Craftsman 'Rotary Lawn Mower' 725 series LOSING POWER-shutting down!

[Dave Artista]

Hello everyone,

I came on to the web to see what forum I might find that could help me to
fix my Briggs & Stratton Craftsman Lawn Mower,
I just found this cool forum and I HOPE I can get the right advice from you all.


I must try to save money by fixing it myself if its possible..
It could be a simplistic repair but maybe not.

I bought the Craftsman 22" Multi-Cut Lawn Mower, 725 series
Model # 917.370921 1 years ago(2014).
It was working just fine and then I had the Mower accidentally hit a metal drainage cover.
It was damaged and started losing power.
I took it right away to a repair shop nearby,, I got it back a week later(paid a lot to have it fixed!)
It was working GREAT throughout the rest of 2014.
This spring 2015 I began using it and it was AGAIN, working great.
Last week though, It began to LOSE power.
Now it isn't able to stay running..
I did not hit anything ,,I did not damage it.

Ive notice though that initially when I turn it on, It starts to lose power
BUT when I push down on the armature/control bar, Lifting the front tires of the Mower up, its power goes back to NORMAL and running strong.
When I lower it back down , the front tires sitting back on the ground , the engine loses POWER right away.
What can the problem be????

I had replaced the air filter , I had CLEANED out the bottom of the mower, I had taken out the dirty oil and put in fresh oil.
I HOPE someone here will know what I might be able to do to FIX this..
Could it be that the belt or the gear-case pulley needs to be replaced?
Thank you:smile:

 

[reynoldston]

When you say loosing power just what do you mean? Engine starts running bad? losing pulling power? not cutting grass?

 

[Dave Artista]

Pretty much that's what is wrong with my mower now.
Being that it powers up when I raise the front up and then it loses power when it's back down.
What could the problem be?

 

[Dave Artista]

Hello ALL.... I certainly HOPE that someone might respond with commonsense GOOD advice ,,I dont want to have to take it back to a repair shop.
My front-yard grass is getting taller.
Please help me with good advice all Thanks

 

[Bob E]

Nobody wants to hold your hand through the repair :laughing:

Maybe...
old gas/carburetor needs cleaned
grass is too tall/wet
too much oil added to the crankcase
flywheel key was only half sheared when you hit the drainage cover, and has progressively gotten worse

 

[Dave Artista]

LOL Hey Bob thank you !!
I appreciate the response ... I will give it all a try.

 

[Dave Artista]

I just tried to use my Craftsman Lawn Mower today and it lost power and died out.
Once its cooled off it will start back up BUT, it will die once again!
Ill take photos of it and post it here.

 

[Bob E]

If it's overheating a critter might have made a nest between the fan shroud and cylinder.

 

[DaveTN]

It could be something in the governor linkage binding or off. I worked on a
push mower the other day that the owner said would start, but wouldn't
throttle up and mow..just die out when mowing. Idle great, but start to mow
and it would lose power or never rev up. Checked and found the air vane
governor stuck and wedged inside the blower cover (shroud). Took the cover
off, bent the metal out away from the governor arm it worked great! Sounds
like the engine is starving for gas when it won't throttle up. Try to enrich the
adjustment. Some carbs can be adjusted, some can not. Good Luck with it. :thumbsup:

 

[Dave Artista]

Hi Bob and everyone ,,
Bob you mentioned a possible problem

"old gas/carburetor needs cleaned"

That is WHAT it was.
It IS running A-OK NOW! whew...
I found a repair shop here in town ..
His name is Art ,,he has been doing this out of his garage since 1988 !!
He IS a good man and knew what he was doing.
He corrected my Mower within 10 minutes and charged me ONLY $15.00

I was impressed and appreciative ..
Carb' needed a good cleaning AND he replaced the spark plug too!!