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I have a 4 year old 20 hp Husqvarna lawn tractor with 185 hours on it. In September of last year, it began to start very hard. Spins Ok but cranks for up to 4-5 minutes. It will eventually start. I replaced the air and fuel filters, ran some Sea Foam through it, and changed the plug. No change. This year it is getting progressively worse. It runs good and idles smoothly just doesn't start for crap. I'm willing to bet that I am the least mechanical person on this site so any thoughts as to what I should be looking at for a potential fix would be greatly appreciated.
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Campfire Oracle
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Campfire Oracle
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"Dear Lord, save me from Your followers"
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Campfire Tracker
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Starting fluid, or a shot of ether right into the carb?
Trump HAD the World, ", Trump saw our children, " Trump saw a way to make a brighter day so he started giving There was a choice he was making, he was saving our own lives Its true he made a brighter day for you and me. --Trump WINS 2016
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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Hard to start hot and cold, or just cold?
Not enough hours on it for lack of compression to be an issue so I'm guessing for some reason it's not properly choking, or the fuel system is loosing it's prime.
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Joined: Oct 2002
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Campfire Oracle
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Campfire Oracle
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Sounds carb to me. Have you been running ethanol fuel in it?
"Dear Lord, save me from Your followers"
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Campfire Oracle
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Campfire Oracle
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Compression, fuel, spark that's what you need.
"Dear Lord, save me from Your followers"
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Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
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Sounds carb to me. Have you been running ethanol fuel in it? Ethanol is bad schit in a small engine.
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Campfire Member
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Campfire Member
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Solenoid, coil, whatever you want to call in on a lawn tractor.
I've got a Craftsman about the same age as yours, ran horrible. Did a tune up, cleaned the carb, took the carb off and cleaned and rebuilt it.
Changed the above and it runs like new.
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Campfire Oracle
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Campfire Oracle
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I use nothing but non-ethanol in all my small engines.
"Dear Lord, save me from Your followers"
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Campfire Oracle
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Campfire Oracle
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Especially if you've been running ethanol, I'd expect to have to clean the carb.
Spark at the plug I assume?
"Dear Lord, save me from Your followers"
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Thanks for the replies
Ethanol fuel but I do add marine grade stabil Starts harder when it is cold but still pretty bad when warm Spark at the plug.
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Campfire Outfitter
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I had ethanol problems in my chainsaw and boat motor, I won't run it in a small engine now.
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I'm not sure I can get non-ethanol fuel here. I looked in the past and couldn't.
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Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
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It has to be a carb problem after everything you have tried and it didn't help
A Doe walks out of the woods today and says, that is the last time I'm going to do that for Two Bucks.
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Campfire Ranger
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Oddly enough I've never had ethanol problems with my Sears 18 HP (B&S) lawn tractor. Will add Seafoam at the end of the season and at the beginning, just cheap gas otherwise. Did rebuild the carb sometime around it being 10 (float valve issue), is about 20 now. All starting problems have come down to air filter, gas filter, readjusting the carb as it aged. Be sure the carb is set a little on the rich side, should it work itself lean and run hot you'll have big problems. Plug cleaned and gapped every year, improper gap can make it start hard.
These little engines can be funny. Mine starts right up if I get the engine turning and then advance the throttle to high speed (not far enough to close the choke, never needs choke in summer). If I advance the throttle to fast and then turn the engine it wants to flood no matter how the carb is set.
The key elements in human thinking are not numbers but labels of fuzzy sets. -- L. Zadeh
Which explains a lot.
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Campfire Tracker
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Sounds carb to me. Have you been running ethanol fuel in it? Would say this is the ticket here. Take her to a mechanic for a good cleaning and jet change.
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Campfire Outfitter
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gravity feed gas or fuel pump? if fuel pump, i'd guess its going south. did you change the fuel filter?
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Campfire Tracker
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What is the HP and #,s on the engine. If its a Kohler Courage some of those have auto chokes. If it runs smooth under load its getting plenty of fuel. If its a Kohler command Im betting the choke needs adjusting. Dont use starting fluid its bad for your rings.
Last edited by TLB2; 06/23/14.
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