[AT] Lawn mower carburetors are a piece of cake..... Wrong

Sun Jun 6 07:55:34 PDT 2021

I took the company's Husqvarna (Briggs) string push mower into the local
small engine/mower shop when it wouldn't start. Not my area of expertise,
nor do I have the time to delve into it. After some cleaning and whatever
else they did, it was returned with the primary diagnosis being pump gas. I
know I hear it all the time not to use pump gas in any small engines. Told
by one online repair guy that a single drop of 'bad' gas will stop an
engine. "Please buy the gallons or fives of 'special' non-ethanol fuel".
For both 4 and 2 stroke. Of course the 2 is pre-mix. The mower started and
ran fine all last season. This year? Same thing. Wouldn't start. Bought a
'replacement' carb on line. Runs one speed, very hard to start. I will say
the linkage/springs don't look right, but good luck finding a
schematic/photo/anything to show how it really should be.
I had trouble getting my own Stihl weed whacker to start a few years
ago.Turned out to be the coil. I didn't diagnose or fix. Local shop did.
Bottom line Dean? I feel your pain. I guess specialty, expensive fuel may
be the answer. I do keep a couple of gallons of Stihl gas for my own 2
strokes that I interchange with what I mix to use up the dozen bottles of
oil given with purchase of equipment.

On Sun, Jun 6, 2021 at 4:28 AM John Hall <jtchall at nc.rr.com> wrote:

> Welcome to modern small engines--sometimes you just can't fix them.
>
> My mother-in-laws 2 year old Briggs push mower wouldn't crank on its
> own. I replaced the primer bulb--that's about all you can do to it.
> Spray some starting fluid in it and it cranks and runs fine. Replacement
> carbs are aftermarket and cheap, but I don't really trust them. Some
> online research indicates some guys use 2 mounting gaskets, wonder if
> there is an air leak due to warped plastic parts?  I may try this,
> otherwise its headed to the dump as none of us need a push mower.
>
> Got a 25 year old weed trimmer that I've had the carb apart 5-6 times.
> About ready to buy a cheap replacement carb (thats all you can get).
> I've replaced all the usual suspects, cleaned the carb as best as I can
> , used OEM parts.
> What happens now is it will try to run with the choke completely on
> until it completely floods the crankase. Long story short the trimmer
> was given to me by a mechanic that told the owner it needed a new carb
> years ago. Its a high hour machine but has good compression, and has not
> been abused---just used a LOT. I did find the ignition kill wire would
> shock you--so that has now been disconnected as I'm sure that wasn't
> helping. This has really turned into pure stubborness to make this thing
> run again.
>
> I did manage to tear apart my hedge trimmer carb and get out all the
> debris from the primer bulb (it was literally coming apart, never seen
> that before) and it now runs better than it has in a couple years.
>
>
> So 1 for 3--if this was baseball not a bad batting average!!!!
>
> John Hall
>
> On 6/5/2021 8:38 PM, Dean VP wrote:
> > You ATIS members need a good laugh once in a while.  This should help
> provide that at my expense. ,
> >
> > One of my Grandsons just purchased his first house which has a small
> grass lawn with it.  Small enough lawn a self-propelled 20 - 22" push mower
> would be just fine.  Since he is moving out of an apartment he would need
> to buy a mower.   I volunteered to give him one of mine that I have out in
> the barn that haven't been run for a while. Don't even remember now when or
> where I got this one, it was probably cheap at some garage sale or auction
> and is a Toro Model 20216.  Probably 20" to 22" (haven't measured) deck
> with a 4HP Briggs motor and it can be self-propelled with 3 forward gears
> .Everything worked fine on it when I used it last probably several years
> ago (ran when parked)  and my only two complaints about it were the 4HP
> made it underpowered and the aluminum deck was pretty brittle  and has been
> welded once. I have been blessed with a wealth of rocks on  my yard.   I
> noticed the deck now has a couple more cracks but the mower is useable as
> is all I have to do is get it running.
> >
> > I cleaned everything up, cleaned the spark plug, changed oil and put in
> new gas.  I don't have a manual for the mower and the only way I could
> figure out how to get the old oil out was to either pump it out or lay it
> on its side and drain it out the fill tube. . Very dumb and very owner
> unfriendly. . Anyway tried to start it.    Not even a pop. Choke full on.
>  Tried ether. Yep, I could get it to run for a second or two but obviously
> not getting gas to the cylinder. Check gas line, check bowl, yep getting
> gas to the carburetor.  Sum Ting Wong with the carburetor.
> >
> > Now mistakenly I think I know what I'm doing relative to carburetors
> with several successful Antique Tractor and Garden Tractor carburetor
> rebuilds  under my belt but it has been a long time since I have worked on
> a Lawn Mower Carburetor.   But needing to be humbled a bit I guess I have
> forgotten a key detail about Briggs carburetor's. I pulled the carb,
> removed the bowl and found a sandy white substance (dirt?) in the bowl and
> also in the needle and seat well.  Not typical of what I have seen in carbs
> in the past. But continue to disassemble removing the float and needle.
> Don't see a removable seat and disassemble the rest of the carb.  Run small
> wires through any opening I can find and make sure they are clean and blow
> air through any passage I can find.  One thing that happened worried me. I
> had the air hose nozzle on the gas intake pipe and a little pop occurred
> and something hit me in the face. My observation was that it had come out
> of the bottom where the needle seats..   Hmmmm .............must have been
> plugged right there. 😊  Couldn't find what came out. I bet the carburetor
> will work now.  Operator now in full idiot mode!😊
> >
> > Moving on, soaked the carburetor in Pine Sol overnight and this morning
> cleaned it with fresh water.  Carburetor looks like new.  Man.... I am
> really good.     Hmm, the bowl gasket has expanded in diameter in the pine
> sol. That is not good. But start reassembling the carburetor and put the
> float and needle in place  and it is obvious the needle is dropping too far
> down and not seating properly.   Aha, that is what must have blown out and
> hit me in the face. Hummmmm  how do you blow out a brass seat?  Now I'm
> confused.  Get on the internet and watch a video of an overhaul of this
> type of lawn mower carburetor.  Gets to the part about removing the needle
> and seat. " An easy way to get the little rubber needle seat out is to blow
> air into the gas inlet of the carburetor"    Been there, done that.   Yep,
> I can completely verify that works very well but I didn't know it when I
> did it. @#$%^&*()   Now I sure as hell know what hit me in  the face. I
> can't find that little sucker.  So... $9 gets me a carburetor overhaul kit
> over night from Amazon.   Needed a new bowl gasket too.  Isn't it amazing
> how the problem and solution can hit you right in the face???
> >
> > In searching for the right carburetor kit  I noticed I could buy a whole
> new carburetor for $10.49. But I have been down that road before and I was
> not pleased with what I received. So I'm staying with the OEM Carburetor.
> One day delivery on the parts.
> >
> > BTW, I'm not very sure this mower is even worth the $9 carburetor repair
> kit. But....  I am going to  beat this sucker into submission.  This is the
> way us old folks turn one hour jobs into a full day's entertainment.
> >
> >
> > Dean V
> > Snohomish, WA 98290
> > "Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and
> gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery."
> > ..Winston Churchill...
> >
> >
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>
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