiller at the dump guy pulled up beside me and sat it down so i asked about it he said the pull start was broke so he wrapped the cord around it to start got tired of it so bought a new tiller on the truck it went called about a new housing just the top with the spring and pull was $35 and you had to drill and rivit to new one on i had scraped some mowers torn down completely but saved some mufflers and pull starts and such so 10 minutes later i had the tiller fixed and running used it this spring and sold on CL for $150 so save some wheels used on other mowers and different things if its a good part save it blades look at new cost mufflers maybe a throttle cable or 2 could pay off

Got given a lovely lawnmower the other day by a friend. It was damaged by flooding from last year's hurricane Irene. Which annoys me greatly cause I need a working lawnmower. lol. It's quite a good mower to from what she said, high dollar push mower. It's times like this I wish I knew how to work on small motors an such.

Looked into repairing it on my own but I got a feeling I'd be better off buying a new one. Pains me cause it is a rather nice mower..you know..if it ran.

Guess it'll go to the yard once I do a final check to see if someone wants to buy it an repair or if any repair places want it for parts. This makes me sad. :(

Sirscrapalot - Has a lawn that needs mowed on a sandbar.