I have a riding lawn mover and had a very experienced mechanic replace the spark plug on my mower (he was actually leveling the mowing deck and did this as an extra item). Any way, he is also said that he readjusted the chock.

Well, long story short, I have had a problem with the engine cutting out once it heats up. He has replaced everything on it......fuel filter, fuel lines, taken apart the carburetor, etc., and says it worked fine for him. I believe him as he was referred by a friend who has known him for years.

Bottom line is that it still overheating and cutting out. He says that the carburetor must be getting stuck.

Does anyone know anything else I can do before taking it to another mechanic? When I first start to mow, it cuts out after running it for 12 minutes. Then, it cuts out after just about 2-3 minutes of use. Could it be the adjustment he made on the chock?

One thing you might do is check your gas tank. You could have trash in the tank causing loss of flow. Easy check and won't cost you anything.

SA,

I did that and nothing wrong there.

Gabster, what engine do you have on the mower? Briggs & Stratton, Tecumsah?

A few thoughts:

Have you checked, cleaned or replaced your air filter? If not, start it up and then pop the filter and see if the engine surges and runs better. This may tell you that you need to replace the filter and clean the air intake.

One other thought would be that you have a defective gas tank lid that is not venting properly which could pressurize your system and cause problems.

[This message has been edited by SA-AG72 (edited 6/6/2010 9:13p).]

Perhaps the ignition is grounding out when the wires get hot?

Paging Wunderbrad.

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problem with lawn mower enjoy cutting out after mowing for about 10 minutes

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I usually lose my lawn mowing enjoy in less than 5

It's the coil/magneto. Had the same issue. Easy fix.

Cody
Fightin' Texas Aggie c/o '04

Never had a single problem with my carburetor or gas tank.

SA,

Those are good possibilities. We checked both...loosened the gas cap, no change. Took the cover off to the filter. I replace it just a month or two ago, no different.

Da, tell me more about the coil issue. That's something I'm not sure we have addressed.

Also, the grounding issue is something I'd like to know more about too.

Thanks everyone.

Good luck, Gabster!

Check the location and volume of the fuel filter. I replaced the fuel filter on my Craftsman lawn tractor with the one in the tune up kit from Sears last year. There was not enough drop from the tank to the carb to keep the filter full. Replaced it with a smaller filter from Home Depot, and not it runs like new.

Mr. Dubi,

funny you should mention the fuel filter. I noticed where Lowe's gave me a different shaped filter than what originally came on the mower, and it makes me wonder if they did not give me the wrong filter. That would certainly make a difference?

Our mower would run for about 10 minutes then die; then wait 15-30 minutes before it would go again. After Mr. Dubi replaced the filter, it runs great.

I'm in a little late but I didn't see the bat signal going off.

When it dies initially, does it start right back up, start back up after a few minutes, or start back up in 30 minutes?

If it's the ignition coil, it will die and not start again until the coil has cooled off in 20-45 minutes. If it's a fuel filter, it'll probably take a short time to regenerate and start again.

When you go to start the mower after it has died, do you just choke it and start it, or does it not need choking? Do you look in the gas tank in between it dying and you restarting?

Wunder,

I can usually start it after 20 or 30 minutes. Usually, I automatically choke it so I really couldn't tell you if it did or did not need to be choked.

I went back to Lowe's this evening and asked a guy for the filter for my engine. He gave me a slightly smaller filter that is a different shape than what got put on my mower by the mechanic who did the work. Therefore, I am going to replace the filter tomorrow with this new different shaped filter and see what happens.

My neighbor thinks it is the mag coil. We'll first see what happens with a different filter.

put sta-bil in your gas can when you fill it up. I`d bet the ethanol in gas now is causing the problem. Stuff is evil but someone thought it was a good idea.

See what it does, but it's likely to be the ignition coil / magneto. You test that by running it till it dies, disconnect all wires to the coil(probably just one small kill wire), then test for spark. If it doesn't have spark, the coil is bad. If it does have spark, the coil is good. You can test it with a spark tester if you have one, pull the spark plug, hook it up and ground it out and look for spark, or grab the wire. I wouldn't suggest grabbing the wire, especially if you have heart problems.

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or grab the wire......especially if you have heart problems.

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Bootstrap, I bet you look totally manly weilding that ungodly contraption. And yes, I used to use one of those about 15 years ago when I was forced to mow my parents lawn and the normal mower died and money was short. Plain and simple: it sucked...a lot. The one I was using was (at the time) about 10 years old, so that would make it 20 year old tech, but I can't imagine it got any better.

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I wouldn't suggest grabbing the wire, especially if you have heart problems.

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Done this on a 15hp boat motor, by accident....not fun. DO NOT WANT.

I did something similar working on the connection to a dryer without remember to cut off the power at the breaker....my heart literally hurt for over a week.

get a new gas cap

How about pulling codes with your OBDII scan tool?

Phantom,

I loosened the gas cap and it still did it.

It's amazing how many amps those little ignition systems will put out...def wakes you up!

take it completely off then try it.If it still does it,then I would think it might be a carb problem .Like maybe its gummed up or theres an obstruction somewhere(fuel filter,gas line or internal).My guess is thats it's a fuel problem not an ignition problem.That's what I can come up with without actually hearing it.Also look and see if maybe the fuel line is cruched or kinked.Maybe when the guy worked on it.he pinched it somewhere

[This message has been edited by phantom commenter (edited 6/20/2010 10:32a).]

It appears as though the changing of the fuel filter to a different sized filter may have taken care of the problem. I will know for sure this weekend.

Mr Doooooobs comes through in the clutch....

Used our mower twice this weekend and it did not cut out, nor does it sound off when we cut the motor off. Must have been the wrong sized filter that caused the problem.