Petrol Lawn Mower will not start

Glyn1959 · Joined: 23 Jan 2003 Posts: 153 Location: United Kingdom

Help. I bought a flymo petrol driven lawn mower 2 years ago. I have cleaned the plug. It fires for 2 or 3 seconds and then dies. I leave it for a few minutes and then try again. After a few arm wrenching attempts it does exactly the same again. Someone has suggested replacing the petrol with fresh. I will try this but does anyone have any other tips? Incidentally. After the fiorst time it fored, the freshly cleaned plu had oil on it. Ids this sighnificant. Please advise ... I am the only one in the road not to have cut the grass ans neighbours are looking down their noses at me!!

Thermo · Posted: Wed Apr 19, 2006 12:50 pm

a few stupid questions.
Has it got a choke and are you using it and then taking it off?
try starting it with the air filter removed, it may be clogged up.
try fresh petrol, but to be honest i never have much of a problem with petrol when its left in any machinery, always seems to start pretty easily.

Static · Posted: Wed Apr 19, 2006 1:50 pm

You could try replacing the petrol, and its probably a 2stroke engine so will need 2stroke oil to run

Alandy · Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2006 10:44 pm

Have you removed the spark plug and left it dangling on the cylinder head earthed out to see if there is a spark?? coming from it when u pull the starter cord??, if there is just clean the plug up , And if you have a hot hair gun , warm the tip up, so it is hot and replace the plug back in its hole without crossthreading it ! choke it and pull the cord , try that it always does the trick for me after the winter rest period cos mine never starts after winter...

ratm · Joined: 26 Feb 2006 Posts: 96 Location: United Kingdom

Had the same problem a few years back but I couldn't tell you what caused it, maybe bad fuel, maybe a worn plug. Most newer Flymo mowers are 4 stroke and don't have a true choke. They use instead a bulb type fuel purge that lifts a little extra fuel into the intake to aid starting. This dries as soon as the engine fires up and theoretically the engine should run on fine, however for some reason this isn't always enough and you need to choke the air intake a little until the engine warms up a bit. I've also noticed that if the fuel level gets down a bit or if the blade isn't clear of the glass it can be hard to start them. The fuel bulb needs to be pumped at least 10 times but don't try starting immediately after a stall, let it rest for a minute or two, for some reason they don't like starting when hot.

steelypies · Joined: 19 Apr 2010 Posts: 1 Location: United Kingdom

if your petrol lawnmower is a 2 stroke ,put 2 or 3 capfulls of oil mixed in with te petrol and it should work fine

Static · Posted: Mon Apr 19, 2010 11:03 am

steelypies wrote:

if your petrol lawnmower is a 2 stroke ,put 2 or 3 capfulls of oil mixed in with te petrol and it should work fine

Chances are in 4 years his garden is probably a little beyond a lawn mower if he hasnt fixed this problem..

jaydodds100 · Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 11:03 am

I had the same problem after it had been stood over the winter. I removed the airfilter to start and topped up the oil - worked for me!

ClevelandSteamer · Posted: Sun May 29, 2011 2:19 pm

My new lawnmower is doing this. Think the mrs let it run out of fuel so hopefully its just needing a good prime?

My hedgetrimmer does this to though. Maybe the fuel could do with getting changed.

From reading this thread it sounds like the machines with the priming bulb don't need the oil added to the fuel. Is that right?

Should just stuck to electric machines ha ha

Burnerman · Posted: Sun May 29, 2011 6:01 pm

Garden machines that have priming bulbs have carburettors with no float bowl, which enables the engine to run inverted, unless it is the design (Briggs) that has the fuel tank beneath the carb. The bulb is simply a manual pump that primes the carburettor with fresh fuel, hopefully for a good start up.
The engines may be two stroke (oil added to the fuel) or four stroke (no oil added to the fuel). Either may have a priming bulb. The exception to this rule is the Stihl 4 mix, which although a four stroke, does have oil added as a lubricant.
John

ClevelandSteamer · Posted: Sun May 29, 2011 9:55 pm

Oh man. This means I'm gonna have to hunt for the manual...

ClevelandSteamer · Posted: Mon May 30, 2011 5:17 pm

Thanks for the advice

Got it goin eventually with clean fuel. Just kept at it...

went and got oil and a mixer thingy so all good now

toffeemanchocky · Posted: Tue May 31, 2011 2:04 pm

it could be just too much oil in the fuel mix,drain and fill with correct amount of two stroke oil,approx 85ml in a gallon of petrol,always shake the can before filling,if this fails, take out the spark plug, clean, check if sparking, if yes, the get a normal lead pencil, rub the electrode withe the pencil lead,put it back in,WILL start as gives the engine a KICK Start,works on all petrol powered tools,used it loads of the time, old farmers trick ???

stevehuws · Posted: Tue May 31, 2011 10:28 pm

espares.co.uk have a good video section. Here's one on getting a petrol mower to start:

http://www.youtube.com/esparesvideo#p/u/15/tYJeT1D7-wg