First time homeowner, first headache with the lawn mower

blueblur1984

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  • / First time homeowner, first headache with the lawn mower
I just bought my first house and it is quickly dawning on me that there is a lot more maintenance. Particularly the lawn. My wife's family gave me their busted old Troy-Bilt with the briggs stratton 675 engine that I'm trying to get up and running again. It won't start, but here's what I've tried so far:

-off the bat I changed the oil, gas, checked the air filter and checked the exhaust for oil. All of this came back clean.
-Pulled the cord to see if I could get it to crank and it is stiff as all get out. I noticed it's only tough to pull when the exhaust can is on for some reason. With the exhaust pipe off it has enough compression to blow the paper tail I stuffed in the tail pipe out.
-I removed the gas tank, pull cord, and exhaust pipe. The gas tank and filter seem clean, the pull cord is fine when off the mower, and (as mentioned above) the exhaust pipe seemed clean and oil free.

What I've gathered so far is that the motor is not frozen, the consumables look good, and all the parts are there. I'm not too well versed in small engines so any help I can get would be much appreciated.
 

reynoldston

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  • / First time homeowner, first headache with the lawn mower
I will tell you the same thing I have said before. Start with spark, then fuel, next compression, and it needs timing. As soon as you have these four things it will run. You will need a few tools to test these things.
 

blueblur1984

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  • / First time homeowner, first headache with the lawn mower
Looks like it was a broken spring on the throttle assembly. I put a new one on there and it started on the first pull.
 

reynoldston

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  • / First time homeowner, first headache with the lawn mower
Looks like it was a broken spring on the throttle assembly. I put a new one on there and it started on the first pull.

Good luck is on your side :thumbsup: I wish all the no starts were that easy.
 
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