It is akin to back in the day when cars had carburetors and when you made a turn it would die, but run fine going straight down the road. Very low fuel level in the float bowl or a lot of water and sediment and little fuel. Take it apart and clean the needle and seat real good and the whole carburetor for that matter and reset the float level and see how she runs then. It could have too much water or contaminates in the float bowl so that the actual amount of fuel in there is too little or the water/sediment in the bowl is causing the eratic operation when you pull backward. If my answer sounds confusing, well I just worked another long day in the heatwave so I may be too exhausted to make sense... :P

I just changed the solenoid on my mothers mower and now am having this issue. Not sure if it had the issue before as my brothers were arcing it over to start it for a couple of years. I unplugged the key switch wiring harness and the 2 small wires on the new solenoid and the positive wire still sparks when I touch it to the battery terminal. Tapped on the solenoid and it stopped turing the engine over, so my new solenoid is sticking for some reason. Tested it several times and tapping on the solenoid fixes the issue every time. Do I just go get a new solenoid again?

(((((Pidget))))) I'm sorry it's hard right now. You do a spectacular job of juggling everything all the time and a set-back like this is like a kick in the teeth. Hopefully you'll come of this OK and soon be back on track. Vent all you want, I know how hard you work at keeping everything going smoothly and speedbumps stink. Good luck getting it all taken care of and I hope you love your new job! Oh, nurse? I have a boo-boo finger, what kind of band-aids do you have? I require a fun one!

I am going to be blunt, and you will probably all hate me, but we do have freedom of speech here. This thread to me just seems so dated. Dealerships are "woke" to the idea that women make most of the car decisions, women do more internet research than men, women are buying cars with their own money not their husband's, and that having a sales experience that uses intimidation and pressure tactics hasn't worked for years. My friend is a saleswoman at a Honda dealership, and I have sent friends to her. Her role is to go over all the various options of the different models and see what the customer prefers. Yes she of course wants to close the deal, but car manufacturers realized years ago that the hard sell doesn't close the deal nearly as well as the reasoned, educational sell. Think of when you go in a department store, and the salesperson is hovering; you just want to leave. Same with cars, and the dealerships realized this years ago. They also realized years ago that a pleasant purchasing experience can mean the customer will come back for repairs (where the big profit is) and for their next car, and will refer their friends as well. For all these reasons, the intimidation sell is over, and has been for a long time. The purchase price has a little leeway, but since you can find prices all over the country on the internet, there's not much hard bargaining there. There is more negotiating--if you want it--over the trade-in (a more subjective evaluation than the purchase price of a car), and extras like winter mats and free oil changes. But the era of pushy salesman, and pressure tactics is over, as should be the era of the nervous woman with fluttering hands who'd rather do anything than buy a car at the scary dealership, and needs a man to accompany her. To the OP - feel your power. You are the purchaser of a car and the dealerships want your business. Walk in there knowing you are a powerful intelligent woman about to spend your money how you would like to spend it on the car you want. We are almost in 2019 at this point.