Thanks for coming back and posting the outcome.

 

Of course. There will be some guy 6 years from now googling and will find this post haha

 

Problem solved. Grass cut!


Ok, so I have solved the giant mystery.

The stupid fuel solenoid. I thought I had it fixed on the other carb. As it turns out, the old carb was missing the main jet, but I had pulled off the rubber stopper thing from the solenoid and the metal piece was going into the old jet hole and preventing the flow of gas enough to act like a normal jet (kind of)

When I put on the new carb, it had a proper jet, so therefore it wouldn't work with the fuel solenoid blocking it like the other one.
So I yanked out the entire metal piece and now it works properly.

The new carb came with another solenoid and I may install it one day if I can rewire the "on" signal to it from wherever it originally comes from. As of now I have a gray wire going to nothing. I can live with backfires .

 

I think this carb might have too small of a hole. it looks different from the old one.

 

So I connected the fuel pickup to the fuel line and put it in backwards temporarily and now it's doing what it was doing before. There is some kind of air leak somewhere or something.

I reseated and cleaned the carb and at least I can get it to run but I have to mess with the tension of the throttle

 

Fuel pickup broke when trying to get it out, so it looks like I'll be ordering one.

 

ok, is this something where I can test it by filling up a bucket of gas and running a tube to the fuel pump, or is that not a good way to test it.

I will try to get the fuel pickup out

 

Try loosening the cap on the fuel tank and see if it starts. Then if that doesn't work I'd pull the fuel pickup out of the tank and clean it.

 

Here's what I've got now. Choke seems to be closing fine but gas is not getting to engine I think.

 

Check to see if the butterfly valve is closing when you start it. If not and there is a "choke" on it choke the engine (should be the same as putting your hand over the carb).

 

nice

 

I think actually the adjustment screw is fine. The issue seems to be an air intake issue of some type. It only wants to start with my hand on the intake

 

Thanks for everything. Do you know of any adjustment points on this carb?

 

Awesome to hear….and now you know how to troubleshoot your tractor 🤙

 

so after some testing, I found that the sparkplug boot was melted and the plug was shorting to the metal. It is now running, however I need to figure out how to adjust the throttle and choke.

 

How do I check that?

 

Then the next thing I would check is the compression.

 

Currently it is wet with gas

 

I do in fact have fuel coming out.

Do you know if there is another spark plug somewhere? I read online there was just one.

 

I do in fact have fuel coming out.

Do you know if there is another spark plug somewhere? I read online there was just one.

Just looked and that’s only a single cylinder so only 1 plug.
If you pull your plug is it wet or dry?

 

If you’ve got a spinning engine, a new carb and spark at both plugs, that tells me that probably something is up between your fuel tank and the carburetor. Pull the fuel line off of the carb and spin the engine over for a few seconds to see if you’ve got fuel coming out.

 

@HookMan
I may be wrong here but it isn't the starter that is just spinning. It is the entire flywheel spinning. I can pull off the cover and check that the starter is engaging though.

@dave_r I have checked only one spark plug but let me see if I can find the other one.

 

@HookMan
I may be wrong here but it isn't the starter that is just spinning. It is the entire flywheel spinning. I can pull off the cover and check that the starter is engaging though.

@dave_r I have checked only one spark plug but let me see if I can find the other one.

So if you lift the hood and turn the key, you can see the engine spinning?

 

Pretty sure a starter thats spinning but not engaging is a symptom of a bad starter.

 

If you've pulled the spark plugs, and verified that you are getting a spark with both spark plugs while pressing them against the engine housing, I would do a compression test and maybe adjust the valve clearances.

 

There is plenty of gas on the starter and it is sparking.
Also there is fuel pumping
The gas shutoff valve is disabled (rubber foot removed)
choke is fully closed and I've moved it around a bit with my hand to see if that helped.
I don't have any more starter spray but I have tried carb cleaner since it's also pretty flammable.

 

This is a new to me, but pretty old mower. Probably about 10 years old. It started to sputter out and always had carb troubles which is why I changed the carb. the throttle wouldn't go much below fully choked before it would sputter out.

I will try your list then report back soon!

 

Is this a new-to-you tractor, or it was running last week, and didn't start today, or it ran last year, or it was running and just stopped?

Fuel, air, spark, compression is needed for the engine to run.

I would start with
-checking that there is fuel in the tank, and the fuel shutoff valve is open
-engine sounds like it's spinning fast enough using the starter
-making sure the choke fully closes when trying to start
-checking if getting a spark
-spray a bit of starter spray into the intake, then try starting, to see if it starts