New Troy Bilt TB 110 from Lowes.........will not start after 1ST winter storage

[Dan123]

Hi Folks,

I was paying a lawn guy $30 bucks a mow about 8-10 times a season..........so I went to Lowes and bought a Troy Bilt TB110 for $199, last August.

I used the mower about 4 times and it worked well. Cold weather months started so I ran it out of gas and placed in warm cellar for winter storage, I also took off the spark pug wire off of the plug.

Fast forward to this weekend. Took out mower, filled with fresh gas......the thing just will not start. The small engine place wants $150 min for "Tune up".

I am a very handy guy with a lot of things, plumbing electric carpentry.......I know nothing about engines.

Any ideas? I read maybe removing the plug and pulling the starter cord might blow out something??? The thing looks brand new.

Does anyone know what may be wrong?....THANKS FOR REPLY

 

[Fish]

Take off the air filter, and squirt a shot of carb cleaner into the carb throat and pull the rope and see what happens, if it starts then dies, do it a few more time until all of the old gas burns out of the carb, sometimes they just need a spring goose...

 

[Fish]

If it doesn't start then die, well, let us know, might be just a fouled plug.....

 

[Dan123]

Problem Fixed.

Thank You Guys for the help and for taking the time to answering my question.

I went out and bought the gunk carb spray at Lowes today.

Took out air filter and sprayed in.....it took about 5 minutes and a few tries then it started as normal and I mowed the lawn. I also stopped it a few times then started again to check and all is normal now.

The guy at Lowes said the problem was due to ethanol in the unleaded gas and recommended I buy the canned fuel they had.

I may do that after using normal unleaded all season then run a can of canned fuel through the mower before next winter put away.

Thanks again

 

[Muleskinner]

A little bit of Sea Foam mixed in with the gas works very well also.

 

[Jakes29]

I switched to Super unleaded in all my small engines the last couple years and they have never run better. Usually use stabil for storage as well.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Never ever put e anything gas in a mower.
Considering the amount of gas you will be using the sealed container gas won't hurt.
Same reason the top grade of pump gas is not likely to send you to the poor house either.
As for the local mower shop, give the list a little closer idea of where you live and I am sure some one will know a slightly more user friendly repair shop.

 

[loco-diablo]

Canned ethanol free gas is overkill for in season use. Especially at $6 a quart! Regular unleaded with a little sea foam or stabil marine works wonders. If we could source it from a gas station, that would e different. Being from Massachusetts, like you, we have only ethanol blends available as far as I know.
As you mention however, I actually run a little canned 2 stroke mixture through my 2 stroke equipment before storage, but have never done it for my mower..
For storage of mower I put a little sea foam or stabil marine in the tank and let it run for a few minutes then I shut fuel valve. When the engine quits, I loosen drain nut on the bottom of the carb to drain any remaining fuel that may be in there. I've been doing this for years and never had a fuel related spring startup issue.
I use the grade of fuel recommended by the manufacturer, usually 87 octane for 4 stoke small engine. Some 2 strokes call for premium/oil mix.