In the early '70s, I acquired my first - a 1962 21" Lawn-Boy from a neighbor that was moving and no longer wanted it. I used it to mow neighbors lawns for gas money. And of course, I got pressed into service mowing our lawn. Frequent maintenance included starter repairs, carb adjustments, and cleaning carbon buildup from the exhaust port under the deck.
Typical Lawn-Boys of that vintage have a primer pump push-button up top, that also rotates as an ignition cut-off. There should also be a two-speed lever sticking out from the side of the engine cover, linked to a spring that calibrates a centrifugal governor located under the flywheel. Under the governor, there's a round metal cover protecting the points & condenser. Make sure the ignition cut-off is functioning properly, and the wire connected to it isn't pinched, shorted or grounded
By the time my folks moved to Virginia Beach in 1978, I had added a tiny 18" 1956 Lawn-Boy to the collection that I had rescued on trash-day. It had one of those exposed-flywheel engines, like a 1930s outboard-motor, that you had to manually wrap the pull-cord around the pulley for every start.
Then I moved into my first apartment, and my folks took all the mowers, including Dad's 1959 Toro, to Virginia Beach. But their new home came with a Craftsman yard tractor so they never used the mowers. In 1987, two years before I bought my first house and could've used a mower, my Dad gave all of them to the junkman.
Imagine my chagrin, when a few years later I saw lawn-Boy magazine ads, featuring my 1956 model. Then, more recently, some vintage Lawn-Boys have sold on eBay for well over $300!
My parents are gone now, and my brother and I inherited their Virginia Beach home. About ten years ago, a neighbor gave me a mint-condition 1962 Lawn-Boy, almost identical the one that my Dad pitched out in '87.
It's been safely locked in the trunk of the 1972 Mercedes 250 Coupe I keep in the Virginia Beach garage, waiting for me to clear a space so I can display that mower on the garage wall. I may finally do it next week!

Happy Motoring, Mark

__________________
DrDKW