Hi everybody, long time lurker but a newbie to the forum with first post. I rebuild transmissions at a local Ford dealership but never worked on small engines until now. I have a 5 year old Snapper Hi-vac mower with a Briggs and Stratton Quantum 6.75hp motor. Numbers on the motor is 125K02 - 0141 - E1. Problem is after about 5 minutes of cutting the motor starts cutting out, rpm drops down to about idle speed then dies. Feels like it is running out of fuel. Have to wait about 30-45 minutes before it will start then do the same thing after a couple of minutes. Tried pushing the primer bulb and loosen gas cap before it dies but does not make any difference. Did check oil level, it is on full mark with 30w oil. It's not flooding down, it doesn't smoke nor smell like its running rich. First time it happened I pulled the plug and checked for spark, didn't see a spark so tried a new plug, no change. Being i am trying to do this by myself, i can not get a good pull on the starter rope and see the plug spark at the same time. figured that i would bite the bullet and check the spark the old fashion way, pulled the spark plug back out, held the coil wire lead and pulled the cord as much as i could to turn it over to feel how hard the coil bites. Coil did not bite as hard as I thought it should so next day went to mower shop to get a new coil. Was told that they don't have many coil problems, they might replace one coil a year. They also stated that it does not produce a strong spark until around 1700 rpm. I bought the new coil anyway, also bought a carburetor overhaul kit and another spark plug while I was there. Ended up speeding $84 for the three pieces. Put the new coil on and set the air gap at .010 and replaced the plug. Started and let it run to see if I fixed the problem, they were right, it was not the coil. Pulled the plastic cowling, fuel tank and carburetor. Their is no in-line fuel filter on the model. Removed to float bowel, it was clean as a whistle inside, no water, dirt or rust inside. Cleaned everything with carb cleaner, ran wire thru all the passages and thru the jet then blew off with compressed air. Checked float level and replaced all the gaskets. Reassembled, filled with gas (I have alway used premium unleaded gas with Briggs fuel stabilizer), no change- still feels like it starving for gas. Pulled back apart, even though i have good fuel flow out of fuel tank, i ran an old speedometer chain couple of inches into fuel tank nipple until it hit what felt solid- assumed it was the side of tank (speedometer chain is what makes the speedometer turn in older cars. It's about 1/8 thick metal/brass cable and very flexible) it's not restricted then replaced fuel line- no change. Really surprised there is no kind of fuel filer on this motor. By this time starting to get pissed. Pulled carb off again, replaced needle and seat this time. Reassembled again, let run around 10 minutes. Didn't die as usual but rpm did start dropping and sputtering. Something I did notice threw out all of this, did not check compression but feels like its good as it is hard to pull starter rope. With motor running and air filter off, I see a fine mist of gas puffing out of carburetor. I assume it is from the mechanical compression release but I could be wrong.
I must be over looking something simple causing this to die but I'll be damned if I can think of what it could be. Next thing, I had no idea I could buy another motor with shipping for under 200 bucks from small engine suppler dot com. I emailed them info on what motor i had, they respoded with this link-
Search for: 126L02-1625 -have already spent half of what a new motor costs. Not sure if I should just cut my losses and get another motor or keep screwing with this one?
Thanks in advance for any other suggestions or ideas.
Hal