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I have a Craftsman walk-behind mower similar to this one Sears.com. The only difference is that mine is self-propelled. It has the Briggs and Stratton 190cc 6.75 engine.

My mother-in-law could not get her mower started this year (basically the exact same mower only slightly smaller) I lent her mine. I had not even tried to start it yet. She tried to start it and was unable. She added new gas to it and tried again but was still unable to get it started. She then had her lawnmower serviced and it turns out the spark plug was bad. My brother-in-law also has the same mower and had a spark plug issue as well. He replaced the plug and it runs perfectly.

In kind, I replaced the spark plug on my mower. The plug that was on the mower was a Champion RJ2YXLE, which I read about and is a horrible plug. I replaced it with a Champion RJ19LM which is the recommended replacement plug. Nothing happened. Mower will still not turn over.

I then went to a store specializing in lawnmowers and asked a few questions. I purchased a new air filter because mine was pretty filthy, though I am sure that is not why it wouldn't start. I also purchased some carburetor cleaner, which I was told would help the mower start and hopefully once it is started it will continue to run and sort of "fix itself". I applied the carb cleaner and tried to start the engine. The engine fired up, ran for maybe 1 second, and then immediately stopped. I repeated the process and got the same result 2 more times.

I am not particularly handy, and am not an engine expert. I do not know what to do at this point, except maybe to replace the gas and oil in the mower? Is there something else simple that I could try, or am I going to be forced to take the mower in for service? I only want to do that as a last resort, I want to fix this thing myself!!

Any help would be greatly appreciated. No advice is too simple or "stupid", I guarentee anyone on here giving advice knows WAY more than I do about engines.

Thank you.

You say it did fire up on the carb cleaner, so I'd go for a carb clean. and also make sure that the fuel is getting into the carb from the tank.

OK, so if it started up and then died a few seconds later, I can definitely rule out it being a spark plug issue?

And I understand what you are saying about the carburetor needing cleaning, but I have absolutely no idea how to do that. Or to check that the fuel is getting into the carb. Any advice on how to do that, or where to find that information would be greatly appreciated.

There will be numbers on the engine, post them up and we can see if we can find a manual that will help you. but after saying this, if you have no idea what to do, let someone do the job for you.