Hi!
My push lawn mower won't start. I don't know the first thing about small engine repair but I've always wanted to learn, so I figure this is a good opportunity. Here is what I've done so far. I will update this thread with some pictures and the actual brand of the lawn mower as I'm sure that will be helpful.
Problem - lawn mower doesn't start. It was working pretty well at the beginning of the summer, then it started getting difficult to start (would start and then die after a minute or two) and now it just won't start at all. When it was starting and dying, rocking the lawn mower back and forth vigorously seemed to help.
Solutions based off what I've read on the internet:
1) Replace air filter - I went out and bought a new air filter (it's one of those paper cone type filters) and popped it in. No difference.
2) Replace spark plug. I went out and bought a new spark plug that matched the old one, and I also bought an 'in-line' spark tester. I switched out the spark plugs and tried the tester. When I pull the string on the lawn mower the little light bulb on the tester briefly lights up (faintly and only for a split second or so), but then the lawn mower doesn't start and nothing else happens.
3) Clear the 'drain jet' - I'm not sure if this is the right term, it's part of the screw that keeps the carburetor bowl attached. I used a little piece of wire to clean on the hole in the jet (you can now see daylight through it), and I cleaned up the bowl (it looked pretty clean), and both the o-ring on the bowl and the gasket on the drain jet screw look okay to me. Didn't solve the problem.
4) Make sure the fuel filter is working. In my mower this filter is like a little grey strip on the inside of the gas tank (it looks like a little piece of tape almost, but I'm guessing it's actually a very fine cloth). I took the tank off and disconnected the hose and let the existing gas inside the tank trip out through the filter into an old can. The gas comes out pretty steadily and seems very clear in my opinion. I put in new gas, although the 'old' gas in the tank couldn't have been more than 3-4 weeks old.
5) Change the oil - so I emptied out the old oil. One thing I thought was kind of suspicious is that the oil seemed to be very full (and nobody has put oil in this machine in since I bought it used two summers ago) - it was like right up to the brim of the inlet. I turned the lawnmower over and emptied it out, and the oil was kind of brown and muddy-coloured and looked old, but the consistency looked about right. I put a smaller amount of fresh oil in.
6) Clean the carburetor. On my mower the easiest way to remove the carburetor is to take two screws out of the intake valve (which is bolted to the carburetor), disconnect the gas line and the air line (I think that's what it is), and pull the whole thing out. I was unable to unbolt the intake valve from the carburetor - I can't get enough leverage with a regular ratchet and would need to put the carburetor into a vice grip or something to get those bolts loose. The carb looked pretty clean from what I could tell. The needle looked fine, the float seems fine, and I used carburetor cleaner to clean the whole thing. The carb was a little dirty but nothing looked jammed up or broken.
So that's where I am at the moment, and I'm getting to the limit of what basic youtube videos can tell me. Does anyone know what the next steps are? Is there some way I can diagnose what the problem is, or do I need to just start taking this thing apart piece by piece until something looks messed up?
Apologies if any of the above is unclear - a few days ago I didn't even know lawn mowers needed oil, let alone what a carburetor is, and I still don't know what 99% of all this stuff actually does.
My push lawn mower won't start. I don't know the first thing about small engine repair but I've always wanted to learn, so I figure this is a good opportunity. Here is what I've done so far. I will update this thread with some pictures and the actual brand of the lawn mower as I'm sure that will be helpful.
Problem - lawn mower doesn't start. It was working pretty well at the beginning of the summer, then it started getting difficult to start (would start and then die after a minute or two) and now it just won't start at all. When it was starting and dying, rocking the lawn mower back and forth vigorously seemed to help.
Solutions based off what I've read on the internet:
1) Replace air filter - I went out and bought a new air filter (it's one of those paper cone type filters) and popped it in. No difference.
2) Replace spark plug. I went out and bought a new spark plug that matched the old one, and I also bought an 'in-line' spark tester. I switched out the spark plugs and tried the tester. When I pull the string on the lawn mower the little light bulb on the tester briefly lights up (faintly and only for a split second or so), but then the lawn mower doesn't start and nothing else happens.
3) Clear the 'drain jet' - I'm not sure if this is the right term, it's part of the screw that keeps the carburetor bowl attached. I used a little piece of wire to clean on the hole in the jet (you can now see daylight through it), and I cleaned up the bowl (it looked pretty clean), and both the o-ring on the bowl and the gasket on the drain jet screw look okay to me. Didn't solve the problem.
4) Make sure the fuel filter is working. In my mower this filter is like a little grey strip on the inside of the gas tank (it looks like a little piece of tape almost, but I'm guessing it's actually a very fine cloth). I took the tank off and disconnected the hose and let the existing gas inside the tank trip out through the filter into an old can. The gas comes out pretty steadily and seems very clear in my opinion. I put in new gas, although the 'old' gas in the tank couldn't have been more than 3-4 weeks old.
5) Change the oil - so I emptied out the old oil. One thing I thought was kind of suspicious is that the oil seemed to be very full (and nobody has put oil in this machine in since I bought it used two summers ago) - it was like right up to the brim of the inlet. I turned the lawnmower over and emptied it out, and the oil was kind of brown and muddy-coloured and looked old, but the consistency looked about right. I put a smaller amount of fresh oil in.
6) Clean the carburetor. On my mower the easiest way to remove the carburetor is to take two screws out of the intake valve (which is bolted to the carburetor), disconnect the gas line and the air line (I think that's what it is), and pull the whole thing out. I was unable to unbolt the intake valve from the carburetor - I can't get enough leverage with a regular ratchet and would need to put the carburetor into a vice grip or something to get those bolts loose. The carb looked pretty clean from what I could tell. The needle looked fine, the float seems fine, and I used carburetor cleaner to clean the whole thing. The carb was a little dirty but nothing looked jammed up or broken.
So that's where I am at the moment, and I'm getting to the limit of what basic youtube videos can tell me. Does anyone know what the next steps are? Is there some way I can diagnose what the problem is, or do I need to just start taking this thing apart piece by piece until something looks messed up?
Apologies if any of the above is unclear - a few days ago I didn't even know lawn mowers needed oil, let alone what a carburetor is, and I still don't know what 99% of all this stuff actually does.
