Lawn Mower Repair : Troubleshooting a Lawn Mower

Common failures of a lawn mower include a lack of clean fuel in the gas tank, a spark plug wire that's not attached and a brake cable that's not functioning correctly. Discover ways to keep quality oil at the proper level with help from the owner of a small engine repair shop in this free video on lawn mower repair.

Expert: Mark Bauer
Bio: Mark Bauer is the owner of Bauer Small Engine Repair.
Filmmaker: Ross Safronoff

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• lawn
• mower
• repair
• mowers
• maintenance
• parts
• tires
• push
• electric
• blades
• starter
• air
• filter

[buddydog1956]

I have someone cut my grass ~ and btw, I'd never put 'bad' gas into my automobile gas tank....what sense does that make....particularly if its bad ?

[sessi0000]

Help please: I had my mower repaired, wasn't getting a spark or anything. Once repaired it worked fine, got my front lawn mowed. Turned it off, went to do my back lawn, but filled it up with fuel first. After filling, never started again. Would it be the spark plug or?

[moodyman1100]

Great info!! I have a lawn mower that will start but not stay running,. I just had it serviced last year, what could be the problem?

[Rarrin9378]

@iceman7209 probably a bad ignition coil

[iceman7209]

im not getting any ingnition in my motor what might the problem be and ive already checked the spark twice

[boombob10]

i have a lawn mower and all of the oil is flowing like a spring out of the air filter compartment what is it?

[mattelekbook]

Every engine needs 3 things to run: Compression, Ignition, and Fuel.

While you have the spark plug off, you might as well check the compression, if you have a compression tester. Otherwise I completely agree with forku2umf, the easiest thing is to spray starting fluid into the air filter and see if it runs for a few seconds, because that narrows it down to fuel as the problem, and you eliminate Ignition and Compression as problems.

[vjuan831]

ok so i bought a lawn mower off of craiglist it worked fine for three weeks then as i was cutting the grass it stopped when i tried to start it again instead of starting it leaked gas under the gass cap does anyone know what the problem can be?

[forku2umf]

@thebrokefoot You have a safety switch bad. There is one for the seat, one for the blade engagement and one for the clutch (pedal). Probably the clutch switch. Hard to find. Take it to a GOOD shop. Ask the mechanic what he thinks. If he/she says it's the carb, go elsewhere. If you pull/engage the choke as it dies and it starts to run good, it IS a carb problem. If it dies immediately when you let cluch out and/or engage blade, you have a bad safety switch. internationaldave@gmail.com I can help

[forku2umf]

Quick troubleshooting: Remove air filter. Spray flammable carb cleaner or a shot of fresh gas into carb. Pull rope. If it runs for a second or 2, you have spark and compression. You have a fuel delivery problem. Clean tank, line and carb and not 1/2 ass cleaning the carb. If green and/or stinky inside, take it off and soak it in carb clean. There is more to cleaning a carb than just the bowl nut. Idle circuit, too. His plug sparked white. Must be blue. His plug was white, lean condition.