I have a friend that owns a mower junk yard, he sees several like that each season. He makes good money off the used parts though.

OMG.

"POS Toro! Shoulda got a Snapper!" LOL

Several days ago, a feller stopped in and said he had a mower he wanted to give me, so i went and helped get it out of his SUV. A nice green Craftsman, with yellow hub caps, and an engine that had clean oil in it. He said it wouldn't start, but i could use it for parts, so i took it.
first thing i checked, after he left, was the air filter. Fully plugged! Removed it, pushed primer buld some, pulled the rope and the engine went "UH-HUHHH, And started! I've been getting in a bunch of no-starts with clogged air filters! Don't people ever check them? Do they even know what an air filter looks like? I've seen some so badly plugged that they were ICKY to the touch!

I see a lot Baymee- but I think you win with that one! Takes the cake it does....

Rusty, if their ipod doesn't tell them to change the air filter they just won't do it!

Amazing...
Spend $350 on a mower and do nothing in the way of maintenance. So at the end of 30 years he will waste something like $3,000 in replaced mowers.

Hey, I worked with a mechanically-knowledgable guy who could rebuild anything on his Porsche. We were talking about mowers one day and he mentioned never changing mower oil. I couldn't believe it and asked him again. Nope, use it 'til it quits, throw it away and get another one. To this day I am dumbfounded over this mindset. It does not compute.

Unlike us mower wackos, most people hate to mow, and they look at their mowers as a necessary evil. When you feel that way about a product (and the task you use it for), you aren't inclined to take care of it.

I guess that you can toss a real engine on there and get rid of the curse of Tecumseh. Went to the Harbor Freight sidewalk sale last weekend and they had a new Chonda wpm engine for like $54 . Can't be any worse...