Hi all, I'm not mechanically inclined, so if you could give me some thoughts on what has happened I would appreciate it much. I have a Craftsman Pro Lawn Tractor, it has the B&S 24 hp ELS V-Twin with a 24" cut, that I just use here at home,(2 Acres) I've had it about 2 maybe 2.5 years and it is out of warranty. I was riding it from the garage to the yard (blades were not engaged yet) when a very loud pop happened and it died. After that, when I tried to restart it, the motor just turns but it will not start as if something in the engine broke..... I DO think this is MY fault (and I'm embarrassed to say this), but I think I was low on oil - could you give me a suggestion as to what may have broke, due to my ignorance, so I can at least have some idea of what to tell someone it may need when I try to find someone to give me an estimate to repair it? BTW, I live in a rural area and do not have any authorized B&S centers within approx. 80 miles of me (Sears store is about 58 mile away too). One last thing, I have always put new oil and filter, and air filter on it each year, and last year I put a new spark plug on it in addition to the other maintenance - I have tried to keep it running well, but this year I just made a MAJOR/stupid mistake that is gonna cost me......... Thanks for any suggestions guys (and ladies) :-)

'Craftsman LT1000 with Briggs And Stratton 17.5 HP Engine ohv 1st problem: Runs fine for about half an hour then dies 2nd Problem Definite loss of ground speed in all gears ' OK, I have the exact same unit, and had the same problem last year. I spent an entire morning checking stuff out, including using a spark tester tool, checking the valve clearances and the 'coil'. Anyway, none of those were the issue, the issue was that the carburetor choke was NOT spring back to the 'open' position after engine warm up/engine start. I saw some 'fixes' on the Internet which detailed how to remove the verical carb butterfly shaft and shave it down a little so it wouldn't stick. I figured I could always 'open' it manually with my hand after a few minutes, but instead drilled a small hole forward of it in the plastic housing, and put a 25 cent spring from there to the ALREADY-PRESENT hole in the black horizontal lever that attaches to the vertical butterfly shaft. See photo at http://www.uploadhouse.com/viewfile.php?id=2339206 before I added the spring. The hole I used is in the foreground; the choke lever from the driver seat pushes the black lever counterclockwise to close the choke, and when I release that lever, the spring I added pulls the black lever clockwise to open the choke. Here is a link that might be useful: Photo link

Hi, I have a problem with starting my Lawn Tactor, I hope you can help. First some Specs: It is a (heap of junk - ha) B&S 18hp Twin I/C M/No: 422707 Type:1263 01 Code: 9312065A on a Murray Lawn Tractor. It doesn't appear to have any form of fuel pump unless it is part of the carb. (I believe it is gravity fed). A little history: For some time I had been having to leave the choke on just a little to make the thing run smoothly. The last time I used the machine I fiddled a little with the various adjusting screws on the carb. with no improvement, so I set them back to where they were. I figured I could live with the choke being out a little. My problem is that the last time I used the machine it died on me after about 1-2 hours mowing and simply would not start again. I figured it had simply overheated so I pushed it into the garage. Now (a week later) it doesn't want to start, or if it finally does (after lots & lots of starter motor winding), it is only for a brief period and it will run like a pig and backfires and soon dies. It smells strongly of fuel during starter motor winding. When I pull the plugs out after this (and having not started), they are wet with fuel. This makes me think there is a spark problem or a timing problem. I have tried the following: I have replaced the plugs, I know all 3 of the kill switches are working (I checked them with a multi-meter), I made sure the earth wire to the ig. coil wasn't shorting and was working properly with ig. key switch, I pulled the coil off and checked the winding with ohms on multi-meter (this was ok), The coil is approx. one millimeter away from flywheel which I think is fine, I have checked for spark from both leads (with spark test pen) and this seems to be working, I have removed the plugs and grounded them then wound it over and they both have spark (maybe a little weak ?? not sure), I asked a mower shop guy if this thing runs points and as I suspected it is electronic timing (so I don't believe it has anything I can adjust), I even pulled the flywheel off to check there was not a sheared key or something there that may explain the timing being out (key and keyway was fine), I tried starting it without the air filter (just in case some blockage - no help but desperate), I have sprayed some engine start spray directly into each of the cyclinders through spark plug holes and after some winding got it to start and got a "Really Cool" backfire. I am suspecting the coil is "Kangaroo-Edward" ("Roo-Ted" for non Australians) but do not know how else to test it (other than how I have stated above) or whether the spark it is putting out is as strong as it should be. (I thought of letting the wife hold the spark plug lead end and depending on her reaction it might of given me an idea of how strong the spark was - ha ha - but I thought better of it). I didn't want to buy a new coil if it wasn't the problem. I don't believe it is a fuel problem due to the fact the plugs are wet. Am I wrong in my deduction of it being Spark/Timing and what else can I do??? Please help me Fellow Lawn Tractor Guru's, before I just set fire to it and roll it down a hill or beat it with a stick. I know this won't fix it but boy would it make me feel gooooooood!!! (I have read through many of the other peoples problems on your forum and I felt they were all a little different to mine - Please help!) Thanks in advance for any help you can offer. P.S. By the way, I noticed a few people in your forum having a problem with the charging of the battery. I too have suffered this problem in the past. I thought I would mention that when I pulled the flywheel off, that the amount of dirt/dust build up inside of the flywheel and around the stator was amazing. It was packed in solid and coating the magnet faces and stator faces. I hosed all of this away, cleaned the stator faces, blew it all dry and sprayed it all with CRC/RP7 before putting it back together. I wonder if this may be a major part of the problem. I don't know if it has fixed the problem yet because my machine is not running, but I reckon it can only help. I hope this helps.

The last push mower engine with iron sleeve briggs made was the Pro 850. According to briggs website looking at the repower list there are no iron sleeve engines being built for push/self propelled mowers today. All that is left is what's on the shelf now either installed or in a box that all there is. Regardless what engine oil one buys today the oil bottle states to change it after 1 year regardless of miles/hours. All full synthetic long interval oil states this including Mobil and Amsoil. So does this mean Briggs engines should simply be scrapped each year or did Briggs come out with some super duper oil that lasts much longer than a year???...lol Fact is Briggs joined the "Planned Obsolescence" club and screwed all it's customers.