I have a Craftsman Self-propelled Walk-behind with 5.5 Honda motor that is giving me fits. Last summer I had the same troubles and eventually gave up and paid Sears $80 to repair it. When they returned it a month later, they said they only did a tune up basically. It ran great for a while, then it started dying after 20 minutes of mowing again. They refused to look at it again in spite of the guarantee on the work. Oh well. Season was over anyways.
Now it's mowing time again. When the mower is cold, it will start with the aid of some sea foam sprayed directly into the chamber. It runs fine for a while, then it's dead again. When it died recently I tried swapping a new spark plug in, and it made no more effort to turn over.
I tend to think the issue is electrical, but the culprit is not the spark plug itself. If it were a fuel problem I'd think it would start regardless if I squirted some starter fluid directly into the chamber.
I'm at my wits end and am close to scrapping the thing. I don't want to, because it's a beautiful machine and it would be such a waste. I just don't have the mechanical skills to track down this gremlin, and I cannot invest any more money into other people fixing it (and maybe not actually fixing it).
Any final ideas I could try before sending it on to greener pastures and buying a new mower?
Now it's mowing time again. When the mower is cold, it will start with the aid of some sea foam sprayed directly into the chamber. It runs fine for a while, then it's dead again. When it died recently I tried swapping a new spark plug in, and it made no more effort to turn over.
I tend to think the issue is electrical, but the culprit is not the spark plug itself. If it were a fuel problem I'd think it would start regardless if I squirted some starter fluid directly into the chamber.
I'm at my wits end and am close to scrapping the thing. I don't want to, because it's a beautiful machine and it would be such a waste. I just don't have the mechanical skills to track down this gremlin, and I cannot invest any more money into other people fixing it (and maybe not actually fixing it).
Any final ideas I could try before sending it on to greener pastures and buying a new mower?