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I’ve heard that bearing on top of the Briggs recoil starter squeal. I’m betting that Rivets is right. You’ll be singing La donna e mobile before long.

I had this type carb on a 5hp tiller. There was no replacement available for the plastic part with the screen. I improvised with a fuel filter from a two-stroke attached to the brass tube with a piece of plastic fuel line. It worked fine.

Hi Rigoletto. Opera fan? Rivets knows the Pulsajet carb and its issues. Do what he said. If you still have issues after cleaning and rebuilding the carb, consider testing for spark after it runs and dies. A failing coil often works when cold and then fails when it gets hot. Oddjob

Welcome, and thanks for reporting back.

Since the conversation has turned to spark plugs, I had a strange experience a few weeks ago buying an NGK plug for my Stihl leaf blower. The plug was in stock at a local Advance Auto Parts store. They keep the plugs behind the counter so a clerk had to get it for me. I checked the info on...

I think you’re right about oil leaking past valve stems.

Hi John, The kill switch sends the current generated via the coil to ground instead of to the spark plug. So when you hold the bale back, you open the kill circuit and when you release it, you close the circuit and kill the spark to ground. In my experience with that Honda engine the culprit...

I have no experience with your equipment, so take this as general trouble-shooting advice. You may have a vacuum leak letting too much air into the combustion chamber, hence the need for choke. You can take a propane torch (unlit) and open the valve and move it around the carb connections. If...

Tires on small wheels are a royal pain to take off or put on, with or without a tire changer. No matter what you use, heat is your best friend. Leave them in the sun on a hot day. Better yet, put them in a pot of boiling water and simmer for five minutes. Boiling water can’t get hotter than...

Could be hydro locked. The needle valve and seat in the carb may be not closing and letting fuel from the tank drain into the crankcase. Drain the oil and see how much comes out. If way more than normal, and it smells like gas, you’ve found the problem.

Anyone have success gluing the magnets back on?

Oops. Meant to say if it does not click you have a bad solenoid or solenoid connection/ground, If you can’t make the starter whirl when you jump it, you have a bad starter.

I agree with Auto Doc but would also suspect a bad ground. Clean battery posts and connectors, then follow negative ( black) lead and make sure it has a clean connection to ground. Battery cables should be nice and tight. Also check the ground on the solenoid. Is this s two post solenoid...

The only theory I can come up with that could explain all the symptoms you describe is that the ignition was grounding out due to a loose or chafed kill wire or kill switch. When the mower was not level, the wire drooped and touched metal so there was no spark to the plug. Eventually it wore...

I resemble that remark. Three days ago I was in the process of selling a nice BBC Honda mower that I had rehabbed a few months ago. I explained to the buyer that these mowers came with fuel shutoffs. Then I turned the fuel off, thinking I was turning it on. I even showed the buyer the decal...

Wish I knew. Here’s a theory. Maybe it had nothing to do with the choke. Obviously, you had spark since it started. Maybe the plug was weak and failed altogether after it got hot, as in after 30 seconds of run time.

I’m assuming that it stays running if you leave the choke on. If that is correct two things occur to me. First, has this engine ever run properly with no choke or is it new to you and you’ve never seen it run without choke? I ask because it has been my experience that some of these Honda...

I notice that there is a lot of room inside the blade shield. Could you use a new blade?

I was about to enter the parking deck at the gym when I saw someone’s headlights inside the deck moving toward my entrance, so I stopped about 30 feet short of the entrance and waited for the other car to exit. The lady driver made a left turn, should have been a 90, but she kept turning...

I have changed maybe a dozen mower tires in my life, so not exactly an expert. I didn’t enjoy any if those experiences and would gladly have paid a tire shop but the only one that will mount small tires is 30 minutes away so I always try to see if I can do it myself first. I have learned that...

Can’t go wrong with either one. Put them both up for sale and keep the one that doesn’t sell first.

I suspect that you have slightly dislodged the flywheel and now your ignition timing is slightly off. Pull the flywheel and see if the woodruff key is still aligned in the slot in the crankshaft.

I have the same engine on my RX-75 and exactly the same issue. To cut to the chase, I have never solved it but here are the things I considered. This is a gravity fed fuel system so make sure you have the right fuel filter. A filter designed for a pressurized fuel system doesn’t allow enough...

I don’t know. I suspect it should show continuity. Hope someone on this site can give more authoritative answer. How about disconnecting the sensor and see if it starts?

Does it have a sensor to ensure adequate oil? Many generators do. That sensor could be failing but first check your oil level.

