Lawnmower Question...

[panther4life]

okay so I left it outside and it has endured all this rain we have had lately. To make matters worse I lost the gas cap, so rain obviously penetrated the tank. Now it won't start. Has oil in it, granted I have not changed it in a while. Did the rain fug this thing up or is it possible something else caused it to not want to start?

It's just a regular craftsman push mower btw.

[Anybodyhome]

Remove the spark plug, take off the gas cap and empty the gas from the tank. Leave it out in the sun for a couple days, leave the gas cap off and the spark plug out and hopefully what's left will evaporate.

[stankowalski]

Yeah do what anybodyhome said. You obviously got water in there. And change your oil for christs sake.

[thefuzz]

pull the hose off the nipple (yeap) on the bottom of the tank.

Take the bowl off the bottom of the carb, and let it drain out.

Spray the carb with ether and push on the floats to make sure they are not hung up.

Take out the spark plug and while it's still connected grab the end of the plug with bare hand and pull the starter rope.

If you get a little shock you are still getting power.

Put it all back together, add gas, clean the air filter, spray a quick shot of ether into the air hole that goes to the carb, see if it fires off.

Go mow your grass and send me $85.00