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I have a Craftsman Self-propelled Walk-behind with 5.5 Honda motor that is giving me fits. Last summer I had the same troubles and eventually gave up and paid Sears $80 to repair it. When they returned it a month later, they said they only did a tune up basically. It ran great for a while, then it started dying after 20 minutes of mowing again. They refused to look at it again in spite of the guarantee on the work. Oh well. Season was over anyways.

Now it's mowing time again. When the mower is cold, it will start with the aid of some sea foam sprayed directly into the chamber. It runs fine for a while, then it's dead again. When it died recently I tried swapping a new spark plug in, and it made no more effort to turn over.

I tend to think the issue is electrical, but the culprit is not the spark plug itself. If it were a fuel problem I'd think it would start regardless if I squirted some starter fluid directly into the chamber.

I'm at my wits end and am close to scrapping the thing. I don't want to, because it's a beautiful machine and it would be such a waste. I just don't have the mechanical skills to track down this gremlin, and I cannot invest any more money into other people fixing it (and maybe not actually fixing it).

Any final ideas I could try before sending it on to greener pastures and buying a new mower?

If it shuts down when hot look at fuel delivery, air intake , quality of the spark .
Keep in mind these motors do build up carbon on the cylinder head . This carbon gets so hot that the fuel explodes or burns before the compression stroke is complete . Hence engine dies . A head gasket is $3.00 . Order one - remove the head . Soak it in cleaner or wire brush it clean . Put it back together . See how it works .

check your ignition module as well. when it is hot check for spark, does it run long enough to get hot?
try to bake the module in the oven as well. (2hrs @ 100 degrees) rebuild the carb,

twinfords said:

check your ignition module as well. when it is hot check for spark, does it run long enough to get hot?
try to bake the module in the oven as well. (2hrs @ 100 degrees) rebuild the carb,

Click to expand...

Ok what will cooking it in the oven do?

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By ignition module you mean coil assembly, right?

I think I'll toss a new coil assembly on. It's amateurish of me to just slap various parts on without knowing the actual cause, but I think slapping a new coil assembly on and pulling the carb off for a thorough cleaning might do the trick (and would cost me around $30 - still not near what another shop visit would cost).

By the way, where do y'all get your parts? Anyone had experience with boats.net?

cooking the coil gives it another boost of life, google it, i was amazed and it work for me. not sure what it does.