I have a three year old Craftsman push mower, which I believe has a 675 series Briggs and Stratton engine. It runs fine when we cut our grass and the highest setting, but my wife insists that the yard be cut shorter. When we try to cut the lawn shorter, the mower has a tendency to bog down, and we constantly have to lift it. I even tried cutting at the highest setting and immediately cutting at a middle setting. This didnt seem like much of a difference to my eye, but I still had problems with clogging/bogging. I have a couple of questions in regards to this.
First, should the mower clog on the lower settings regardless of the height of the grass? Second, do we need to bag or shoot out the grass if we want to mow at a lower setting? Third, when the mower bogs down and stops, it will not start up again until the following day. Is that typical behavior? I don't remember having such problems cutting the lawn short prior to this season.
#2
BKBrown
Sounds like engine problem to me - Carb. may need cleaning or you have lost compression for some reason. If you did not have a problem before and do now ---- engine or dull blade or both !
I was having this same problem on my snapper with the same engine and i recently cleaned the carb and replaced the fuel filter and it runs better than new. Now I prime and it's a 1 pull start and it never bogs.
Thanks, all. This does give me some ideas. I have already sharpened the blade, replaced the air filter, replaced the spark plug, and replaced the carburetor this season. I probably should have mentioned that in the original post to help narrow some things down, but there were several suggestions mentioned that I haven't tried yet. If nothing else, I may have to start bagging in order to cut the yard lower.
Is it pretty typical for the mower not to start the rest of the day after dieing out due to bogging down (perhaps it has gotten to hot)?
My snapper was notorious for that as well, since the carb rebuild it starts right back after a shutoff with just a little tug of the rope. Oh I also changed my oil that could have something to do with it.:thumbsup:
Due to a lack of rain, I had only used my lawnmower once or twice over the past couple of months to mow the high spots. Today I tried to come back out and mow the whole yard. Unfortunately, it seems that my problem has worsened.
I mowed for about ten minutes today before my mower died. While I have a few high spots here and there, it certainly wasn't overburdened by grass. I let the mower sit for about an hour and tried it again. It ran for about a minute and died out on me.
I have so far done the following this season:
1. Changed the oil
2. Replaced the spark plug
3. Replaced the air filter
4. Replaced the carb
5. Sharpened the blade
6. Cleaned out the underside of the mower
One other possible clue in the puzzle is that the mower sometimes hesitates or dies when I hit a bump. Our yard is hard and bumpy, which is one of the reasons that I prefer to mow it on the highest setting (which I attempted tonight).
I noticed one of the responses mentioned changing the fuel filter, which I haven't tried yet. Any other ideas would be welcomed.
I had this problem this past spring. I discovered that I had put it at the 2nd lowest heighth before I put it away last fall. I raised it up to the 2nd highest setting and haven't had problems since. I mulch and there was too much grass accumulating under the deck.
#11
HarryHarley
Try letting the grass discharge out the side instead of mulching...
#12
exotion
sounds like throttle needs adjusting? or lost compression. maybe new coil?
Following the advice of the last poster, I did some research on symptoms of a bad ignition coil. They sounded very much like the problems that I was having, so I went ahead and replaced it. Tonight I was able to mow the lawn without any problems, so we'll see if that is the fix I was looking for.