I will be watching this thread to see if anyone has cracked the code on Honda self-propelled being hard to pull back. You referenced the size of the engine but I don’t think that’s it. I have had a few HR214’s with the GCV160 engine and they pulled back with little effort. I have also had an...

Maybe try rocking the bolt with a six-sided hand wrench or socket on a breaker bar, tightening and loosening, and if that doesn’t work try tapping on the wrench with a hammer. Do you have an air hammer? If not, can you borrow or rent one? I think I remember seeing Taryl use one to break stuck...

Let’s start with the cause for your engine shutting down when you get up from the seat. Simply put, your coil is being grounded. However, your mower was designed so that it won’t ground out when you get up provided that you have the parking brake engaged and that you do not have the pto...

Nice video. Appreciate the production values. Congrats on persevering to victory!

Can you get the wiring diagram for your machine and post it here?

T That engine has an autochoke system. I’d guess that when you shut it down the choke is wide open and when you try to restart, it wants a little choke. Wait 15 minutes and the thermostat relaxes a little and you get some choke and the engine starts rIght up. I had a mower that did this...

Have you tried adjusting the governor?

I suspected that the cable or kill mechanism had suffered when the engine came to a quick and violent stop. Glad you got it solved.

Good job! I love hose clamps. Have fixed many things with them, including a temporary fix for the water supply plastic pipe to my house, the loose steering column on a VW Cabriolet, and the oil drain hose on a John Deere RX75. When I lived in England and went to an auto parts store to buy some...

Tim, I apologize. I think I sent you in the wrong direction. The culprit is more likely the seat switch. The brake switch only comes in to play when you start the engine. It lets you send current to the solenoid and on to the starter. The seat switch does a few things. It requires you to...

Have you looked at the contact point where the kill wire makes contact when you release the handles? Is it still making contact when you have the handle pulled back? Have you pulled the kill wire off the coil? Worth a try. I assume that you checked the gap when you looked at the woodruff...

If your new carb solved any fuel issue and the new plug eliminated that possibility, then you are left with the coil as a suspect.

Doc, you missed the part where he changed carbs.

I found the owners manual online. Look at page 20. There’s a procedure for adjusting the tension on what they call the attachment clutch and the rest of us would call the blade engagement lever. It is supposed to have 3-9 mm of free play when unengaged. I suspect that you have more than that...

I did a Google search on Stiga Villa 14HST and found a very complete manual. The file is too large to attach here, but you can easily find it with your own search. The manual shows that your machine has three safety switches, one on the seat, one on the power takeoff (the blade engagement...

That sounds like a carburetor issue. Hope the new one solves it.

If it won’t start up with starter fluid sprayed into the combustion chamber then you do not have a fuel delivery issue and replacing the carb is not likely to solve the problem. Maybe you need a new carb anyway, but you would get to the ultimate solution faster by pulling the kill wire off the...

Have you checked the safety switches? Or, are you trying to start it with the blade/pto engaged? Is the parking brake on? If it won’t light off with starting fluid then it has: too weak a spark, a bad spark plug, the timing is off, or the spark is grounding out. Disconnect the kill wire from...

I’m not familiar with your machine but suspect your parking brake needs to be adjusted or the safety switch activated by the parking brake needs to be replaced. Since you’ve had it 5 years I assume that this is a new behavior and it used to stay running. The safety switch activated by setting...

Yes, the thinner the wire, the lighter the spring tension. Hope you find an oem spring, but if you don’t, suggest you try a generic governor return spring from Amazon or Ebay. The spring just returns the throttle to full open when the governor stops pushing the linkage to close the throttle...

The one in the picture is a combination linkage rod with the spring integrated with it. You can buy just the spring. Any governor return spring that is the same length will work.

I have the same size lawn and am the same age as you. Never really needed a rider but have had several that were either gifted to me or bought for chump change. These include 2 John Deeres, a Troybilt, a Craftsman, and 2 rear engine 28 inch Snappers. One thing I have learned along the way is...

Honda plugs are physically bigger than most. I always suspected that their ignition systems put out bigger and fatter sparks and this was the reason they started so easily but when I experienced failed plugs I wondered if the stronger current could also be the reason the plugs went bad. Total...

Amen about Honda plugs. Have to tell this story. Please forgive me. I had a good friend who had many talents but he was the opposite of a MacGyver. Completely ignorant of all things mechanical. I had just bought a Honda, the first one I ever worked on. Got it for $20 because it would start...

Pull the kill wire off the coil and see if it keeps running. If it does, you’ve eliminated carburetor, coil, timing, and spark plug as issues. Only thing left would be finding out why it is grounding out.