I hit a baseball with my lawn mower and now it?

Question

won't start. What should I do now?

Answer 1

Hitting the baseball with the blades caused the engine to stall.  The abrupt stop, caused oil to blowby the piston rings.

Remove the sparkplug and crank it a few times, allowing the oil to be blown out of the cylinder, replace plugf and start

Answer 2

Was it running when you clobbered it, and it stopped running? Or did you clobber it because it wouldn't start/run and you decided to teach it a lesson?

If it is the latter, it may have run out of gas, or needed a clean air filter. If the former, depending on where you bashed it you could have bent the linkage to the carburetor, caved in the air intake, or damaged the recoil starter.

best take it to a shop and have them tell you what needs to fixed-if it doesn't just need refueling or an air filter.

Answer 3

A baseball shouldn't have damaged it, so maybe you just need to keep trying.  

If the engine is still hot, don't close the choke, but if it has cooled off nearly completely, you may need to choke it to get it started.   Be sure and open the choke the instant it begins to run if it's not stone cold.     Good luck!

Answer 4

Sounds like you may have bent the crankshaft.

Answer 5

Replace the shear pin on the crankshaft.

Answer 6

If your lawn mower won't start it sounds like you broke your

crankshaft

Answer 7

Sheared key on mag and crankshaft.

Answer 8

If the baseball caused the engine to stop suddenly it could have sheared the key between the flywheel and the crankshaft.  This will effect the ignition timing and cause the engine to not start.  The fix is cheap and not too hard.  You will have to remove the engine cowling and pull the flywheel.  If it is a briggs engine you can get a new key at most any hardware store or even wal mart.