Fuel Leak on Snapper

[aarong24]

Hey guys,
New to the forum here. About a month ago, I purchased two vintage snapper push mowers. A 5 HP and a 4 HP. Both are self propelled. I didn't really need two of them, but they were $80 for the pair and both are in pretty good cosmetic and mechanical shape. So it was hard to pass up. Anyway, on the 5 horse I noticed a wet spot forming around the base of the carb where it mounts to the gas tank. The engine was running kinda rough, so I ordered a new fuel tank gasket and a carb diaphragm, replaced them, adjusted the carb and the thing runs like a champ now. I can mow the entire back yard with it and it never dies or cuts out. However, I still noticed a wet spot of fuel around the carb and the gas cap. Not sure where which is coming from. Anyone have any experience of this happening and what it could be? I really thought the gasket would fix it. Attached are the lawn mowers.

 

[ILENGINE]

it was common for either the carb or the tank to warp at the carb mounting area which will cause the leak that you are seeing.

 

[aarong24]

Oh, I see. I never thought about that. Anyway to fix that relatively easy??

 

[ILENGINE]

The snapper on the left looks like it has just the gasket between the carb and the tank. May be able to double gasket it on that one. The one on the right with just the diaphragm is a little more complicated. Briggs used to make a repair kit for the warped tank to carb interface, but I haven't seen one in about 20 years.

 

[Boudreaux In Eunice La.]

That one on the right is the same mower and 3 1/2 HP engine that Bobby Ford made a thread on in the Snapper section......

I picked up a Briggs engine a while back exactly like that one, but mine has the cam driven sprocket on it for a self propelled model.......

Those engine last a long time .................

 

[aarong24]

That one on the right is the same mower and 3 1/2 HP engine that Bobby Ford made a thread on in the Snapper section......

I picked up a Briggs engine a while back exactly like that one, but mine has the cam driven sprocket on it for a self propelled model.......

Those engine last a long time .................

Yeah, I'm pretty happy with them. It's pretty impressive how well these old mowers can run. Both crank up on the first or second pull and will run for hours without any problems.