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Collection, Preservation and Display of Old Lawn Mowers

Sudden richness, flooding; what happened?

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My 18" Ransomes Marquis/BSA

(as per http://www.oldlawnmowerclub.co.uk/forum/marquisf12-basic-problems)

was being used yesterday evening to cut my lawn (around 800 metres squared).

Around 2/3 of the way through, the engine started mis-firing a bit, then a lot, and I noticed that petrol was actively dripping from the carburetor, a drop every couple of seconds. Then she stopped :-(

Surprisingly, she re-started after a few pulls, and I found (as I sought a throttle setting at which she'd run) that giving the throttle lever a couple of fully closed to full open sweep (i.e. I vigorously waggled the throttle) seemed to get her back on song, at least enough to finish the cut (much to my relief).

Can anyone intuit from this little sequence of events what the problem is/was and what I should do about it?

I would estimate the carb has only had around 5 seasons use, and was bought new (well, NOS).

   BugBear

wristpin Sat, 17/05/2014

Strip and thoroughly clean the carburettor. Make sure that the fine mesh sleeve is intact and in place over the jet assembly.

bugbear Sat, 17/05/2014

Strip and thoroughly clean the carburettor. Make sure that the fine mesh sleeve is intact and in place over the jet assembly.

Unless I can lay my hands on (or be pointed to) a guide-with-pictures on doing that, I don't have the skill/knowledge :-(

 

 BugBear