Craftsman 917.387282 issues

[Flug540]

Hi all,

A few days ago I bought a used 20" 6hp Craftsman lawnmower. The seller demonstrated the mower and it was working fine... I brought it home and gave it a more thorough inspection, found that one of the rubber hoses needed replacement, needed more oil, the spark plug was loose enough for me to unscrew it with my hand. I fixed all these small issues, started the mower and almost immediately the rpm started going up and down. I managed to mow some of the front yard and then the mower finally died. I tried restarting it and it wouldn't start again. Then I removed and cleaned the carburetor, blew all the little holes with air compressor, put it all back together and the mower started again. I mowed my entire front yard fine, the rpm held steady and I had no issues. Then I moved to the back yard, it started fine again, I mowed over half of it and the problem came back. First the rpm started fluctuating and finally it died and would not start again. It then started raining and I called it a day for mowing. I'm thinking maybe debris coming from the fuel tank and clogging the carburetor? Anyone has any ideas?

Thanks!

 

[Flug540]

BTW, I did verify the spark, seemed fine. One thing I did notice is when I was putting the carburetor back together, when I was pulling the float up to lift the needle, it seemed a bit stuck and pulled up with slight resistance or a bit of a click/pop. When I was putting the bell back in place, I tried not to press on the float so that the needle wouldn't go too fat in. Maybe that is causing the problem? But why would it be getting stuck? I cleaned everything thoroughly, unless it was replaced with the wrong part number? It didn't seem obviously out of place... Any ideas?

 

[twinfords]

empty fuel tank, flash clean the tank, use new gas. the float pin could be binding up causing the float to stick, clean the float bowl nut very good and all of the orfices. it is something simple for sure. Also check your intake etc. and all gaskets for leaks.