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

Ive been tinkering on a old JD and im having problems with the governer i think. Everything runs and turns good until i hit some snow and it just bogs down and dies. Where is a good start for the adjustment on this thing? Or any other suggestions would be great. Thanks.

Good job guys. Very thorough instructions. Last year, a friend of ours called me to ask if I'd come over to help fix an old 1967 riding lawn mower. Can't remember the brand but it had an 8 h.p. Tecumseh engine on it that wouldn't start. She called me because her husband had spent the last two hours pulling on the pull start and finally injured his shoulder. Goofy or what? Einstein said "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result." Now the guy isn't nuts, nor stupid but extremely stubborn. Getting back to the point, I asked her to put her husband on the phone. I asked him if the engine had spark and was getting fuel. He advised that he had both. I drove over to his place to look at the machine. First thing I did was to pull the fuel line from the carb. No fuel. I asked him why did he think he had fuel. He said because the spark plug was damp. I told him that pulling on the pull start for two hours was equivalent to using it as an air compressor and he had likely built up condensation in the engine. Two hours pulling on a pull start when he could have pulled the fuel line in one minute? Then I pulled the fuel line from the fuel tank shut off valve. No fuel there either. The tank was full of sediment. The couple had to leave and left me working on the machine. While they were gone, I threw a handful of nuts and bolt into the tank with some Varsol. Swished it around for a while, emptied the contents then flushed thoroughly with water. Gave it a good spray of WD-40 to rinse out water then re-assembled and put in a bit of fuel. Two pulls and it fired right up and ran fine. Since the people had left, I went home. Half an hour later, the phone rings and it's the same guy. This was kind of funny. He say "Where are you?" I replied "Well you phoned me at home and I answered so......" "What are you doing at home?" "Ahhh, I live here." "Oh, are you finished here?" "Yeah, it's running fine." "What about the fuel leak?" "What fuel leak?" "The fuel tank is leaking quite a bit. It has a hole down in the corner." When I had left it was fine. Being an old steel tank, I suspect that when I swished the nuts and bolts around, it knocked off the rust in the area of the leak and left the paint only to hold in the fuel. The gasoline ate through the paint and out comes the fuel. I told the guy to get some JB Weld and patch the hole. For some reason, he couldn't quite understand how to do that so he pulled the tank off of the machine and drove all the way over to my place for me to fix that too.

Great input guys, its appreciated. Although the engine does not surge at all. Runs and idles normal until i hit some snow, then it immediatley bogs down and dies. 2 pulls and fires back up and runs great again. I used a paper clip to clean all the orifices in the carb. And installed the complete rebuild including jets and seats, needle and seat.

after the rebuild it still has no power? if so it could be either too lean yet or compression is low. does it have a fixed main  jet or  adjustable?if fixed jet try putting a load on the engine with a notch or two of choke and see if it still falls flat..if it is an adjustable jet run the engine at high rpm and screw the jet out till you find the position where the rpm just starts to fall off and turn it in to peak it out and put a load on it. if it looses power with the choke partially on under a load and chugs black  the fuel  part of the equation can probably  be elliminated.

Would it have anything to do with the governor?