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| Hi,
I bought a Toro 20331 Recycler in Aug 2009. The mower has about 10-15 mowing sessions on it. I am as experienced as my mower so you can probably guess my problems :) Biggest problem: Lumps of mulch all over the yard along with tire marks which makes it look ugly. Things I might be doing wrong
Questions:
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Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by chesapeakebeach (My Page) on Tue, Apr 20, 10 at 12:03
| My guesses: you're mowing grass that's too wet, the underside of your deck is clogged with caked-on grass (remove spark plug wire, turn the mower on its side so the air filter is up and hose/scrape under the deck until relatively clean, re-attach spark plug wire), grass is too tall/you're not mowing often enough. Side discharge should spray out grass in a steady cloud. Rear cutting height adjustment tabs/levers should look very similar to front ones. |
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| Thanks for the reply. Well, the grass is wet for sure since there is quite a bit of caked-on mulch under the deck. I clean it after every session. The problem is that the grass looks dry when I touch it. Lately the rains have been coming within 2-3 days so the grass grows lot faster and probably not enough time for it to dry completely. I couldn't find any lever that looks similar to the front ones. May be there isn't one. Someone who has a similar model can help here. Meanwhile I will look again. I tried side discharge last week. That was little better but still there were like big layers of grass clippings around my yard. Good thing, my mower didn't stop 10 times while mowing :) I surely need to use the bag next time or else my grass will mess up big time. I am now mowing once a week. The oil is black but still at the level indicated on the dipstick. Is that an indication of a problem? Thanks. |
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| Change the oil and use SAE30HD. You can find it at Wal Mart, etc., by Quaker State (green quart bottle) and others. The mower takes 20 oz, not a whole quart. You just remove the dipstick after a hot run, turn the mower up on it's wheels with the air filter up and dump the oil into a pan of some kind. Set it down on it's wheels and put 20 oz in and replace the dipstick. Put a new air filter in it and get the blade sharpened or replaced. You need to find how to adjust the rear wheel height - it's probably too low in the back which is causing your problems. Do you have the owner's manual? It'll be in there with lots of other good info. |
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| I am thinking your grass is too wet and you are not cutting often enough. You only want to take off the top third with a maximum clipping length of about 1". If the machine is nose high you will also not get optimum results. If anything, try it with the nose one notch lower than the rear. |
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| It's trying to cut, chop and drop too much grass at one time. Try setting the mnower at the highest setting, walking slower and not cutting a full swath of grass at one time. |
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- Posted by chesapeakebeach (My Page) on Mon, Apr 26, 10 at 11:07
| Did you ever find the rear wheel height adjustment tabs? The pic at the attached link shows the tabs on a Toro high wheel (model 20016) which is likely to be similar to yours. The adjustment tab is the black thing pointing to the rear and the adjustment positions are the small notches and indentations.
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Here is a link that might be useful: Toro mower wheel height adjustment tab
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| Thank you everyone. All of your advises were helpful. I haven't changed the oil yet since it stopped smoking. I found the rear wheel lever. It was at lowest height and hence was camouflaged to the black plastic, which is why I couldn't clearly see. Being new I was kinda hesitant to touch anything. After some exploration and some close looking I found it. I adjusted the height one less than max, attached a bag to collect the wet grass and it was a breeze. Me and my front lawn both were looking happy in the end :) Today I plan to do the back yard. Hope that goes well. Dharmesh |
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- Posted by Joe(mark8738@gmail.com) onMon, May 9, 11 at 6:12
| i have also had a problem with lumps of mulching. It happens to me even when the grass is not wet. i have the wheels at the highest level and i cut the grass once a week. when i cut the grass, it is usually pretty tall. under these condictions, the mower stop and makes a noise. the strange thing is that when i attach the bag, the mower works fine--no lumps, no stopping, and no noise. i would prefer to mulch without any of the 3 problems (lumps, stops, noise). does anyone have any suggestions? would removing the mulching plug avoid these problem (i don't know where the plug is or if this would work--i'm just asking)? |
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| 'since it stopped smoking' You must have tilted it up with the carb down, which got oil into the cylinder. Check the air filter, and if it's a paper filter and oily, replace it. Pick up a 20 ounce bottle of SAE 30 4-cycle mower oil. After the next use of the mower, tilt it up and drain the oil into a small square pan. Put the new oil in and use the bottle to hold the old oil and dispose of properly. |
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