wilkes

You can test the fly wheel without pulling it a lot of times. Just put a socket on the nut that holds the flywheel on and have someone hold it from moving and try moving the fly wheel. If the keyway is broken sometimes the flywheel will move enough to let you know its a bad keyway. You can do it either ways one is just about as easy as the other. You can sometimes just remove the bolt and washer and see it plain as day, shaft and keyway is at one place and the flywheel and slot is another makes it pretty clear the keyway broke.

There is a possibility that the flywheel key may have sheared, throwing the ignition out of time. it might be a good idea to pull the flywheel and check the key for damage and shearing. Even the slightest amount of damage to it can throw the timing way off.

If it's a float would it run long? I've seen sticky floats but most the time they flood out and will not run.

Valve, now that's an idea! Hopefully though he'll just have bad gas and not have to spend a load on an old mower.

You can't hardly find a good riding mower now a days, they're all expensive but made so cheap you're lucky to get 4 mowing seasons of service. You're danged lucky to get one to last 500 hours without some serious repair poping up.

If you go buy and older one and get one worth spending some money on you'll still spend near $1000.00 bucks. Your best bet is find an older Garden Tractor because they're built a lot heavier and tougher than a regular riding mower.

Bolens made some good tractors, Simplicity made some good ones, Ford, John Deere, Cub Cadets and several others made some really good older model Garden style tractors.

If you had one of those, they're worth spending some money on if you can find one in decent shape with a decent motor.

Old Kohler cast iron motors and those Old Briggs can't be beat hardly at all.

Carburetor float could be stuck.

I had one do the same thing and it dropped a valve

Not sure how to explain how to check for the rod problem without taking up a lot of room. The ring problem would just mean remove the head and you will need a new head gasket. My advice is check youtube for videos and that might help you find your problems.

Ok if it's running wild that sounds like a govener issue and you should check that because that most certainly will cause damage to your engine. Could be a stuck throttle but the way you've talked about it I'd really check out the governer linkages and make sure they're not binding or caught or hung even.

You can check the oil for metal fragments if you see a lot then you might have a bad problem.

The gas, if it has water in it you would need to remove all the old gas from both the tank and carb. Also a new fuel filter in line would be a good idea.

Can you give us what Horse power engine it is and what model motor?

more than likely it broke the rod for the piston. being it had a habbit to run wide open, it just took all it could then broke, might be able to repair. don't know until you take apart to check.

Sounds like a cab issue. Flush the old gas out. Clean the carb bowl. replace the plug and try again.

how can I tell if it has thrown a rod? The oil doesn't seem to have water in it or anything. If it has thrown a rod, it would probably just be cheaper to buy another used mower I guess. By the way, the mower has this weird thing for a while; it runs wide open and like crazy hyped up loud if the choke is all the way in so usually have to keep the choke pulled out a little or it idles way to loud and is way revved up. Does that help?

If it actually seems to turn free it might have broken a ring or thrown a rod. If it's a Kohler cast iron engine you might can save it but you'd have to have it bored most likely if it damaged the pistion wall.

I can feel your pain and hope the best for you and it's only bad gas. Maybe that's all that it is and you'll be ok.

Riding mowers are expensive and I hope it's just water in the gas.

You've probably just got water or a plugged fuel filter. But you've created another minor problem pouring gas down the carb. The gas has washed oil off the cyl walls and lowered the compression. It's probably also drowned out the new plug too, so you'll need to take it out a dry it off good. I would spin the engine over some with the plug out.

Then you'll have to find the original problem as to why it shut down.

Does it have a bow tie on the front?

Sounds like a timing issue to me maybe a sheared key between the crank and flywhell

it;s blowed up ...believe me i know

Air cleaner could be clogged up.

sounds like you broke ring or warp valve if it turning to easy then probily broke something in side engine and compression is not holding now

You have water in gas,change fuel filter and fresh gas will fix it.

Compression gauge but you can remove the spark plug and put your thumb over it the plug hole and have someone turn it over with the starter, it should have enough compression to blow your thumb up and off the hole. Becareful doing that please because you could get hurt. I've done it several times well many many times. But your safest way is with a compression tester. Most 10 or more hp will have at least 120 to 130 pounds of compression or in my experiences.

Make sure you've got enough fire to start it. Sometimes a switch will go bad and you'll get fire just not enough to start it. I've seen that a million times and also a coil can go bad, you can get fire but not enough to start. Normally though a coil going bad will sort of give you some clues before it dies.

Your voltage regulator can also go bad and keep it from firing right. Seen that on a Cub Cadet, John Deere and several others. Coils cold will sometimes run, then when it gets hot die and then start back when it cools down.

Same with a voltage regulator.

Something I've learned over the years is make dang sure your motor gets plenty of air flow when it runs. It will save you lots of trouble and money over the long run. Every mowing season remove the engine covers and clean them out. That flywheel on those engines serves more purpose than most people think. They cool that engine and they can't do that if the covers are filled up with trash. They also cool your coil and in some engines they cool the electronics and voltage regulator.

I don't think it is a kill switch because most of those were already disconected. The only one that was working I think was the one that would not let me start it with the blades engaged. How do I check the compression because it seems to be spinning tto freely and easier than usual.

coud be the safty switch under the seat mine did that by passed the switch fixed it