Lawnmower

Laura's dad had an "extra" lawnmower in the attic and he was kind enough to give it to me. The only problem was that it didn't work. He told me that it would run for about 1 second if you poured gas directly into the intake. Should be an easy fix, right?

Carburetor

So, I grabbed a can of carb cleaner, and sprayed it all over the intake and carb. Ok, good enough, let's start it up. Sure enough it would start, but only run for about 1 second. I probably repeated this process 50 times until my arms gave up. 

I figured that the carbon deposits would clear out eventually. Well, nope. Then it was off to amazon to purchase the rebuild kit. Unfortunately, I had no manual or clue what carb this was so ordered one on a hunch. Good thing Briggs & Stratton appears to be universal because it worked. I also found this great YouTube video with tips on how to get the o-rings out. Anyhow, as you can see it was gummed up with old gas.

Take note of the bolt used to secure the bowl of the carb at the bottom. It has a hole in it that meters the fuel so clean that out really well.

The $7 part kit worked fantastic, after replacing the parts and cleaning it out worked great! If you have problems with the lawnmower engine starting but failing to run, this is the first place I'd look.