Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

I purchased a Scotts self propelled mower from an individual who had it sitting outside.  It did not start.

I replaced the spark plug, fuel line, sanded the magneto, emptied the old fuel and replaced with new fuel.

I cleaned out the carb as well as replaced the gasket the needle and the seating.

The engine will start but then stops.  I am puzzled at this point.  Does anyone have any suggestions???

dzton

Lets get to the bottom of this. You need to find out weather or not your engine is getting spark. Take the sparkplug off and Put some gas in the sparkplug hole than put the sparkplug back on. Does it start and run for a second or two and stop? If it does, you have a carb problem.

Would the breather element effect the starting and stopping issue?

Yes it would. Is it dirty? I assumed you made sure it was clean when doing all the carb work? I would say check your gas cap for venting but it shuts down too soon after it starts.

Breather element or air filter?
How nasty was the carb before you cleaned it?
Did you clean the bowl nut? All 3 holes?
If you look into thoat of the carb...and prime...do you see fuel coming from the tip of the main nozzle? (Use a flashlite too look in.)
Did you hook the wire clip of the needle over the float the float tang? Did you set the float level?
If you loosen the bowl nut...does fuel flow out?
When you installed the needle and seat...did you have the carb off of the engine?

Dont worry about the breather....they "never" good bad.
When you replaced the 2 o-rings on the main nozzle, are you sure you removed the old one. (The top one usually stays put and has too be dug out.)
Are the governor-carb linkages as they were before you removed the carb?
Again...make sure it is priming when you press the primer bulb. (You should see it coming out of the end of the main nozzle, into the throat of the carb.)

Be sure that # 241 is in place....screw #238 must be in its holes, or the carb will never prime. (The screw blocks off a common passage that it shares with the primer system.) Without the screw in place....the primer charge just blows out of the hole and doesnt reach the float bowl.

dzton wrote: Check that both surfaces that the large O-ring (part # 631028) seals are clean. (The float bowl and base of the carb.)

Check that both surfaces that the large O-ring (part # 631028) seals are clean. (The float bowl and base of the carb.)

It is.  I used at least a can of carb cleaner on this thing. 

Hi There... Did you ever get this problem solved?? If so what was it?

I'm in the exact same situation with the exact same mower.  I got it from a neighbor.  First problem was the gas tank leaked.  I replaced the tank and it turns over and starts for about 1 second then dies.  I haven't cleaned the carb and all ths stuff that you did yet.  If I have to go through that I'll probably just return the mower.  Spark plug does look wet and black.  Cleaned it once but didn't do much.  Made sure I used the original vented gas cap, even tried starting it without the cap on.  I may have really flooded the carb by priming it a lot.  I thought since the gas lines were drained I needed to get the gas flowing.

Anyways, just curious if there was a silver bullet that finally solved the problem.

Thanks

scott