Around 10 years ago I was looking for a gas mower to do some small areas around trees and under bushes that I could not easily get my lawn tractor into. I found a Remington gas mower with self propelled drive and electric start.
It worked fine for several years then one spring when I went to use it it would not turn over. I set it aside and just used my string trimmer for several years.
This year I decided to fix the Remington and use it again.
I bought a new 12v battery for the starter and it again cranked over, but would not start.

I figured bad gas and varnished fuel parts. I went into the fuel system and disconnected to=he fuel lines and drained the tank. I checked the fuel lines to make sure they flowed to the carb.
I drained the carb and shot it full of carb cleaner.
I tried to start it, it cranked but would not start.
I poured gas into the carb and could get the mower to start and run only long enough to run till the fuel I poured in ran dry.

I then went deeper into the carb spraying all the jets,and fuel float and needle valve. I did not want to try and remove the carb because of all the choke and other linkages connected to it. I tried to start again and had the same result as when I poured the fuel directly into the carb.

I removed the spark plug and cleaned it but did not think it had a bearing on the problem.

If this was a car engine I would immediately think fuel pump.
Does this small engine have some sort of a fuel pump or something that pushes fuel into the carb?

Thanks for your advice.

The old stale gasoline has turned into varnish and the carburetor has plugged jets. Spray carb cleaner will never clean out the plugged jets. Clean them out with appropriate sizes of tiny non-stranded wires.
I have also found the float valve needle and seat stuck shut with the old gasoline varnish. Sometimes, tapping on the float bowl will cause the needle and seat to function again.
If disconnecting the throttle and choke linkages intimidate you, take LOTS of detailed photos.
Buy a carb rebuild kit and rebuild it or buy a replacement carburetor online.
I replaced my Stihl chainsaw carburetor with something from China and so far it's better than new. For what it's worth, the factory OEM carb was also made in China.

Most of my lawns I mow with a Kubota tractor with a 60" deck. Several roadside banks and under trees and some shrubbery require a push rotary mower.
I also got fed up with small walk behind gas mowers and replaced it with a Stihl battery powered push rotary mower.
Best decision I ever made!

About a fuel pump. Follow the hose leaving the tank. If it's a straight run from the bottom of the fuel tank and then directly to the carb, no fuel pump, ie: gravity fed.

I took most of the carb apart and sprayed carb cleaner through the jets and took the needle valve apart and cleaned it, it was working smoothly.
I have a gas line that runs to the carb and 2 other lines that connect into the air filter, those lines run under the engine cover. This is why I thought I might have a diaphragm fuel pump, the gas tank is barely above the carb.

I also use a Kubota BX 23S tractor with the 60"deck for my mowing.
I was happy using my Milwaukee M18 string trimmer for the harder to get to areas. Now, the battery's for the Milwaukee have very poor useful service time. I feel like I'm going into combat and have a bag of Milwaukee battery's from 12amp to a bunch of 5 amp just to get through with what one 12amp would do. This is why I hoped to re-activate the push mower.
I want to try and avoid throwing another $40 for a carb for the mower unless I'm sure that is the problem.

I guess you will have to take the engine cover off and see for yourself if it has a diaphragm fuel pump.
Typically, those are mounted directly on the crankcase where the internal pressure changes (piston traveling up and down) provide the pulses for the fuel pump rubber diaphragm motion.
Sometimes the varnish is in the pot metal casting passage that feeds the jet. That's why you use wires.

Does gas flow through the float needle valve when the float bowl is removed?

If yes, then there’s a tube that goes to the bottom of the float bowl. It’s an integral part of the carb casting and screwed inside that tube is a brass jet that meters gas flow from the float bowl to the carb’s venturi. This jet is clogged. Unscrew it, poke a piece of copper wire through it, use the straw with the carb cleaner and blast carb cleaner through the hole in the jet. Also using the straw, blast carb clear up the tube while looking into the carb’s throat to see that the carb cleaner goes into the venturi, the narrowed portion of the throat. Screw the jet back in, put the float bowl back on, and start your mower.

I have had two engines left sitting that I found the carburetor float bowl vent was plugged with corrosion. The vent is usually a small hole in the top plate. The engine would run but gas would be streaming out of the venturi rather than a spray.
Any carb left to evaporate out with modern gasoline is going to have crusty gritty build up anywhere that gas pooled. Under the jets and the passageways to the small emulsion tubes need gently cleaned out with a wire.

quote:

Originally posted by cee_Kamp:
I also got fed up with small walk behind gas mowers and replaced it with a Stihl battery powered push rotary mower.
Best decision I ever made!

I got tired of trying to patch up a Toro self propelled gas mower that I was given a few years ago. I use a JD X300 for most of the mowing but need a small push mower for some areas.

One of my friends sells Stihl equipment and I bought an electric push mower over from him. My maintenance of it consists of taking the leaf blower to it when done. I have two batteries, one fully charged is good for two trimmings once a week.

It's almost never worth it these days to fully disassemble and totally clean a mower carburetor that has failed due to sitting with ethanol gas in it, considering you can generally buy a new carb for less than $25.

