Tie the bail wire to the handlebars, the one that applies the engine brake. Leave it tied there until the flywheel is back on and torqued down. Remove the flywheel and disconnect the spark plug wire. That's a picture of the breather. You DO NOT want to damage the breather itself. Prying it out of the engine can easily damage the breather. Use a screwdriver to pry the seal out of the engine and carefully separate the breather from the seal. You may want to cut it out surgically with a razor blade. I have only seen ONE of these seals leak and that was on a mower about 20 years old. If there is no oil leak, DO NOT remove the breather. They last for the lifetime of the motor.

I had a little surprise today - I was using the now 21 yr old Lawn Boy 10684 with Tecumseh 195 and it suddenly started acting like it was running out of gas. I had just finished yesterday washing it, changing oil, changing blade and air filter and cleaning/greasing the rear drive. I used it for an hour before it started sputtering, and there was gas in it. So, I did the old float bowl orifice bolt cleaning but it was perfectly clean - no carbon, no discoloration, just a beautiful brass bolt that looked new. I went to my special/small tools drawer and found the wire tie that had been in there for many years and rodded out the tiny orifice even though it seemed to be clean. I put it back together and sure enough, it immediately started and ran great. I've been running Premium gas with Startron in it for years but perhaps a tiny piece of something managed to get into the small orifice. BTW, when you go to do this orifice cleaning, stand the mower up on its wheels just like you're going to dump the oil. Fuel in the float bowl runs back to the tank. Typically when you remove the bolt, the float bowl stays put - just watch out for the washer under the orifice bolt head.

Read through this before you begin. You will do best if the carb is off the engine and on a work bench or other suitable surface. I like to do the work in a large baking pan, less likely for something to roll off and get lost. Refer to the image below. I have added the item # 40.5 for the nut that secures the bowl to the carb. When you remove item 40.5 the bowl should simply pull straight off, you may need to tap the bowl lightly with a plastic screwdriver handle or similar "persuader" to break it loose. Pay attention to what you are doing, my standard advice is use a digital camera and shoot a lot of photos of the carb before you take things loose. And continue to photograph more as you remove items, this will give you something to refer to later WHEN you forget how something was. Have a sheet of paper (or a whole notepad) and write notes, draw sketches, anything to record the details. After the bowl is off, you need to pull out item # 27 to release the float. (you are taking pictures of this aren't you?) The needle valve (item # 30) should lift out of the seat when you pick up the bowl, but it may come loose, so watch it carefully. Pay close attention to the orientation of item # 31 spring clip (more pictures please). Now, I want you to look at items # 17, and 20. # 17 is the IDLE SPEED screw.....do not touch this screw, it sets the low idle RPM only and it's not necessary to mess with it during the cleaning. But # 20, the idle mixture screw, needs to be removed BUT before you remove it, you need to count the number of turns (and fraction of turns) in the CLOCKWISE direction that are required to just barely seat the screw to the bottom of the threaded hole. Write down the number on your note paper, this will be the number of turns CCW you will use as the initial setting when you assemble the carb after cleaning. After the float is off, the needle valve is out, and the idle mixture screw has been "counted" and removed you will proceed to clean the carb. Eye protection is mandatory when using spray carb cleaner, so use the proper safety goggle or face shield. Solvent proof rubber or vinyl gloves are good too. Do the cleaning outdoors or in good ventilation only. No smoking! Using spary carb cleaner (like Carb Medic, example)and the nozzle straw, spray the carb cleaner into every darn hole you see. Using a very fine piece of wire (the bare kind like used on parts tags) and poke it into all the holes to manually dislodge blockage, be careful not to break the wire off in a passage. Spray more cleaner through all the holes. If you have access to compressed air, blow out all the holes and passages. If you don't have compressed air, just let the carb dry thoroughly before reassembling. All the loose parts (bowl, mixture screw, float) need to be cleaned to remove any gunk or varnish film from them. Be careful not to bend any parts of the float where its pin goes or where the needle touches the float. After all is clean and dry, assembly is the reverse of the tear down. And don't forget to change the engine lube oil and filter before you try to run this engine again. Any gas that has appeared in the air cleaner can be mopped out with paper towels, put them outside with a weight on them so the wind won't get them, after the gas evaporates you can toss them into your OUTSIDE trash can. Smoke? Yeah, good possibility. Have the machine outdoors when you restart it. Fire is unlikely (most of the volatiles will be evaporated by then) but you may see some black specks of oil and carbon emerge from the exhaust outlet. That should clear up in 5 minutes or so. May lady luck be holdin' yer hand!

First of many caveats- I don't own a Culinarian. So, what I'm going to relate is based on the Bluestar. Second- if you're going to work on or test your stove, unplug the damn thing first. Bluestar's service manual has a list of things to check when having igniter issues: 1) Power- if some work then you obviously have power 2) Broken igniter- if moving the burners that don't work (with igniters) to working positions is successful, then this isn't the case (also if moving previously working burners to bad positions doesn't get the position to work). 3) Pinched wire- you hadn't mentioned whether you looked for this; basically a wire grounding somewhere other than the igniter 4) Valve switch- it isn't clear from your earlier description, but what you want to check is for continuity across the switch. With the power off, check the resistance across the switch in normal and switched positions. In the normal position, resistance ought to be infinite (off), and in the switched position, it ought to be near zero (on). 5) Bad spark module- if you've eliminated the others successfully (including #6), then that's what you're left with. I have no idea whether your Culinarian has a single or multiple modules. My Bluestar had two modules that I replaced with a single one after one failed. Hopefully, Capital will provide it, because it can be a bit tricky to track one down otherwise. I ended up getting an updated one (thus, going from two modules to one) from a dealer that sells Viking parts (they all use the same Invensys or other components). 6) Too big a gap- this ought to be #2, but Bluestar put it last. Make sure the igniter-to-burner gap isn't too big to make a spark. I think you eliminated this possibility by moving the burners to other positions and having them work. I'd focus on #3, #4, and #5. Also, if you do take off the front to look at the module, make sure that the wire connections there are solid. Good luck.