You are looking for zebras or unicorns to explain the hoofbeats - much more likely to be a pony or a horse - possibly an ox.
Pony or horse would be blocked carb or bad gas - Ox would be poor ignition (bad plug?) or a loose carb (leaking base gasket). Bad ring or other mechanical problem is at least a zebra - possibly aproaching a Unicorn.
Pulling the engine backwards still works for checking compression - it bypasses the compression release.
Would the local auto parts store have some gasket material that you could cut your own seal from?
thanks for the link. It's way more comprehensive than the engine manual. Looks like the carb is series 11 bridged. Looks like I've cleaned all the passages except the ones under the welch plug. But I can get carb cleaner thru that area.
I'll try the compression test tomorrow.
I really don't want to dump a lot of money into this thing. I can buy a whole new carb on ebay for $17.50. I'd do it in an instant if I was sure it would fix the thing.
One thing I noticed about the ebay carbs is that there's a plastic tube that fits in the hole near the primer and pokes out the throaat into the air filter. Mine doesn't have that tube. Something else to try.
Thanks for all the inputs. mike
Ordered it on ebay. $1.99 including shipping. Already shipped it. If it turns out I have the wrong carburetor, I'll buy a carburetor to fit the gasket!
I bought a used mower with similar symptoms and it had water in the carburetor bowl. Drained it out and it ran great. Then it started doing it again and I found more water in the bowl, must have come from the tank. This happened a couple more times before all the water seemed to finally be gone.
Mine has that tube. Maybe that's the air inlet, and maybe your inlet is a hole in the middle of the bulb.
My priming was weak, not much gas. I discovered that the float-bowl gasket was cruddy. A little grease on the gasket gave me a lot more gas when I pushed the bulb. So my float bowl has to hold air to prime. I've ordered a gasket, $1.99.
A little grease on the gasket might improve your priming, too.
The gasket in question is shaped like an O ring, but it's square stock, not round stock.
The odds of cutting your own is near zero.
- . Christopher A. Young learn more about Jesus .
Too much bother to drain the tank and get new fuel?
- . Christopher A. Young learn more about Jesus .
I HAVE seen round "O" rings used successfully. In a year or two they often do come out squared though.
I turned it upside down and got out all I could from the tank. Put in new fuel. Somehow there was still water trapped somewhere in the thing and even with new fuel, from the same little tank I use for my regular mower that never has this problem so I'm pretty sure it wasn't water from the new fuel. The nice thing about the mower was that you could undo the fuel bowl with an adjustable wrench and the "nut" also had the "jet" in it and you could blow that out too. I've also found it to get clogged with crap occasionally. I used to have a mower that had a spring loaded drain valve on the bottom of the fuel bowl...I'm sure that would be illegal today.
I've never had much success, upside down draining mower gas tanks. Strange design.
Also seen the spring loaded drain valves. Likely illegal, makes too much sense.
Just think of all the dead baby seals....
- . Christopher A. Young learn more about Jesus .
I never had much success rinsing debris out of my old garden sprayer that way. It would be presumptuous to call the designer an idiot when he probably just didn't. The new tank rinses better.
Draining is the way to go for water in a tank. If there's no stopcock, I use needlenose visegrips. A peanut butter jar will probably be more than enough. When you scoop the peanut butter out, leave a note on the counter reminding you to dump the gas before you put the peanut butter back in.
On the motorcycles I remember, removing float bowls worked very well. In one case, I had only to flip a wire bail. You can examine what's in there and dispose of it as you wish.
In small engines with hole in the bowl, you get gas on your hands. You can't see how much fuel was in it, and you can't check for water or debris.
On my riding mower, when I suspect debris in the bowl, I have to remove the carburetor because I can't get to the nut on the bowl. The nut is probably inaccessible for safety because the carburetor sits over the muffler. It should cool to a safe temperature during the 72 hours it takes me to get the carburetor off.
Cars, other vehicles, and small engines used to have glass bowls to catch water and debris. There are still water traps, but you just have to open the drain because they aren't transparent.
I meant "just didn't care." Please don't presume I just didn't care. I'm an idiot.
Try using E o'ring Mower Gaskets.
E = M G squared.
- . Christopher A. Young learn more about Jesus .
Gas air spark compression timing
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