John Deere JS63 Won't Turn Over - Flakes in Carburator?

[wjlc]

Hi Everyone,

I inherited a John Deere JS63 walk behind mower from a family friend. He told me that it ran fine, but needed to have to have the primer bulb replaced, which I did, but I still can't get the mower to start. This is the first time I've tried to do anything like this, so any help even with the obvious is great. I've tried a number of things that I'll list below, but I've been scouring these sorts of forums for a next step and can't figure it out.

1) I took it to a shop, and he told me the carburator just probably needed cleaning, but he wanted $60 so I just found a youtube video and did it myself.

2) Another friend mentioned it was the spark plug, so I bought a new one and took out the old.

3) The gas tank had a crack, so I replaced it with a new one. This obviously took care of the problem of having old gas in there.

4) Since then, I've cleaned the carburator out, and found some gunky flakes in there again. I cleaned that out, and it sounded like the engine got closer to turning over. I'm assuming these flakes are part of my problem, but does anyone have suggestions of where they are coming from, or how to take care of this.

Like I said, any help/ideas are appreciated.

Thanks,
Will

 

[mechanic mark]

http://manuals.deere.com/cceomview/OMGC00397_B0/Output/GC00397B012.html#15353

click on PDF & download & save, 4 down from top.

have you changed engine oil? is oil black & smell like gas on dipstick? have you checked air filter for replacement?

you need to adjust valves with engine cold, post all numbers from engine data plate or sticker, model xxxxxx, type xxxx, trim xx & code number. if valves are out of adjustment, decompression valve on camshaft will not operate properly.another possibility, flywheel key may be sheared under flywheel.
use fresh gas with a quality brand of fuel treatment per directions on bottle, carburetor side up, make sure underside of deck is clean & inspect blade for dressing with file after cleaning & last check for balance.

air, compression, fuel, & spark are necessary for engine to run. let us know how it goes.

 

[wjlc]

Thanks for the help!

I had already changed the air filter.

I took a look at all that and everything looked fine, so I tried to clean up the underside one more time, and cleaned out the carburator one more time as well. It started running after that.