What should I do to winterize my lawn mower?

There are several things that are rather important to increase the chances of your machine starting in the spring without a severe work over by your small engine technician.  Below are a list of things that need to be completed, in the order of importance (in my opinion).

1.  Service your fuel system:

• A. Stabilize your fuel and run the engine for several minutes to allow the fuel stabilizer to permeate the fuel sysem OR
• B. Drain your fuel and run the engine out of gas OR
• C. Perform "A", shut off the in-line fuel shut off and then run the engine out of fuel.

2.  Change the engine oil.
3.  If your mower has a battery, disconnect the negative battery cable (or both) from the battery. Optionally, you could add a battery disconnect on the positive side and then simple turn it off.  There are several of these available, however, I would recommend the "safety switch" model.  This particular one is very simple.  You simple "turn" the switch off in the fall and "turn" it back on in the spring.

For an in-depth Fall Winterizing guide, visit the Superior Power Equipment Forum.