Posted: 5/12/2006 11:25:49 AM EDT
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I got this briggs and stratton Lawnmower with my new house. It's been sitting around for the past six months, and it finially decided it's time to mow the lawn. I put in some gasoline, and it started up on the first pull. Then after about 50 feet it started stuttering and shut down. Now whenever I pull the rip cord, it sounds like it wants to start, but loses energy and dies again. What to do? |
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Sounds like lack of fuel. If it was sitting around for several months the fuel may have turned into varish in the carb. You need to close off the fuel line from the tank. Drain the fuel in the carb from the bottom of the bowl. Remove the carb, disassemble and clean it. Reinstall the carb. Pull the sparkplug. Clean it, check the gap, reinstall. You should be good to go. ETA: damn beat by 2 minutes. 
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| bottom of the carb. It literally looks like a bowl. Some have 2 small bolts on the bottom. One directly underneath it and one up on the "shoulder" of the bowl. Unscrew the one at the very bottom. This will allow you to remove the bowl and access the float and needle valve. |
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Check your air filter too and blow it out (carefully) with an air compressor, then do all the rest that you read above. PS: if it WILL start and run, even if its running rough, tip the mower over and dump out the gas from the tank and then refill it with fresh gas. That will sometimes get things running again if you're not into mechanix. Edited to add: Or you can put it out at the curb and let the garbage man take care of that pos Briggs, then go get a Honda. |
+1 to all of it varnish in the carb POS b&s |
Here is a pic of the bowl.  You should never blow an air filter out with compressed air. You can cause small holes in the element allowing debris/dust/dirt etc. to enter your engine. Bad idea. ETA: I work on all kind of small engines as well as diesels. We have several briggs vanguards with over 4000+ hrs on them. Good engines in my book.  I just rebuilt an "L" block though that was less then a quality engine. But as with anything else, proper maint. is key.
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