I have a Craftsman lawn tractor, 24 hp, 48" deck, that is almost 3 yrs old
(in a few days).

It has never had a problem until a couple of days ago, and I maintain it
each offseason (change oil, oil filter, fuel filter, spark plugs, clean air
filter, sharpen blades).

I have a 1-acre lot.

At this time of year, the grass is growing fast again, and on Friday I cut
it after having cut it the prior Sunday (5 days). I have a bagger
attachment and was using it for the entire yard.

Just as I was finishing, the tractor became sluggish, then conked out. It
would restart but would quickly conk out again. I pushed it to the
driveway, and found it would barely run if I kept the choke in full choke
position, but would conk out as soon as I put the choke to the run position.

The grass bins were not close to full.

The next day, the tractor seems to run fine. I haven't put it through a
full mow, but just ran it once around the entire property, and it seemed
fine.

I had already scheduled a service call for this Thursday, as I have a 3-yr
warranty. I don't want to cancel yet not knowing what the problem is. My
warranty expires two days later, and I have the option to renew, but it's on
the order of $300/yr, so a 3-yr extension would cost almost $900.

- What might have caused the engine to conk out as it did, but it seems fine
now?

- Is it worth extending the warranty?