Briggs & Stratton mower will not start

I am by no means a mechanic, but it sounds like the jet might be clogged.

Change air filter, clean carborator. If you left gas in it all winter, shame shame

Clean the filter, drain the bowl on the carb, while the bolt is out, spray the carb with cleaner. And replace last season's gas with fresh gas. Likely, it's got gunk in the bowl, and water in the gas.

Ethanol fuel. Your fuel line is probably dissolved by the alcohol in the fuel. Try replacing the fuel line.

Check the screw on the bottom of the bowl. It has a port that could be clogged.

Steps to fix 90% of small motor problems:

Pull plug and clean with bench grinder if you are a cheap arse; get a new one and gap it if not
Sandpaper clean magneto

Look at and smell oil
Change if necessary(rarely to be honest)

Pull carb and make sure everything is on the up and up by doing everything above
Make sure fuel is actually getting to the carb
Check linkages

Throw on a new air filter if old one is dirty

I like to clean every single thing as I go. For some reason, clean stuff runs better than dirty stuff(even cars)



Viola! If it isn't running then and you don't know why, either bring it to a shop or just get a new motor. Doing all of that is basically free, and after you do it a couple of times, you can do it on any motor in a hour

Not looking at a motor right now, so I probably forgot some things



Eta and probably the most important thing: Lay out carb parts in order that they come out. Take pictures of everything along the way. It can save you hours. Most stuff only has one place it can fit, but some can fit multiple spots. Notice how many threads the jets are sticking up. For ones that you can see threads, crank them down to the bottom and count revolutions. It was running before with the same settings, so you want it back after you are done

Eta#2: Use the correct size screwdrivers on carb parts and do not crank down on them. They will break

Probably meauxjeaux2. That jerk steals all of my engine thunder with his fancy mechanic terms. He was the generator savior for the last cane.

There are a few things that every man should know, and how to fix a small motor is one of them. It is just too easy not to know how. They are really basic like I said. The only things they need are seriously fuel, air, spark, and compression. Chase those few things down and you are good.

Once you get good, you can hear what is wrong, but that leads to people trying to make a sound of their broken motor


I just reread the thread, and I am the only asshat wanna-be engineer calling it a motor. FML

quote:

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I remember him ragging on people who didn't maintain their generators.

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And he gave good advice. I start my generator once a month now and run it for at least 10 minutes. That generator will now start on the first pull almost every time. Same advice works for garden tillers and lawn mowers.

Briggs are actually good motors dick.

Ethanol will frick up anything, including your car

Diaphragm is probably stiff and brittle from Ethanol. Carb Kit, put fresh 100% gas in tank....vrooom vrooom.....