Your engine is an LV148EA built by Tecumseh for Electrolux/Sears. Built in the early to mid 2000's, so one of the later Tecumseh before they went out of business. Although you could have primer bulb problems as mentioned above, probable cause is blocked passages behind one or the other welch plugs. Unfortunately carb cleaner by itself won't help. (if gas can't get through, neither can carb cleaner). You need to disassemble carb, pry out the plugs, and then clean out the passages with a fine wire or welding tip cleaners. Then soak in carb cleaner, press in new welch plugs, and then reassemble. The rebuild kit is about $15, and new 640339 carburetor is about $50. The rebuild kit and dealing with the welch plugs takes some technical skill. The complete carb is expensive, but almost foolproof.

thats exactly what i did and the engine sounded better, as mentioned earlier i soaked the whole carb in Gunk Carb cleaner over night and then pored some in the gas tank and it made things better. Yesterday when i was running it for 45 minutes i kept shutting off the valve to see if the shut off valve works and it did as the engine would shut off after a while. My question earlier is how do i get 10/19 to come out as it is obstructed by the threads to the bowl nut from dropping out.

Here is a typical flywheel key replacement. When you remove the shroud on top of the motor, blow it out with compressed air. A dust accumulation around the fins will cause overheating and coil failure. When you remove the flywheel nut, you can usually see if the key is sheared. Reprinted from a prior posting: The customer drops off a lawnmower with a tag that says “The motor stopped and couldn’t restart”. I pull on the starter rope and I hear a scraping noise underneath. The first step is to see if the blade is bent. The blade hub comes off at the same time. Since the blade is bent, along with a broken hub, and the motor won’t start, the usual culprit is the flywheel key being sheared. Unplug the spark plug wire. If you have electric start, disconnect the battery. The top dust cover is removed first, then the gas tank is emptied and removed. The oil fill tube mounting screw is removed and the fill tub is turned to the side, but still in place. The shroud is usually held in place with 4 bolts and after they are removed, lift the shroud straight up. At this point, you’ll have the flywheel in view. It’s obvious that the key is broken. Sometimes a motor will still run when the flywheel is this far out of alignment and sometimes a motor will not run when it is only slightly out of alignment. The flywheel puller tool (Briggs part number 19069) requires that two bolts be screwed into the flywheel. This is difficult without the use of a ¼” X 20 tap, and the flywheel is first tapped. You need at least 3 threads for the bolt to engage securely. Install the tool. There is a nut above and below the heavy steel bar. Turn the bolt into the flywheel until it bottoms out. It isn’t necessary to use the bottom nuts. Use a wrench to hold the bolt head and another wrench to turn the top nut down against the steel bar until it contacts. Do the same for the other bolt and nut. Alternate between the two nuts and turn the nut ¼ turn at a time until the flywheel pops off. When installing the new key, be careful that it doesn’t fall out of the shaft groove when placing the flywheel back on. You will need a suitable tool to hold the flywheel while you torque the center nut. I know that some will use a strong screwdriver to keep the flywheel stationary, but you might end up breaking one of the fins using that method. Sometimes the starter hub which goes between the nut and the flywheel has a tab on the bottom that engages a hole in the flywheel. If you torque to nut and the starter hub isn’t flat against it, the flywheel will break while being torqued. Always refer to a manual for the proper torque spec. Total job time: Less than ½ hour.

SO you have the first generation BBC. My guess is still that your answer lies in the BBC, provided the bases are covered**. Someone has to remove the cover below the deck and have a look. You could engage the BBC with mower off, and crank the engine over to see if there is excessive effort or abnormal noise. **AN engine that has poor power can stall on BBC engagement or a deck that has so much debris that the blade can't turn will do the same.