Have the above self propelled mower which I bought used on craigslist. Had some trouble starting it and I figured I would take it apart and clean out the carb and replace filters etc...upon disassembly the gasket between the primer bulb and the carburetor disintegrated and I had tosearch high and low for a new one..Then the gasket between the engine and the carburetor developed a crack..Make a long story short, I had to disassemble and reassemble the carburetor assembly several times with the end result being that one of the screws that secures the carburetor to the engine is stripped and wont tighten completely and one of the other screws that secures the plastic air cleaner holder/primer assembly also keeps turning. When i prime the engine with the bulb it will start but the idle it clearly lumpy and I assume this is from an air leak somewhere in the system...Spark plug is also new....At my wits end as to how to fix this problem..can I use high temp rtv on gaskets to seal any leaks and reassemble?
The air leak is caused by the stripped mounting bolt. I don't much think RTV is going to solve your problem, maybe short term, but the vibration on the carb being held on by only one bolt will be the problem. My first thought is tap it, use a slightly bigger bolt.
Been there, done that. Here's how I fix it. There is a tool called a "Thread-Sert" which you can use to put a new set of threads into the block. I would check the small auto shops in your area, to see if any of them have one. Body shops use them also. Goggle thread-sert and you'll see what I'm talking about.
