somebody gave me two small old riding mowers one i don't know what it is yet but the craftsman model # 131.96270 and engine number is 143196012 with a 26 inch cut can anyone tell me how old this mower is and what kind of engine it has on it .It says 6.0 hp..........thanks for any help

 

Hello sniper!

I don't know how old it is, but it has a tecumseh engine on it. Maybe that helps some.

 

Correct. It's a Roper (131 model prefix) made machine with a Tecumseh engine.

Age of the machine: You can try plugging both model #s on the Sears.com website to pull up the parts breakdown (www.sears.com then "parts" on the left).

Since Sears uses the vendor's illustrations, I have seen dates on some of the scanned pages they provide. My 5 HP Craftsman snowblower shows September 1978 on the sheet and has a date code consistent with something of that era.

Roper (131) is now American Yard products (917 prefixes). Electrolux owns them, they should be able to tell you the age.

www.electrolux.com

 

I believe the 131 prefix hasn't been used by sears for the past 10 years or so, so I think that might help give you an idea of the age of the unit. Roper is now part of AYP, and the prefix changed to 917 after that.

 

Sure.

As would the serial and code #s from the engine and unit.

My '79 snowblower has 8278 as a code on the sticker. That's either 8/2/78 or 278th day of 1978 .

My machines are "536" prefix Murrays (back then AMF or Western Tool)

 

Yep...the 278th day of a year ending in 8. (that's all I can tell from that #, but looking at the machine or engine would tell me what decade the 8 was in). However, you already know it is 1978, lol!

 

Yea, definitely is.

Funky orange color (however, I have a 1980 Pontiac Trans Am from 1980 that is that SAME color (Originally!!!) and "Eager 1" was a 1970's term, because my parents bought new Eager 1 Craftsman mower in 1979.

Most of the dates on the parts breakdown are from 1977, 1978 or 1979, so that answers that. LOL.

On my 1965 Craftsman blower, the man at Tecumseh was like WOW when I told him the model and serial #s of the engine. LOL.

Told me by the sound of the way I take care of my machines, I should get MANY years more out of it. LOL.

I still have that 1979 body (replaced with an NOS body in 1986) which now has a 4.0 Chief on it. Mike Merritt is giving the carburetor a once over and it should be good to go as a spare.

Now with my uncle giving me his 1999 AYP/Fridigaire cheapie, I'm loaded with mowers & snowblowers. LOL.