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I found a 1987 model MTD mower on craigslist with a Tecumseh TVS90-43373E engine. It started up great so I bought it. Made the mistake of spraying it down with a water hose today and of course got water down into where the air filter goes, and therefore into the fuel. Yes...that was dumb. I didn't try to start it up with the water in there, of course. Once I realized what I had done I removed the gas tank and emptied that out. I also removed the carburetor bowl and emptied that. I also removed all fuel from the line coming from the tank to the carburetor. After letting it all dry out and putting it back together, I just can't get the primer bulb to suck in the fuel from the line. I can hear it push air out as I press the bulb but it won't suck in any fuel. Any suggestions on how to get the fuel primed back into the system? I've tried pulling the cord several times, but no luck with that.

I know it was a silly idea to try to hose it down, but what's done is done. Hopefully I didn't ruin anything. Thanks for reading!

I have a Toro that does that every spring. I just put some fuel in the cylinder and start it. From then on it seems to work fine. Mine starts on one pull all year long.

Remove the carb from the engine and check the float height. It should be level, but my guess is that you will find that the float will be much higher on the side opposite the float pin. Recommend cleaning the carb and installing a new float needle and seat.

A common problem that I run across with Tecumseh engines that run, but then don't after I remove the carb bowl is that the bowl gasket is cracked. Sometimes I can actually see some fuel come out of the seal, sometimes I don't. It seems to seal just fine until the bowl is removed and then never seals right again in some cases. In other cases, I've flipped the gasket upside down from how it was installed first, making sure to install it on the carb first, not the bowl to make sure it doesn't fold into the bowl and it will seal again.

I would remove the spark plug and give it a few pulls too just to make sure water didn't get down into the cylinder via the intake manifold, that could cause other problems.

Vervepipes said:

A common problem that I run across with Tecumseh engines that run, but then don't after I remove the carb bowl is that the bowl gasket is cracked. Sometimes I can actually see some fuel come out of the seal, sometimes I don't. It seems to seal just fine until the bowl is removed and then never seals right again in some cases. In other cases, I've flipped the gasket upside down from how it was installed first, making sure to install it on the carb first, not the bowl to make sure it doesn't fold into the bowl and it will seal again.

I would remove the spark plug and give it a few pulls too just to make sure water didn't get down into the cylinder via the intake manifold, that could cause other problems.

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Hi, thanks for your reply. I removed the spark plug and gave it a few pulls to clear the water from the cylinder. Then I tried spraying some carb cleaner into the air intake and it tried to start up again, blew some smoke out of the exhaust, then immediately died. I did this a few times with the same results.

So I then removed the carburetor and cleaned it all up and tried to reseal the bowl. In the process of removing everything I managed to break the gasket that goes from on the intake pipe to the engine. I figured that wasn't good. Anyway once I got it all back together I still couldn't get the primer to work. I'm still hearing air instead of fuel being pushed into the system. This time when I tried to use carb cleaner to start it up, that didn't even work.

I even tried removing the carburetor again and just for diagnostic purposes tried to run some plumbers tape several times around the gasket before putting the bowl back on. That didn't work either. And there's still the question of the importance of that gasket I broke...

Sorry for the lengthy response. Anyway, any suggestions? Should I just try to replace the carburetor and that gasket?