Briggs 17 hp starts fine, dies in tall grass.

Zrxpilot

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Cant figure this issue out. My trusty MTD 42" rider starts up just fine. I can run it for maybe 30 minutes until it starts the following ritual. Hit tall grass and it stars dying. (not that tall)

I dissengage the deck and it will come back to life. This process repeats over and over. Its like its getting hot and vapor locking. Sometimes I will open the hood and the gas tank will be blowing up like a balloon as if some vent is plugged. I remove the fuel cap and it will be fine for awhile.

Still cuts great. Fresh blades, fresh fuel lines. Havent changed the plug but seems odd that would be it.
 

jmurray01

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Sounds like it is running too lean, is down on compression, or has bad spark plug(s).
 

taxidermist

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Cant figure this issue out. My trusty MTD 42" rider starts up just fine. I can run it for maybe 30 minutes until it starts the following ritual. Hit tall grass and it stars dying. (not that tall)

I dissengage the deck and it will come back to life. This process repeats over and over. Its like its getting hot and vapor locking. Sometimes I will open the hood and the gas tank will be blowing up like a balloon as if some vent is plugged. I remove the fuel cap and it will be fine for awhile.

Still cuts great. Fresh blades, fresh fuel lines. Havent changed the plug but seems odd that would be it.

Vent in gas cap plugged.
 

webuyanymower.com

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I will have $10.00 on the Taxidermist??.Clean the vent in the fuel cap and all will be well.:thumbsup:
 

Zrxpilot

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New cap, new plug, new fuel filter, new fuel lines and it still does it but took longer for it to happen. Time for a compression test I think.

I can imagine you can get rings for a B/S 17 hp single. Cant be that hard to change them out.
 

webuyanymower.com

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Dose the fuel tank still 澱low up like a balloon
If it was the rings you would see clouds of smoke and it would have a lack of power all the time not just after 30 minutes.
Have you cleaned the carb through because it still sounds like a fuel issue to me.
 

Zrxpilot

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^ The fuel tank quit ballooning up. I agree with you regarding the rings. It would be smoking and using oil and its not.

Next step is to take the carb apart but that doesnt make sense as you wiould think it would do it all the time but sometimes a fix doesnt make sense.

I also believe it to be a fuel starvation issue. Is there a fuel pump on this mechanical or otherwise? Noticed today the fuel filter was empty when it was dying.
 

webuyanymower.com

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Hi
It would depend on which motor you have. If yours has a pump it would normally be mounted on the engine after the fuel filter if you follow the fuel pipe along from the tank to the filter and from filter to carb you will find a round plastic device with three pipes sticking out of it one is the fuel pipe from the tank the other is the fuel pipe to the carb and the third is a vacuum pipe.

If you post the Model Type and Code numbers of your engine it would be possible to check if your engine has a pump or not.
 

themowerguy

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Other possible issues I have seen cause this include valves being out of adjustment, or a hairline crack on the carburetor or head gasket that would widen as the unit heats up, creating an air leak.
 

jd335

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I will have $10.00 on the Taxidermist??.Clean the vent in the fuel cap and all will be well.:thumbsup:
thats it had it to happen several times blow vents out should be good to go.
 
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