Especially since there's no guarantee that you'll get it back working even with spending the time and effort to disassemble and fiddle with it.

Buy a new carb, and then use only non-ethanol gas. (Or if that's simply not an option in your area, use treated gas, and run it dry before end of season storage.)

Quickie check to see if the no-start is fuel, ignition or mechanical (no compression): spray starting fluid or even brake cleaner directly down its throat. If it tries to start and even run briefly, you've eliminated the ignition (spark plugs, especially with these small engines, can look good but still not spark) and compression.

He said he did that in his first post:

quote:

Originally posted by armored:
I poured gas into the carb and could get the mower to start and run only long enough to run till the fuel I poured in ran dry.

I’ve never replaced a carb.

Once you’ve pulled the carb, which you’d have to do to replace it, it’s 15 minutes to take it apart, clean it, and put it back together. Then you reinstall it, which you’d have to do with a new carb. Pay $25 and wait two days for a new carb, or spend 15 minutes and get back to getting work done.

I got shit to do.

That’s not to say I’m against buying new parts. I just bought and installed a pregreased hub on my jet ski trailer. Cost $70, I could have put new bearings in the old hub, but I don’t have the tools to properly install the races and it would have taken more time than I have at the moment to get the tools, bearings, and do the job.

ceeKamp and Shovelhead have a good solution, it's what I did years ago and still have all the EGO stuff. It is a god send to be able to grab any of the tools, blower, trimmer, edger, hedge, chainsaw and just drop a battery on it and go...

As far as repair, just go on Amazon, get the replacement carb and install it, you can move the linkages one at a time, take pictures. You might pull the cover so you can get at the fuel petcock, it could be blocked, as could the fuel line. My concern is you put starter fluid in and it still wont run meaning it could be electrical as well.

If you decide that you don't want to put more money into it, sell it and get an EGO battery string trimer, they were on sale with a spare battery making the deal basically a zero cost since you're getting a spare battery worth more than the trimmer.

I think they are on sale right now at lows still, just not the spare battery, they also have a deal on a walk behind mower, lightweight deck, battery, it will do quite a bit of work, if you get both you can share batteries.

I would tear it down, pull out all teh jets and clean everything real well. Or. You could buy a chinesium carb and just replace it.

I started working on small engines when I was 15 so getting these things repaired is easy for me although some can be a pain to do.

I got rid of the gas mower and bought a Milwaukee battery powered mower 3 years ago. It works great for my small lawn, just charge the batteries when done. It has more power due to the electric motor torque than any gas mower I have had. It mows better than the Honda commercial mower i last owned.

Thanks for the help.
I will take the advice of trying to clean out the old carb again before buying a new one.
The jets (I identify as jets are 2 very small brass orifices mounted inside the carb throat) don't look like they unscrew, they are very tiny. I will give them a much closer exam to see if there are any slots on them to unscrew them.Yesterday I did spray carb cleaner through them along with compressed air. I will also re-exam the needle valve for the obstruction that was suggested.

I will go through my stranded wire to find some strands that will penetrate the jets for cleaning.

At 3:17 in the video below, the guy removes the jet:



It’s the first video I could find that shows what I posted, but the guy is using the wrong terminology. The most obvious is he calls the float bowl bolt a nut.

THANKS!

When you’ve finished cleaning the carb and go to reinstall it, do make sure you have the gaskets oriented correctly.

I got a screaming deal on a snow blower last winter because “it wouldn’t run.”
(A teardown and cleaning revealed that one of the gaskets was on incorrectly, blocking a hole that shouldn’t have been blocked.)

quote:

Originally posted by vthoky:
When you’ve finished cleaning the carb and go to reinstall it, do make sure you have the gaskets oriented correctly.

I got a screaming deal on a snow blower last winter because “it wouldn’t run.”
(A teardown and cleaning revealed that one of the gaskets was on incorrectly, blocking a hole that shouldn’t have been blocked.)

Yup. Neighbor was REALLY frustrated trying to get a small generator to run. Gave up, put a Chineseum carb on it, STILL wouldn't run. Asked me to look at it. On a whim, took the carb off and the gasket between the carb and the intake was on back-asswards, blocking a vacuum port on the carb. Flipped it, started second pull, ran like a watch.

UPDATE
I watched the video, stripped some wire to find the correct diameter strands to poke through the jets, removed the jet that I did not even know was there until the wise members here pointed it out, as the knowledgeable members predicted it started right up!

You tout me a skill I will use the rest of my life and pass on to anyone else that might also need to learn this.

HUGE THANKS to all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You have to give yourself some credit: you were 90% of the way there and you had enough information in your post that allowed cee_Kamp zero in on the problem and solution in the first three sentences of the first reply.

Thank you for taking the time to give it another shot.

Does your engine have one of those rubber push to prime buttons? If it does then replace that button. When they go bad they are an open air leak into the intake systems and engines won't start if the intake mixture is way too lean due to an air leak.

Yeah, I learned about that the Hard Way. Sad thing is it only took about 5-10 minutes to replace.