"Ether Jones" wrote in message
oups.com...

FDR wrote:
I have a Sears lawn mower, rear drive, 6.5 Hp Briggs and Stratton engine
that is five years old. It didn't get much use when we got it in the
fall
five years ago, and then the following years we had somebody mow our lawn
so
it sat for four years. This spring I fired it up and it ran well until
the
last few times. The symptoms are this:

Takes several tries to get started. Prime the bulb and pull cord, will
run
for 5 seconds and stop. Repeat this five or so times until it stays
running.

Then will run for 20 or so minutes and then run erratically and stall
After
stalling, the engine must be bulb primed to get started again. Will run
for
a minute and then stall again. Repeats this over and over until I give
up.

Before I bring this in to get serviced, can I get an idea what might be
causing this. I'm wondering if it's worth the repair bill.

Thanks for your replies.

You didn't mentioned whether or not you prepared the engine for storage
4 years ago before you let it sit unused for 4 years. Did you
completely drain out the gasoline and run the engine until it stalled
from lack of gas? Gas goes "stale" after a few months and can create
"varnish" deposits in the carburetor which interfere with proper
carburetion.

If you're not mechanically inclined, and aren't prepared to disassemble
the carburetor, then you might try this first: If you haven't already
done so, completely drain the old stale gas out of the tank, and fill
with fresh gas. Then go to WalMart and buy a bottle of Chevron
Techron. Put a couple of ounces in the gas tank and run the engine for
5 minutes. Then shut it off and let the mower sit for 24 hours. Then
start the engine again and let run for 5 minutes. Repeat this for a
week or until the problem clears up.

It was free of gas when I stored it. It ran well for the first four or five
times I had it out of storage, just stated going bad recently.