Hard Starting

Winesalot

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Hey there. I am very active on several other forums but this is my first post on this one. Thanks for including me in your group.

I have a John Deere LA145 mower that has a Briggs & Stratton 22 hp 2 cylinder engine. I don't have the serial number handy but hopefully that won't be necessary for my issue.

The problem I have is once the mower has been sitting for a couple days it will not start. It cranks over just fine but wont fire. If I pull the air filter cover and splash a small amount of gas in to the carburetor the it fires right up and runs perfectly. I am thinking either the fuel pump is not working well or maybe the carburetor bowl is draining when it sits for a while but, honestly, I am not sure. Before I start tearing things apart I thought I would get some opinions from you all.
 

bertsmobile1

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If it burns off the fuel you splashed in & dies then the carb solenoid is prime suspect
If once started it runs fine then the choke is the prime suspect
For the choke it is a case of loosening the throttle cable clamp and sliding the cable forward till the choke closes fully ( or the choke cable if you have individual throttle & chokes )
 

Winesalot

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Thanks for the reply. It is definitely the latter of your two scenarios. I will look at the potential choke adjustment. I would like to add that while it does run after starting it seems to be stuttering slightly at higher rpms. I am going to replace the fuel filter and fuel pump as they are cheap and easy to work on.
 

sgkent

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Just as a caveat, it is that time of the year when mowers are emerging from a winter's sleep. Make sure the gasoline is fresh. Old gasoline can cause similar issues because it is less volatile.
 

Winesalot

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That is good advice. The mower has nearly a full tank of new non-ethanol fuel in it.
 
D

Deleted member 97405

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I agree with Bert on checking the choke adjustment. A lot of the cables needed adjusted when these tractors were new too. I had to adjust over 50% of them just to get them to start up to drive them off the shipping crates. Someone at the factory wasn't adjusting them correctly. Of course, with time, the cables wear and stretch which requires periodic adjusting. The other thing I encountered a few times was a pinched pulse line to the fuel pump. But I'm with Bert on suspecting the choke adjustment first. Another thing to check is to make sure the plastic intake (if yours is plastic) isn't warped and allowing the engine to draw in unfiltered air where the carb connects to it. This will contribute possibly to the flutter you hear when it's running as the carb porting compensates for the air filter restriction. So a small air leak can sometimes create a flutter. That's more of a Kawasaki trait, but I've had it on a few Briggs too so I thought I'd mention it. Also, checking valve lash is a good idea too if that hasn't been done in awhile.
 
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