Up north for the weekend and my cousin's Craftsman LT1000 won't start without starting fluid. Had to spray fluid directly into the carb repeatedly for about a minute before it ran on its own. After it started running on its own it was surging really bad. If I pulled the choke about half way out it would smooth out and run without surging. The mower is quite old and desperately needs a tune-up which I plan to do, but as for he starting and running issues, what could the problem be? I am thinking that the carb might just need a rebuild but am lost. My cousin told me to just buy whatever parts it needs and get it back up and running so I just want to get an idea of what I will need.
Engine Info: 461707-0145-E3
Thank you.
Mike
I have the exact same engine and problem.
I did all the obvious things to check and replaced gaskets and even got a $31 carb on ebay after rebuilding old one twice and all is still the same. I was thinking it was the governor too and a video online had it reversed. Turning governor counter-clockwise & tightening (someone mentioned it here on this thread too). A little adjusting on the gov and gov spring screw, and the idle screw on the carb got it back to close to normal and new. Still pops and surges a very little. I did notice air in the brand new fuel filter and tighten connections and is better, but I do see new bubbles occasionally and will replace the fairly new looking line from the gas tank to the filter if it fills with air again. The very last thing that has not been replaced is the Ignition Coil/Armature. Nothing left to replace on the machine after that. Right now it's running good enough but probably like you, you need it working perfect. Patience my friend. I've been working on this machine for months on the every wrong thing, or adjusting/replacing the wrong things or two things at once. Process of elimination and lot's of patience (setting governor pin/bolt counter clockwise) and setting any adjustable screw to Gov and Carb to the middle and tweaking after that got it to the shape it was before something wiggled loose. Scrubs WD40 trick also showed me there really was also a small air leak under carb. My thought on what originally happened was the governor slipped, and I messed up all settings after that, especially since I first adjusted it clockwise instead of counter-clockwise. Good luck! Mine finally is okay! I couldn't tell you the ONE thing that did it
