All,
needs some help getting my mower to run. Its a Yard Machine pushmower. It will fire and run for 2-5 secs and then die. Fresh gas in it and checked the air filter and its clean. Mower is only 2 years old. Its a Briggs & Stratton 675 series engine. Thanks in advance.
Is there a choke (or cold starting position) and is it working? Sounds like its starving for fuel.
Have you been keeping it outside, where it can get rained on?
Sounds like water in the carburetor bowl. You can run it out, every time it runs for the 3 or 4 seconds, some of the water gets in and eventually, you will get it all out. If you feel confident, you can disassemble the carburetor, empty the water out, and reassemble it. If you haven’t done this before, I’d recommend taking it to a repair shop. It isn’t that tough, but there are gaskets that are easy to lose or damage; without the gaskets, you will not get it to run correctly. You’ll want to tell the shop that you think the carburetor needs cleaning.
If you want to try and run the water out, you can speed things up a little with a spark plug wrench. Every time it runs a bit then dies, remove the spark plug and dry it off with a paper towel and put it back.
I keep my mower outside and it gets rained on. While it doesn’t rain often, when it rains, it pours. When I was younger, I’d run the water out by starting it over and over; each time it would run for a little longer. Now, I’ve gotten old and I don’t like pulling the handle as much as I used to, so I drop the bowl, empty it, and put it back on. Sometimes I mess up the gasket, and I have to make a new one out of cardboard, but most of the time it takes maybe 5 minutes.
excavating (for a mind)
I’m assuming the engine is not sucking enough gas. When you first pull the starter, the pull of fuel is greatest and a little gets through.
Rather than start taking the carb and lines apart, what I do is take a can of carb stray and carefully meter a tiny amount into the carb to keep it running after it gives you that initial start. You can’t spray continually. You just cycle brief squirts enough to keep the RPM from dropping. Eventually, it may run on its own.
Thanks for the replies. Mower does dont have a choke. It was left outside under a covered patio, so it may have gotten water in the carb. I did have to clean out the fuel inlet valve last year from corrosion. May be the issue again.
There was a series of Briggs & Stratton engines that had an issue with a carb gasket/diaphragm. If your engine has the fuel tank underneath the carb it might be one of these.
My mover had this bad diaphragm and symptoms were similar to yours, although it would run (badly). Lacked power and often stalled.
Good news was a new diaphragm was only $2 and it has run perfectly since it was replaced 5 years ago.
Had a tractor with that (or similar) problem. Couldn’t let the gas tank go below half full, about the level of the carb. It would surge for a while, then sputter out.