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I want to surprise my fiance by mowing the lawn while he's gone a few days. It REALLY needs it. The grass is about 4-5 inches long and looks scraggly.

I have:

• 
  Filled gas tank

• 
  Primed it EXACTLY like the instructions say

• 
  Held the safety lever thing

• 
  Pulled the cord. And pulled it. And pulled it some more.

It won't start!!

The oil is fresh as of about 10 days ago, so that can't be it.

Suggestions??

change the spark plug i think that will do it

Push primer couple more times and Keep pulling

Did it run before he left?

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Carscw said:

Did it run before he left?

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It did last fall.
I am going to try to start it again tonight.

mrstjp said:

It did last fall.
I am going to try to start it again tonight.

Click to expand...

Its probably old petrol (sorry "gas" over there :laughing in your carb thats causing the problem.
You may need to have the carb stripped and cleaned.

Pull the spark plug out - use a straw or spoon and get some fresh gas into the cylinder - quickly put the spark plug back in and pull the cord - fresh gas might ignite and you can burn up all that bad last years fuel .

pugaltitude said:

Its probably old petrol (sorry "gas" over there :laughing in your carb thats causing the problem.
You may need to have the carb stripped and cleaned.

Click to expand...

The petrol/gas is new I think (okay, maybe 3 weeks old??). And the tank was empty this morning.

mrstjp said:

I want to surprise my fiance by mowing the lawn while he's gone a few days. It REALLY needs it. The grass is about 4-5 inches long and looks scraggly.

I have:

Filled gas tank


Primed it EXACTLY like the instructions say


Held the safety lever thing


Pulled the cord. And pulled it. And pulled it some more.


It won't start!!

The oil is fresh as of about 10 days ago, so that can't be it.

Suggestions??

Click to expand...

Maybe you could surprise him by getting his mower fixed. You know he will say you broke it LOL. I would try the gas in the spark plug hole

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Carscw said:

Maybe you could surprise him by getting his mower fixed. You know he will say you broke it LOL. I would try the gas in the spark plug hole

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I would try going and suprising him with a new lawnmower :biggrin:

Well, I have some good news and some bad news.

The good news is--after more priming, pulling and cursing--it started!!!

The bad news is that it died off after about 10 seconds.

I tried again and it did the same thing (died after 10 seconds)

Now I can't get it to start at all. And my arm is about to fall off.

grrrrr....

your safty cable might be to tight and it won't let it move far enough to get ignition

It is possible that the gas left in the mower when stored has gummed up the inside of the carb. You could try some "gum out" or similar carb cleaner in the gas and a can of starter fluid to make it run long enough to get the new gas with cleaner into the system. Then let it sit over night and rest your arm. :smile:
Any auto parts store or tractor supply or even most hardware stores should have what you need and someone to ask for help.
Is there someone in the neighborhood you can ask for help to get it going ?

GOOD LUCK !

Well, I gave up, at least for tonight. I might try again tomorrow, we'll see. Thanks for the help! :thumbsup:

what type of mower is it

BKBrown said:

Any luck getting it started ?

Click to expand...

No, although it sure wasn't because of a lack of trying (and trying, and trying...) :frown: Luckily a kind neighbor saw me struggling and offered to mow our lawn. And I wasn't about to turn THAT down.

We're probably going to take it to the shop.