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Hard starting Briggs & Stratton 3.0 hp lawnmower engine
muzician21 wrote:
Have a B&S on a 70's era Snapper 21" pusher with an aluminum deck. I believe the engine is probably 10 years newer than the rest of the mower. Maybe 10 years ago I took it to a repair shop who installed a solid state unit to replace the points. Even with the solid state ignition it was never one-pull start, but as I recall it usually started with probably 3 - 5 pulls. Now it takes probably 20 pulls or more and monkeying with the throttle. Once it fires it runs like a clock, runs up and down the speed range fine. It's also easier to re-start once it's been running - though still not one pull. Doesn't seem to use an inordinate amount of oil, no discernible smoke out the exhaust. It gets what I'd call moderate use. I'm in central Florida so it gets run bi-weekly or so during the rainy months, not at all during the months of what passes for a winter down here. I'm mechanically inclined but not well-versed on the theory of this kind of engine. I've had it broken down far enough to remove and flush the gas tank, change the points when it had points, replace the pull rope. I've change the spark plug of course. I know it should start much easier than it does. Any suggestions where to look, what to tweak? There isn't that much to it from what I can see, so it shouldn't be that difficult. I believe this mower has a lot of life left in it. Thanks for all input. If its a 70s mower with a 10-year-newer B&S engine, that would mean its an 80s-vintage B&S. That would be about the lowest point in the armpit of quality of B&S carburetors, and it agrees with your symptoms. The "pulsa-jet" carbs of that era used the vacuum pulses of the intake runner to operate a diaphragm that pumped fuel up from the tank to the carb. They also had a vacuum-operated choke that had a tendency to not choke enough when cold and choke too much when hot. They tended to work fine once you got them running, but they were HARD to get going the first time because there just isn't enough vacuum pulse to pump the fuel while you're yanking the rope. Especially when they aged a little and the pump diaphragm got a little stiff You could try a carb rebuild kit, but frankly the only way I ever made an 80s Briggs run truly great was to scavenge the carb (and fuel tank) off an older (70s or even late 60s) engine. |
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