"NY" wrote in message
...
"Jimk" wrote in message
o.uk...
"NY" Wrote in message:
I have a Spear and Jackson lawnmower with a 125 cc Briggs and Stratton
engine (this one https://www.argos.co.uk/product/7597004). After a
year's
perfect service, the engine has suddenly started coughing, spluttering
and
backfiring, and sometimes repeatedly stalling as soon as it tries to cut
a
trivial amount of grass (paradoxically, it cuts longer grass without
batting
an eyelid).
...
Any ideas? Is it time to "get it looked at"?

Carb service

Ah, do carbs need servicing from time to time?

Nope, not if you keep using clean fuel and don't
leave it over winter with fuel in the tank, let it run
dry with the last mowing in autumn.

I don't remember my older cars (those which had carbs) having an explicit
task of servicing the carburettor.

Cars are different because they wont evaporate old fuel
when standing around for months unused and you don't
usually not use them all winter etc.

I wasn't sure whether modern mowers still actually used a carburettor as
opposed to fuel injection.

Few do use fuel injection.

Oh well, time to find someone who services mowers. At least I've
eliminated things that I could fix myself...

But would have done better to consider what could produce the symptoms you
were seeing.