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Hi folks. Been a while. Title says it all. Might happen at 5 minutes or 30 minutes, etc. Carb has electric fuel shut-off solenoid. Battery is on last legs (2012) and will soon be replaced. If I tap on the bowl it will normally complete the mowing. Average mowing time is anywhere between 1.5 - 2.0 hours. Doubtful it's the float. I've never seen a float stick in the closed psn. Thanks.

Researching the electric fuel shut-off solenoid on assorted mowers, I found it's not uncommon to have a "no-start" condition due to a faulty / stuck in the closed position, solenoid. A couple of remedies from replacement (expensive at times), remove and replace with a plug only, replace with plug and install inline manual shut-off, remove plunger by any means necessary, etc. When it first occurred it was at the beginning of the current mowing season. No start. Low battery which I put on charger. Trying everything, at last I tapped on the bowl and it fired up. Perhaps it needs full voltage, plunger spring is messed up, who knows. Even after accepting the charge, the engine is slow to turn over. I'm thinking my battery probably has a bad cell. 7 years is great in my experience. Will replace today or in the next few days and go from there.. If it continues to act up with new battery, I'll remove the plunger.

Edit: Battery replaced.

Your solenoid may just be dirty. Try cleaning the fuel solenoid plunger with carb cleaner and then test it by hooking a + lead to the solenoid lead and touching a - lead to the case. You should see the plunger move in and out freely. You do need a constant 12 V at this solenoid while the engine is running.

Further to the above,
The power feed to the solenoid runs right across the hot engine fins so is prone to breaking & shorting
The plug at the solenoid is not particularly good either.

Thanks guys. I'll do it. Hope everyone is doing well. Can't believe it's been this long.

Mowed today for 2+ hours. Everything great and hope it remains so. Starts better too. :wink: Evidently the solenoid likes a full 12 volts. I did watch a video the other day where a guy used a 9v to test the solenoid. It partially pulled the plunger. Thanks again guys for your advice. Appreciate it.

Our normal summertime rain pattern. Grass going crazy. Mowed again today without issue.

SO you problem was a run down battery which looks like is fixed.
Now we come to the slightly harder bit,, why was the battery run down ?
Measure the battery voltage, engine off, engine on, engine on with blades on.
Post your results.
You might have an alternator problem

bertsmobile1 said:

SO you problem was a run down battery which looks like is fixed.
Now we come to the slightly harder bit,, why was the battery run down ?
Measure the battery voltage, engine off, engine on, engine on with blades on.
Post your results.
You might have an alternator problem

Click to expand...

Thanks. I'll put a meter on it. The battery was never kept on a maintainer as much of my seasonal stuff is. Purchased the mower in 2013. Believe the battery was marked 2012. I reckon it was about time. That's the longest I've gotten out of a battery.

The battery is only needed to start the mower.
After that the alternator should be able to provide all of the power that the mower needs to run plus some extra to replace what starting took out of the battery.
So if you solenoid is closing during running your either have a bad connection or the alternator is not getting enough power to the mower