Briggs & Stratton Lawn Mower Engine Tune Up
May 20, 2007 – 1:13 pm | by gaulardcom
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It’s that time of year again for my lawn mower tune up…wait, what am I talking about? I have never tuned up my lawn mower, or any lawn mower for that matter. Gee, I wonder why they all seem to run like crap after a few years.
My current lawn mower has a Briggs & Stratton engine. It currently doesn’t run that well. It revs and then loses power, then revs and then loses power. Kind of like … bbbbrrrrmmmm …. nothing …. bbbbrrrrmmmm …. nothing, etc…
I stopped by the local small engine repair shop the other day and talked to the guy. I asked him how much it would be for a tune up. He said, “$70 and under.” I thought this was a little much to tune up a lawn mower that I paid $135 for about 3 years ago. I asked what that included and he told me: spark plug, air filter, sharpening of the blade and an oil change. C’mon, even a cave man could do that. I thought there was some secret stuff they do. I guess not. I told him what was happening and he quickly replied, “You need to rebuild the carburetor.” Hmmm…makes sense, but the carburetor only has a few parts in it (I know because I took it apart on numerous occasions). What the heck could you possibly “rebuild” in the carburetor?
I thought to myself, “If this is going to cost any more than $50, I am just going to get a new lawn mower.” I felt guilty though, because the mower still has shiny paint and it would be a sin to throw it away. Actually, I would just leave it in front of the house and a neighbor would take it as a nice addition to their junk pile in the back yard.
With that guilty feeling, I started taking things apart this morning. I pulled off the carburetor and the gas tank. I separated the two and discovered a small wrinkle in the edge of the carburetor diaphragm.
I pulled the diaphragm loose to see what’s underneath…just a spring. I knew this might be the problem with the poor running performance of this lawn mower, so I started looking through various websites. I found the parts manual for this mower at http://www.briggspowershop.com. You have to put your model number (on this mower, found on the front housing) in their Engine Model Number Guide and you can print out a .pdf file.
By the way, you should be thanking me for this…it took a while.
The print out has all the engine parts you might need for this engine. I found the parts I wanted and added the first one to the shopping cart. Not in stock. Ok, on to the next site. I found a nice parts lookup feature at Lawn Cutters Equipment Sales & Service. I entered the part numbers in the lookup feature and they all seem to be in stock. I orded them and hopefully they will be here within the week.
So, for the exciting part…what did I order? Well, I was just going to order the Carburetor Diaphrarm (495770) and the Intake Manifold Seal O Ring (270344S). They were about $6 total. Then I got a bright idea. How much for the whole carburetor? Well, as it turns out, the Carburetor (697415) is only $18, so I skipped the other parts and purchased this. It has all that I need included.
I am also ordering the Foam Air Filter Cleaner (698369). With shipping, the order came up to under $30. Not bad. Now I have to pick up a spark plug (Champion RJ19LM) some engine oil and have the blade sharpened. I will put it all back together and let you know how it goes.
I am quite excited.
10 Responses to “Briggs & Stratton Lawn Mower Engine Tune Up”
By Barry on Jul 6, 2007 | Reply
New product for changing oil.
It is called the LiquiVac Oil Changing System. It vacuums oil out through the dipstick tube. Fast…. in seconds and no oil is spilled, so it is very clean.
It is on sale at Lowe’s in the outdoor power equipment accessories section for only $29.98. A real deal.
By The Handyguys on Apr 25, 2008 | Reply
I know this is an old post but I thought I would share some info for those seeking it.
The Handyguys have a podcast/post that covers spring mower tuneup over at
http://www.handyguyspodcast.com/85/episode-14-getting-that-mower-going
Check it out
By Ramesh on May 8, 2008 | Reply
I have Craftman 22″ selfpropeller lawn mover, model 917377061, 6.5 hp. I t runs for awhile and llots of smoke and stop. Please advise.
By sam scott on Jun 12, 2008 | Reply
i am looking for a good used 18 hp vangaurd side shaft engine to use on a band saw mill i have a like new 10 hp industrial briggs to use as a trade in
By joe on Jul 2, 2008 | Reply
I own a zero turn john deere 23hp kawasaki engine riding lawn mower. for some reason the engine does not run on both cylinders. this is what i have done to try to fix the problem. 1. changed spark plugs. 2. changed fuel filter. 3. changed air filter.
I have checked to see if both spark plugs fire. (they do).
Finally i unplugged the wire to the working cylinder. I cranked the engine and it took a second or two, but it turned on, i reconnected the other spark plug wire and bam.. it works. I turned it off and crank it up again. Only one side works (the same one as before). I try the procedure once again, and again i get both to fire up. i try to start it up normally and same result as before (only one cylinder is running). LOST, what can the problem be?
By Barry (NJ) on Jul 5, 2008 | Reply
Hey Jay,
Just wanted to say thanks. I was taken for the $70 tun-up, I just didn’t want to deal with it at the time. I had my 300zx on blocks in my drive-way with the motor in my garage at the time, and I figured I’d just let the local garage deal with this. Well I got it back, and yeah they changed the oil and the spark plug, and they probably sharpened the blade. But the thing still ran poorly. So I checked, and a carburetor is $40+ so I’ll probably just by the over-haul kit for $7.25 and re-build the carb myself. The Z is back together so I guess I can tackle this next ;~)
I work on my Z because I want it done right, I guess I’ve got to work on my lawn mower now too.
Best, Barry
By chet on Sep 7, 2008 | Reply
well?…. what happened? I have the same problem with my mower and want to know how it went with yours.
By jaygaulardcom on Sep 7, 2008 | Reply
Well, it ran better than before, but I still wasn’t all that happy with it. It wasn’t that strong of a mower anyway. I went ahead and bought a 6hp Toro.