Another Marketplace find! I’ve been eyeing these for awhile and this one came up just a couple miles from the house. Guy was asking $75; non running. I was able to get it for $60. He said it ran fine, but needed a new fuel line. Gas tank was empty when I looked at it. Got it home and it popped over on starting fluid. Yesterday, dumped some premix in the tank(along with a little SeaFoam and Marvel Mystery Oil), a little more starting fluid and it lit right up! I had ground some old rhododendron stumps earlier and wanted to till the area before we put down soil and seed. This thing worked perfectly. I actually used it for a few areas we were reseeding and also tilled over our raised garden beds. No fuel line issues that I could see. It needs a few things which I just ordered; fuel cap and the throttle return spring (on the throttle handle itself). If you look closely at the pic, you can see my hack job foil and plastic wrap under the fuel cap which has a crack in it. I’ll also adjust the carb, I think it could run a bit better up top with a little tweaking. Not sure on the year, but these are solid units. This one has some bumps and bruises, but I’m sure will clean up well and offer some good service.
We had one for years and at one point wore the gears out! Simple to fix and not expensive at the time. We were asking it to do more than what it was designed for. After repair just used it to clean up the rows in the vegetable garden. I’ll have to look in the barn and see if the old gal is still there
Echo makes Mantis 2 cycle engines, honda makes the 4 strokes. In fact if you buy an echo mini tiller, its a mantis built tiller that's orange. I love mine. Especially after having other non mantis tillers. I opted for the honda powered unit. I had a used echo version for a while too.
I had a little mantis about 20 years ago in the South. Worked great. Over used the tar out of it but never let me down.
I had a Mantix years ago but gave it away to the guy that bought my larger tiller. I always had a heck of a time getting it started. No garden now so I don't need it.
Thanks all! Ended up using it again today to cultivate a former mulch bed. It’s quite the little tank! It really made short work of the task. Started easily too which was a plus. I ordered a new fuel cap and throttle spring which will hopefully arrive this week.
In case you don't know...life time guarantee on the tines and they are reversible for either digging or cultivating. We recently planted 50 small Norway spruce trees and the mantis made all the holes. We had, maybe 2 hours into the whole project.
If the tines tips are pointed away from the direction of rotation, thats the cultivating position. Swapping them side to side points them forward and is for digging. I use 00 corn head grease for the gear box. According to the manual thats an option to use over their mantis branded grease.
Good to know! I picked some up (00 grease) based on your advice. Got that last one at the local Tractor Supply. Parts came today and I’ll install in the AM. Will probably bring this up north and use to till the garden up there. Thanks for all the positive feedback everyone! I’ll post more pics when I get it cleaned up, tines off and gear box greased. We’ll see how the removal of the tines and gear box screws go….
Cleaned the tines….yikes! Used it for the garden bed in VT, it did awesome! I did notice a leak out of the breather valve on one of the fuel lines; I’ll replace that. It also has some generic/Amazon spark plug in it. I’ll replace that with a good NGK plug.
Did some work this week to the Mantis. Turns out, it did not need a new throttle return spring, the pivot screw was too tight. Once that was taken care of, the throttle springs right back. However, the unit doesn’t idle well. I’ll adjust the idle on that. Speaking of carbs, this one has a nice simple slotted adjusters. I can’t recall; which is the high speed and low adjusters? Put all new fuel lines in from the kit I got on Amazon, came with the grommet too. Here are the old ones: Greased up the drive gear as well. Not sure if it’s supposed to be beveled like that or not. It took quite a bite of grease to get up to level. Guessing this hasn’t been opened up in some time. I believe the gasket was original as it was cork. It cleaned up rather nicely considering! I hit the chrome with some 0000 steel wool and quick detailer. Took the rust right off and brought back the shine. Ironically, after it’s all cleaned up and new parts installed, all the work we needed it for is done! However, it’ll be good to go should we need it for a random project here and there going forward. Sure will make turning the gardens easier.
The adjustment screw farthest away from the engine is the H. The L adjuster screw is the one closest. The gear is supposed to be beveled. Its a worm gear drive.
