yardman push mower hard to cold start

i had the neighbor drop off her yardman push mower today and she said it either will not start when cold or is hard to start when cold. she said both but it she must get it to start as she said it starts good after it warms up.

so i too off the carb it looked clean and sprayed it with cleaner blew it all out and put it back on. the plug looked good but i run it ove the wire wheel and gapped it to .030

the air cleaner was good not plugged

it is a elect. start so i put in a battery and got the key to crank it.

i found the primer hose broke so i repaired that and then i tried to crank it it did not start but after 3 pushes on the primer it started. normal! but it would not start without the primer even warm. but it would start with the rope warm.

my questions is this do these engines need the valves adjusted like the riders do? i do not want to mess with this until i get a bit on insight. i think it says on the side of the engine the valve lash so i should be set but having the procedure sure will make it better to do correctly. thanks for any help.

If this has the MTD made in China engine something else you may want to check is the air gap clearance on the ignition to flywheel. The gap is .008-.016 and you may have to adjust it a .001 at a time until it will start with the electric start. Had one a few years ago that would start manually but wouldn't start with the electric unless the air gap was .012. Wouldn't work at .011 or .013. This was after trying a new carb, ignition module and spark plug.

ILENGINE said:

If this has the MTD made in China engine something else you may want to check is the air gap clearance on the ignition to flywheel. The gap is .008-.016 and you may have to adjust it a .001 at a time until it will start with the electric start. Had one a few years ago that would start manually but wouldn't start with the electric unless the air gap was .012. Wouldn't work at .011 or .013. This was after trying a new carb, ignition module and spark plug.

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thanks for that tidbit. tomorrow when o got out to try it cold i wll check that if it fail to start cold with electric. and or the pull rope. again thanks much