Well, after 6 hours, a case a beer, new fuel line, flushed tank, rebuilt carb, new solenoid, new switch/key, oil change, fixing the neutral safety switch, and adjusting the points, she purrs like a kitten!
My friend came over last night to help work on the new toy and boy did we have a night ahead of us. A couple highlights; when it originally stopped cranking when you would turn the switch, I had figured it to be solenoid or switch (after checking basic wiring, except the safety switch but more on that in a minute). I bought both and figured on taking back the one I didn't use. Replaced the switch: nothing. Replaced the solenoid: nothing. Hmm...we ended up coming to OCC and checking a wire diagram. My friend happens to be an electrical engineer so he made quick sense of it. After piddling with the stupid thing for literally hours, I reached under and plugged a loose safety switch connection back in and boom, she cranked over. Doh!
Another highlight, once we got it started, it would idle alright but sputtered and puked when I gave it throttle. After checking various things, we ended figuring out someone had put new points on it, but never gaped them
We worked on adjusting them and finally got it right. So, me being the curious fellow I am, hooked the deck back up and took it out. The deck that I was told killed it ended up mowing half of my front yard at 1 in the morning
So, overall, I'm very happy with the 1450. I'm much more impressed with the Quietline series than I thought I was going to be. Runs smooth, very little vibration, responsive, and doesn't look half bad to boot. Sorry for rambling, just felt like sharing the good news!
