Darn old lawnmower.
 

I have a nice ridearound for 99% of my cutting. I do like to use an old self propelled rotary mower about twice a yea5r on hard to get to spots and every year I spend more time fighting with the old mower to get it running than I do using it. This year it started very easily and I thought I had it made in the shade. Now its just running on the gas that gets pumped in by the priming bulb then it stops. The float must be stuck (corroded). Its an easy fix except every time you try to get the float cup cover off to exercise the float , the o-ring gets squished. One thing about having the same mower so long is you know its problems but its still a pain to have to go through the start up ritual every year. I may buy a new one next season but this year its too late to be getting a new one that will get used a couple of times then stored all winter.

Maybe do some late season clearance bargain hunting and buy this year but not use until next.

Sorry , just my vent after getting my head fried out in the sun woirking on it. Supposed to get cooler about 6 PM so I'll try again then.

That is directly related to ethanol in the gas. Shut off the fuel every time you use it and let it run dry. Also use stabil with every fill . New gas will shellac a carb in no time stuff is brutal.
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At least it didn't roll out of the back of your truck and smash into your wife's nice shiny car. I'm not saying who but DAMN that F'ING old red lawnmower
:nopics:

Yup. A HUGE biatch with small outboards also. Stabil is key if it's gonna sit for more than a week or even a few days to be safe. Brutal isn't the word. The good thing is a little Stabil will go a long way with the small engines

Lmfao..
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Just use HIGH octane gasoline - easy fix!
 

Old timer at some small repair shop told me to use the highest octane gasoline I could buy and never use the cheap standard grade gasoline (10% alcohol is BAD junk). The high octane gas keeps for SEVERAL months! I use this in my lawnmower, snow blower, generator and so forth. I know I can just walk up to any of the equipment and it starts on the 1st or 2nd pull. :)

I use the Stabil for many year, but found it to build up over time. :(

If it is already gunked up, it may not help. LOL

After reading this thread, I disassembled my mower carb, cleaned everything in carb cleaner.
Swore for a while getting the linkages reconnected correctly and mowed my yard.
The piece of chit big box thing ran excellent, I hate this ethanol chit.

Thank you for motivating me to friggin fix the POS rather than spending another few hundreds on a new one. I should just replace the dam engine, anybody do that?

I try to keep em til the deck starts to rust out to where something could come flying out. The engines seldom give out. If you install a new engine you will just have the same issue a year or two from now. Cheaper to install a new carb and they only cost about $60 and its an easy swap.

mine sounds like the valves are slapping. It doesn't really get power until it's been running for about 20 min