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Hi all. Our mower died yesterday. Annoyingly it chose the worst spot to die - down 2 steep banks below the house.... we managed to push it back up, but it was hard work!
Anyway, it had been running fine but then over the space of 5 or 10 seconds it spluttered a bit, revs dropped so I turned the deck off and adjusted the throttle thinking I'd nudged the choke on or something... a second or 2 later ir stopped running.
Checked for spark. Tick.
Checked fuel is getting through to carb. Tick.
Checked battery voltage. 12.4. Tick.
It will turn over, but doesn't fire at all. In the end, it wouldn't even turn over, just makes a relay clicking sound. It has made this sound occasionally when trying to start for a few years.... but it would always start after a couple of clicks back and forth on the key. Not this time.
Tested voltage when under starting load at this stage - it was around 4 or 5 volts.
So, the question is, before I drop £50 on a new battery, (old one currently on charge) is the battery dead? Before I started charging it it still read 12.4 volts under no load, or is that a red herring with the 4 or 5 volts under starting load reading? Is there something else that could cause these symptoms?
Judging by the stickers on it the battery is at least 13 years old, so maybe I should replace it anyway.....
TIA
Dave.
Check for an earth fault, could be you've worn through a cable somewhere. Also check any dead man switches, my dad's had one under the seat so you always had to be sitting or it would cut out.
Clogged fuel filter?
Edit... see you have fuel to the carb.
If you've been driving on steep slopes, it may have got debris from the fuel tank into the carb and blocked the jets. One thing to check would be to try squirting a little bit of fuel down the throat of the carb to see if it fires up and then stops.
What engine? Is it a Briggs&Stratton? and how has it started in general? Does it fire up okay or does it need lots of cranking? Does the cranking sound like the battery is dying/struggling to turn the engine?
Only asking as some of them used in mowers (can't remember it's model name at the moment) they use a bump cam to lower compression for starting. This mechanism fails easily meaning the engine tries to start without decompression which knocks hell out of the starter& battery. People change these but with only short term success as the real culprit is the decompressor.
Thanks for all the replies so far.
I'll get out in a mo and try to jump it from the van.
@rnp It is a Briggs motor. Never had trouble with it starting, other than the aforementioned relay clicking noise. Normally if it turns over rather than relay clicking sound it will start quite easily.
I'll try the jump start and see what happens.
If it originally conked out in a way that made you think you’d knocked the choke and you still had a spark when you checked I’d be looking at air and fuel. Could be crap in the carburettor or something blocking the air filter.
My mower (B&S engine) started intermittently spluttering, eventually cut out and wouldn't start.
The carb fuel/float bowl had corroded and the debris blocked the jets. I cleaned it all up as a temp fix & ordered a new one, still running on the original carb.
+1 fuel
Mowers can get a lot of dust/grass in the air filter. Check that first.
I went back to it after a few hours, and the charger said 'Full' so bunged it back on and it started first time and runs perfectly. It is now dropping to 7.6 volts under starting load, and showing 13.9V with the engine running.
I had looked at the carb fuel/float bowl thingy first, as I'd had the same issue as Hoff one time last year or the year before, but it was clean this time.
I think I'll change the battery-it's very old and the voltage shouldn't be dropping that much. We'll see what happens after that, maybe there is still a fuelling problem that will return....
For now, thanks for all your help.
rnp It is a Briggs motor. Never had trouble with it starting, other than the aforementioned relay clicking noise.
👍 The one with the bump cam was a newish B&S as used in the John Deere Sherminator 3000
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In my experience Briggs and Stratton engines don’t like slopes that are left or right, somehow oil gets into the intake. If you’re lucky it burns off with clouds of smoke, if not, the oil fouls the spark plug and the engine splutters to a halt. Cleaning the plug and turning the engine over with a rag over the plug hole (on level ground) can clear it and solve the problem. The clicky noise will be the relay trying to operate the starter without the required voltage/ amps. Hope this helps.
Probably nothing to do with it, but when I was fixing our lawnmower earlier this year I read that I should be using super unleaded rather than the standard E10 I had been using. I drained and refilled just in case...
Thought I'd update this incase it helps someone with a similar problem in the future.
A day or two after charging the battery I tried to start it again and the voltage dropped down really low - like 2 or 3 volts or something, so I changed the battery, and it's been perfect ever since.
I usually bring the battery in the house at about this time of year, winter temps in the shed seems to kill my batteries.
Briggs like a strong battery
I'd recommend disconnecting the battery over the winter, as there is always a parasitic drain on batteries, which when combined with lead acid batteries self discharging, means they'll often be dead if left all winter.
It's also worth giving them a charge every month or two.
Biggest issue with most rideon mowers, is they don't have that big a charging output (basic B&S alternator is only rated at 3A), so if the battery is run low, it can take a lot of running to get them charged again.