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My friend has a Bolens hand mower, that He said runs rough. I asked him to start it up, which started on the first pull. It was running rough. I pulled on the lever to increase the speed and then the engine stopped and won't restart. I blew out around the governor springs but still nothing. He said that it has previously started on the first pull. It acts just like it's not getting gas or else, maybe the governor spring got stretched out making it act like a shut off switch. I checked the primer to see if it was squirting gas and it is. Hopefully someone may have some ideas.

Last thing to check is spark. It is priming so it should run on the prime and the probably die if its fuel related. Pull the plug and check to see if a piece of carbon stuck between the electrodes. If not then use a spark tester to see if you have spark or connect the plug to the spark plug wire outside of the engine and the sparkplug resting against the block and pull it over and see if you have spark. If you have no spark disconnect the kill wire from the coil and check for spark again. If nothing, then the coil is bad.

smallenginemechanic said:

Last thing to check is spark. It is priming so it should run on the prime and the probably die if its fuel related. Pull the plug and check to see if a piece of carbon stuck between the electrodes. If not then use a spark tester to see if you have spark or connect the plug to the spark plug wire outside of the engine and the sparkplug resting against the block and pull it over and see if you have spark. If you have no spark disconnect the kill wire from the coil and check for spark again. If nothing, then the coil is bad.

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I checked for spark, at the plug, and there is spark. Yesterday, at different times, I sprayed some starting fluid into the carb, with no fire. Then I took out the spark plug, sprayed some starting fluid in, reinstalled the plug, still no fire. I don't know how, but it sure seems like the gas line is plugged. I just don't know why no fire with spraying starting fluid into the spark plug hole.

cljksears said:

I checked for spark, at the plug, and there is spark. Yesterday, at different times, I sprayed some starting fluid into the carb, with no fire. Then I took out the spark plug, sprayed some starting fluid in, reinstalled the plug, still no fire. I don't know how, but it sure seems like the gas line is plugged. I just don't know why no fire with spraying starting fluid into the spark plug hole.

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Is there any way that could of happened to the Governor that could of caused this no start problem. I did, when my friend started it up, take the rear spring, slightly, to cause the engine to rev up to high rpms. Then it quit but started back up and then quit. Then, this no start problem.

Sounds like carb problem.
It could be nikel jet has fallen out the bottom of the main jet if its got that type of carb.

It could also be the carb diaphragm set 795083 needing replaced and a good clean.

It also could be the surpressor cap on end of spark lead causing problems.

You would need a spark tester to check spark successfully.

pugaltitude said:

Sounds like carb problem.
It could be nikel jet has fallen out the bottom of the main jet if its got that type of carb.

It could also be the carb diaphragm set 795083 needing replaced and a good clean.

It also could be the surpressor cap on end of spark lead causing problems.

You would need a spark tester to check spark successfully.

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I did check for spark and it did have spark. I am thinking that it has to do with the carb, also, but am puzzled as to why it didn't fire when I sprayed starting fluid into the spark plug hole. Do you have any knowledge of how the governor works and if it was damaged, somehow, would it cause this no start condition?

I doubt that the gov is causing your problem.

Its usually carb.

pugaltitude said:

I doubt that the gov is causing your problem.

Its usually carb.

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I finally took the carb, cleaned, and reinstalled. The engine took right off.