Push comes to shove, carbs can be readily available and quite cheap.

^^^^^^^. Yep. Nowadays it ain't worth trying to clean and/or rebuild the things. $15 and you can throw a new one on there.

Oh, yeah. Piece of cake, because I'm Mr. Goodwrench.

And nothing costs 15 dollars, especially a carburetor for a 20+ year old lawnmower engine.

Well, God bless Saint Goodwrench.

Let's hope it doesn't come to me unbolting anything to fix this.

I did manage to fix the starter pulley when the cord broke a few years ago.

Actually, it must be this one, because mine is 123KO2-0314-E1

https://www.amazon.com/ROP-Sho...r%2Caps%2C135&sr=8-3

I find it remarkable that it's only 15 dollars.

The carb on these is simple. Cleaning it is in the I'm not a mechanic range. It's only a little more complicated than removing and replacing the sparkplug. Two bolts/screws, one drain plug, one jet (basically a threaded brass screw with a hole through the center), a can of carb cleaner, and an hour of time for the first time; fifteen minutes thereafter.

The float is plastic and the float needle has a rubber tip. besides the gasoline, melting these with a flame thrower will not be productive. The Amazon carb is a Chinese knockoff.

At the end of the mowing season or anytime I use a tool like a chainsaw that will sit unused for a while I empty the tank and put in some Aspen and run the engine again. It keeps the carb clear and does not degrade in the tank like petrol does.

Aspen comes in two and four strokes versions. Only issue it it costs a lot - about four times the cost of petrol here in Ireland so I don't use it for normal operation.

Yeah, I've tried a few of those cheap Chinese carbs on Amazon. I've had mixed success with them. One is still running my leaf blower, so that went well, but others have lasted only a few months. Funny thing, they all seem to fire right up OK, but die within a short period of time.

If you can find an OEM carb for that online, that would be the route I would go, but yours is pretty old. Maybe Ebay?

Para, people here may tell me I am crazy but nowadays I only run completely ethanol free fuel in all of my small engines. Makes life a lot easier.

Well:

https://www.partstree.com/mode...engine/carburetor-4/

On the right side of that page, it shows this:

https://www.partstree.com/part...ggs-stratton-498170/

But, under "Models that use this part" I don't see my model.

I'm going to try selogic's suggestion first.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
melting these with a flame thrower will not be productive.

So, you're not recommending it, then?

A can of Lysol and a lighter- this is something we used to play with as kids.

It sounds like cleaning the carburetor is a better idea than replacing it with a questionable Chinese part, but we're not there yet.

I bought Seafoam and starting fluid I put the appropriate amount of Seafoam in the mower tank. I removed the air filter and sprayed starting fluid in the intake.

Nothing.

Yes, as suggested, I need to make sure it's sparking but since it fired up yesterday, I don't think that's the issue.

The throttle cable is seized up. It's connected to one of those dead man levers on the handle I sprayed WD-40 down the plastic housing surrounding the cable. It won't budge but it's apparently frozen in the open position.

I think I can get an appropriate replacement for the cable. This mower is garaged, never left out in the weather, but...

If it's not popping off with starting fluid then I would start with the spark plug.

Yeah, just ordered a new one, thanks.

If the throttle cable is stuck in the wrong position it is probably grounding out the coil. It's designed to do that when you shut down the mower. You won't have any spark.

It's gotta be a No-Spark issue of some kind . You can make anything run with a shot of starting fluid .At least for a few seconds .

quote:

Originally posted by Brianp90:
If the throttle cable is stuck in the wrong position it is probably grounding out the coil. It's designed to do that when you shut down the mower. You won't have any spark.

I don't quite get that (because it was stuck the same way yesterday when it fired up at first), but obviously I need a new cable, so, ORDERED.

quote:

Originally posted by selogic:
It's gotta be a No-Spark issue of some kind. You can make anything run with a shot of starting fluid. At least for a few seconds.

We's a-honin' in on the issue.

Thanks for all the help, guys. Very much appreciated.

Look at the linkage on the carb. Very close to that linkage you'll see a small metal tab with a wire connected to it. Probably a green wire. When when you shut down the mower some part of the carb linkage will touch that metal tab and kill the spark. That's what actually shuts off the engine.

This non mechanical Gemini would advise you to
Call the man.

Bad Gas Cap will cause your issue.

How so?