Customer Used Wrong Spark Plug & This Happened!

Customer Used Wrong Spark Plug & This Happened!
Don't make the same mistake my customer made by putting the wrong spark plug in your generator. This will cause you a lot of grief and headaches!
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Easy to follow and thorough step by step tutorials do it yourself (DIY) videos to help you with your broken lawn and garden equipment including snowblowers and zero turn mowers.

I do my best to teach you how to easily diagnose problems the fastest, quickest and most efficient way with real repairs beyond just replacing a spark plug. These tips are for both the homeowner and shop owner.

Whether it be a handheld, two stroke, two cycle engine like a chainsaw, weed eater, weed wacker, string trimmer, grass trimmer, line trimmer, hedge trimmer, strimmer, brush cutter, leaf blower, or four stroke, four cycle units like a lawnmower, wood splitter, lawn tractor, zero turn mower, snowblower, pressure washer, generator or a ride on mower that needs parts installed or replaced, I’m your go-to guy.

My favorite brands of spark plugs are NGK and Champion and are the ones I recommend.

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[Robnord]

They're lucky it didn't punch a hole in the piston or break off fragments and score the cylinder walls. I trust specs in owner's manuals over parts people advice, and this is a good example why.

[bobmcl]

So, the piston spotted the incorrect spark plug, and shut the engine down by whatever means it had available! That's kind of a cool safety feature.... 😁 Good thing nothing else got damaged when piston met plug.

[TheLawnmowerLady]

Great tip! Had a similar thing when the guy said "I just filled it with gas" I wasted a good bit of time before I realized he filled it up from the gas can he filled up at the end of last summer. Thanks for the video.

[tihspidtherekciltilc]

Recently I picked up a newer Ariens snowblower from behind the mower shop in town headed to the scrapyard and upon pulling it over it blew fuel out of the intake. After pulling the head one of the push rods was bent which I believe to be caused by someone having trouble pull starting it and used the starter which didn't budge the stuck intake valve but bent the push rod instead. Easy fix which put $500 in my pocket and got me another happy customer. Point being if your machine has anything unusual when trying to pull start it do not use the electric starter until you have someone you can trust look at it as the machine I fixed was labeled "needs an engine" which meant "sell the sucker a new snowblower."

[jptrainor]

... and that would be good old Canadian Tire. Could have been a high school student who started the week before giving their best shot at advising a customer on spark plugs. They train them for that, right?

[dr.lmsb]

Note to self : always double check everything .

[Steve-bjse]

Had similar problem with a car. Auto parts store sold me plugs for a Chrysler 318 cid engine for my 383 engine. They didn’t short out at first but the ceramic inserts around the electrodes fractured and jammed some valves open. Could have destroyed the engine. Always check new plugs against the old.

[wtfbuddy]

- you need a new sign outside the shop - "will fix big box store items" Cheers and stay safe

[ncrdisabled]

you should always match your old plug with the new plug .

[Tommyr]

I never trust big box stores to really know what they are talking about. If you've ever talked to some of those folks you know why. Very few of them know what they're talking about.

[peterdoherty]

Oh, that can put a hole in expensive parts quickly! Good catch Don!

[Patrick]

Top stuff Donny mate cheers from Australia to Canada and stay safe.

[steveguinn]

Wish I could've heard the conversation you had with yourself when the truth was found! 😂 ( I know, this is a family friendly channel.)

[andrewoconnor]

Respect to mechanics. It takes a lot of patience to do what you do.

[goaheadmakeourdayscooterpe]

These plug companies got me a couple times with their cross reference charts and the plugs not even being close to the same. Always try to get the same make and exact label on plug if possible because the smaller the engine the more exact the spark and air fuel mixture must be.

[NickHorvath]

this is why you always compare old and new parts when changing things.

[Rev-D]

And that's remarkably easy to do if you're not paying attention, or just trying to get by with what's laying about the garage. Thanks for the reminder Don. God bless. Rev. D.

[kenhilson]

years back when I was just starting to work on small engines a dealer friend asked me look at a riding mower that he had sold as a used unit to a lady. I assume that it was running bad since she had taken it to a local guy in the business. I guess he told her it needed rings. she called my friend about that and he didn't believe that so asked me to check it. it was ohv briggs with a lhead rj19lm plug in it. changed that out and she ran it for years after. unfortunately she always called me whenever she had an issue with it.

[WaterWalker]

Sure isn't like the old days when service people on the floor or behind the counter knew their job. Seems to me to be a real training (or no training) issue out there. That's why its best to go to your local small motor repair shop and deal with those who have the knowledge and still take pride in their work.

[bigbob]

Same thing happened with a grass trimmer a customer brought over last season.