No, I've never drained the fuel in the past (althought doing it is
simple, makes complete sense, and I'll probably start doing it).

Typically, I'll mix some fuel stabilizer with the last gallon of gas I
by for it in the fall and then use that gas when cutting grass in
Sept/Oct. I've done this every year that I have had the mower, except
last year, of course :-)

Even though it was stored over the winter with fuel, it started fine
in April and has run great until last weekend. Could that still be
varnish in the carb from last winter finally doing its magic?

Thanks!

On Tue, 26 Aug 2003 02:37:09 GMT, "Mistercmk"
wrote:

Do you drain the fuel from the machine before you put it away in the winter?
If not, you will most likely need a carb re-build. You can buy a kit to do
this from your local parts dealer. When I re-built my 5hp vertical shaft
Briggs, I threw the carb in the parts cleaner for a while, and it works like
a champ. So, before the re-build, take the carb off, and run some carb
cleaner through it. If that doesn't solve the problem, the next step would
be to re-build the carb.