In article ,
donald girod wrote:

Dan Espen wrote:
donald girod writes:

I have a Briggs lawn mower, solid state ignition. It runs normally
(good power, etc) once it starts, and it starts eventually, BUI...

I have to pull many, many times, and after a while the engine starts
to fire weakly. It will fire weakly 10 or 15 times and die, each time
doing a little better. Finally, it fires weakly, doesn't die quite,
and slowly picks up speed. Then it takes off and runs. It will
restart readily when warm, but if left even 10 minutes, it reverts to
the painful starting. The spark is strong (obviously), and I can see
gas splash up in the carb throat when I take the air cleaner off and
pull the rope. When it does start, it does NOT throw black smoke, as
it would if the carb was seriously loaded up with gas, in fact, it
throws no smoke at all, and I would bet that in fact it has been
starving for gas. Maybe.

This may be too simple, but it sounds like you are not pushing
the primer button the required number of times.
Yep, too simple. It has no primer button. This is not a new mower.

When I have that type of problem, I try putting an unlit propane torch
into the intake. Propane burns from about 5% to 95% so the engine
usually starts right up, confirming the problem is fuel.

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