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I have had this mower for 6 years and I believe it’s 8 years old or more. Sears special.

Last season it started sputtering and dying on me mid-mow. Checked the gas and oil - all good.

Started doing it again this week. Changed the fuel filter, sprayed some carb cleaner, and put Star Tron in the gas tank. Ran like brand new for about 10 minutes. Now back to sputtering/dying/won’t start.

Any ideas ? Thanks

Drain some fuel out of the tank into a glass/ clear fuel resistant bottle. Let it sit for about 10 minutes, watch for phase separation. Water/contaminant will be on the bottom, fuel on top.

Appreciate the reply, and I understand the directions clearly. If there is contaminant, what is the next step to take ? if not, next steps then ?

gberger said:

Appreciate the reply, and I understand the directions clearly. If there is contaminant, what is the next step to take ? if not, next steps then ?

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Drain all of the fuel out of the gas tank and carburetor. Refill with fresh fuel.
Let me get to a desktop so i can type faster ??

Thanks for your reply. Small engine repair is a new thing to me.

I was able to cut all of the grass yesterday, so I just wanted to be prepared to have it fixed before next cut on the weekend.

Also is there such a thing as spraying too much carb cleaner or using too much StarTron ?

I've never heard of anyone OD'ing their engine on star tron. That's what i use personally.... now i have seen people overdose them on stabil, the fuel was dark pink... they must have put in a a whole bottle for like a 4 gallon tank. ran better after i drained it and put in fresh fuel and the correct amount of star tron. Of course the fuel could have already been bad and they tried to negate that with all of the stabil.
Really can't spray too much Carb cleaner. if you're spraying directly into the carburetor (like where the air intake goes to) you're not doing much good, as usually the problem lies within the carburetor jets and you usually need to disassemble to clean properly.
If your gasoline is clean, carry the can of carb spray with you, when the engine starts running bad, pop the air cleaner off and give it a short spray, it may be sort of hard to do quickly as i know this is a compact machine, anyway, if it runs better you know you're starving for fuel. if it still runs bad, i would suspect another issue.

a friend at work suggested that the choke wire may be loose, broken, or mal-adjusted. may cause the sputtering.

put fresh gas in; same issue