new brill 38

Manual reel mowers are very simple and effective machines, and there is very little that can go wrong with them. This page is intended to cover the few repair issues that I have seen come up for the Brill reel mower.

Replacing the wheel on a Brill reel mower:

If you happen to drop your mower on its side so that the wheel smashes down on the cement driveway (why did you do that?), you might need to put a new wheel on a Brill reel mower. Here is how you do it. First step, pop off the black plastic hubcap with a knife or key. It just comes right off.

remove hubcap

When you remove the hubcap, you’ll see the C ring that holds the wheel onto the axle of the mower. If the wheel was really broken, you’d see a big crack in it, or it might have just fallen off. You’d still need to remove the rest of the wheel from the axle though, so you could put a new complete wheel back on.

remove hubcap 2

Removing the C Ring:

To remove the wheel, you’ll need to pop off the C ring that holds the wheel in place. In the photo I am using a pair of C Ring Pliers, which you can pick up at the hardware store for about $10. However, you can also use a large flathead screwdriver to simply leverage the C Ring open so that it pops off. You can pop it back on using the same flathead screwdriver or a pair of regular or needlenose pliers. It takes a little bit of patience to do it that way, but it saves you from buying a new tool.

If you actually have the C Ring Pliers, you’ll just put the pointed ends into the little holes on the C Ring and then open the ring with the pliers so that it comes out of the groove in the axle.

remove c ring

Below is what the C Ring looks like when it isn’t attached to the mower.

ring removed

Take off the wheel

Now that the C Ring has been removed, the wheel will just slide right off the axle. At that point you can repair your cracked wheel with superglue or attach a brand new wheel if you have one. You’ll see that underneath the wheel there is only an axle, and a cog

wheel off

Cool features of the Brill Luxus 38:

Brill reel lawn mowers have several cool feature that set them apart from most other reel mower models. They have a powder coat paint job. You can read about the advantages of powder coating versus plain old paint here.

Brill reel mowers have sealed bearings. That means you don’t have to mess with constantly oiling them, etc.

Brill reel mowers have flame hardened, welded steel blades. This flamed hardened steel, combined with the non-contact silent cut design, means that you pretty much never have to sharpen the blades. You just have to adjust them now and then.

Where to buy the Brill Luxus 38:

Buy reel mowers here.

Other information about using push reel lawnmowers:
