Hi Everyone,
I inherited a 16y.o. Murray 405000X31B when I bought my house a few years ago. I changed the oil and spark plug when I got it as it wasn't well taken care of. It ran well for a few years before I hit trouble.
Last year I noticed that every time I went to mow the fuel tank was empty. Thinking it was a slow leak I replaced the fuel line, filter, and added a shut off valve. This seemed to fix the leak.
Carry on a few more months and the tractor will sputter, backfire, and stall. I had a newborn at the time (read: no time to work on it) so it sat in the garage all winter. This spring I pulled the carb, sprayed it down, and put some fresh fuel in the tank. The mower started up and ran OK, however as soon as I shut it down fuel spilled out of the carb overflow. I traced that back to a damaged O-ring on the fill side and have since fixed it.
Problem solved right? Wrong
Now the mower will start and drive (and occasionally let me engage the blades) but tends to stall out under load, and backfire like crazy. I can usually start it again on a low throttle setting but it still stalls out shortly afterwards. I have a feeling it's due to carb setup but it doesn't really respond to any changes I make. It's got the B&S 13.5 I/C series engine (2BSXS.3442VM 275112)
Does anyone have suggestions on how to fix? An idiot's guide to setting up a carburetor? Overlooked items?
Thanks for all the help!