Craftsman Mower Starts but Won't Stay Running - FIXED! 

You are the first person in these lawn mower repair videos that I have watched that actually explains how AND why you are doing what you are doing. Add that to your explanations on how some lawnmower systems (IE: carb fuel flow) work you provide enough information for a DIY'r to feel good about the repair he or she will most likely perform on their lawnmower. Great job! You got my like, subscription, and share. Keep up the good work!

This is a great video. It's like a real professional video. The quality of everything - from the information to the audio to the video (especially the closeups) - is top notch. You are the best! Thanks!

Well done brother. Your video was clear, concise and cogent. Expertly explained without all the nonsense. I haven't gone out to do what I just learned in your video yet but if I'm a betting man just from the way in which you went through the steps and explain them I'm sure everything will work out just fine. On behalf of the layman, thank you so much for a well explained solve to a common problem.

Thanks for an intelligent, straight to the point, and thorough video. It’s obvious that you know your stuff and are a good communicator. Thanks again.

Thank you! Just saved myself £200, which is how much it cost to fix this exact same problem 2 years ago. Watched this video and fixed the mower in about the same time it would take me to drive the mower to the repair guy and back. You're a star !

Bless you Cool Man with the Shades. You provided the valuable information I needed, TODAY. Really wanted to get a machine running. On my own! Little ole me, no mechanic, just an ordinary citizen with some oil changing skills and observation. An attorney for 33 years. All of a sudden I'm draining fuel and taking things apart! Big smile on my face. 4 pulls and she runs. I owe it to you good sir. Your good deeds will come back to you.

I just purchase a new carb before getting to view your solution. However, thanks to you . I'm confident that I can service the old one.

Thanks man! You are the first person to actually explain the function (especially the auto choke) instead of just blind-guessing. I have a similar issue with a Briggs&Stratton auto choke engine. Fires up perfectly and stalls if I do not lift the mower at the handle for about 2-3 minutes. Then it runs perfectly. Carburator and fuel system is clean, so I guess it is an issue with the auto choke. Maybe too much air at the beginning and lifting the tank compensates that by increasing the fuel pressure. Thanks to your video, now I know where to look for. Greetings from Germany! Andreas

Thank you for helping me fix my mower. After watching your instruction I easily unblocked my carb jet and got it running again. You are worth your weight in gold.

My mower was doing this. This fixed it up. Thank you for making this video. Cheers

Thank you. Only video that actually covers and explains the whole method for clearing blocked jets. Saved the day!!!

Just want to say thanks . My mower has been giving me trouble for years. I thought it was dead. But low and behold, its fixed. Thanks keep for making the video it helped alot. Don

Who ever left the thumbs down on the video, WHY? He has great content, takes his time to explain everything he does and even shows you other preventative maintenance for your mowers!! Keep up the great work! Watch the vids all the time!

Thanks! Your video really helped. Different model, but my Craftsman (B&S) was doing the same "starts but dies". I'd never tried removing a carburetor before, but your visuals and explanations helped convince me to try. Cleaned, removed crud and some fluffy threads, reassembled, and Voila! it runs like a champ again! Thanks again for posting this video.

This was an amazing learning experience. Thank you for sharing the basics of how an auto-choke carb and mower works. Your practical and informative instruction gave me the confidence to take apart my mower and carb, clean it, and actually put it back together. And by golly, the damn thing is now running like new. Thank you.

Enjoyed your video on the small engine repair of the carb. It was very well explained, and I was able to feel informed enough to try and clean the carb on my Power Washer, which had almost identical symptoms as the lawn mower you demonstrate on your video. Good Job Thank you Very Much !!

How is it that I've just found this guy? All those waisted hours. The untold stress I've inadvertently placed upon myself. The gold standard by which ALL online video help should strive for!

Best video and explanation on this subject. Not too long and still informative! I’m on board!

Thanks for taking the time to make the video and provide the right amount of detail. This enabled me to fix my Toro Super Recycler 159cc Personal Pace Lawn Mower. Same basic principles and issue. You're the man!

Thank you for the in-depth video. Very helpful and glad someone went through step by step what they were actually doing and why.

I'm a mecanic still learning, thank you Sir

Fantastic video. The step by step with detailed, yet simplistic explanation was very easy to follow. Thank you.

My dad had a great repair manual, my lazy idiot brother threw it away….. You’re video was a big help! Thank you, saving me a few bucks!

Thank you for the detailed video. I was able to fix my lawnmower following your video.

You have no idea how grateful I am for you! And this video

I just did this, following along, and it WORKED like a charm!! Thanks!

Fantastic every detail you have shown I learned and watch your video it’s helpful to me. Thanks! May God bless you

Simple and effective explanations of what to do and more importantly why to do it. Also what to look for before your real mess up something. Fixed my mower after sitting up all winter and probably saved me $100 to $200 in a service bill. Thank you.

Your video is soooo gooood, I watched it again. You mention for hard to start mowers it might be valve related. I've got a 6.0 Craftsman that's hard to start. Hoping you might have some advice about checking out and fixing the valves if that the problem. You also mentioned "budget" minded fixes and that pretty much summarizes my situation. So, I'm really hoping you can HELP get me down the cheapest right road to lawn mower heaven!!!

I eventually got tired of having to dismantle and clean my mower carb every spring. I installed an inline filter and most importantly a fuel shut off valve! Now whenever I store my mower I shut the fuel valve and run mower till it runs out of fuel thus emptying the fuel bowl. I did this four years ago and now it doesn't matter how long I store my mower. All I do is add fresh fuel and it starts and runs every time. Problem solved! Oh, another good tip is to only use ethanol free fuel. Or add the fuel additive this video recommends. Ethanol fuel has made small engine repair shops so much money over the years it's ridiculous!

Great work on these videos. They are clear, informative and high quality. Thanks!

10/10 video and I will watch it repeatedly....

Helped me get a poorly running Husqvarna with a Kohler Courage XT-6 running smoothly again. 👍

Followed the video and fixed my engine. thx

Great instructional video with very good details. I cant thank you enough sir. Now I can clean my carburetor with confidence!

Thank you so much! Solved a problem we’ve been trying to figure out for a while!

Thanks so much man, awesome stuff! Hope this fixes mine I got from a buddy.

Awesome video. Startlingly good picture quality. Going to try that tomorrow with my own mower. Thank you! 😃

Great video. Thanks for getting to the point quickly and explaining the issue so wel.

Cool, my Lawnboy has this engine, started acting like this last fall . Time to look at the carb. Thanks ! These normally start amazing !👍

Thank you. Exactly what my mower was doing.

Thanks for your intelligent explanation, your video guides me to fix my mover today, much appreciated

EXCELLENT explanation and details! Thanks for sharing.

Great video... excellent resource. Husqvarna LC 221A won't start after sitting over the winter. At least now I am convinced it is a carb issue and you might have saved me many repair $$$. Thanks for taking the time.

Had this issue today watched this and fixed my problem. Thanks!!

You my friend, just saved me 300$! Thankyou!!

Thanks for your video, I fixed my mower today😊

You are a good teacher

very good explanation!

chingon nice job, tnk'u with the video saludos desde Michoacán México

Very informative. Thanks man

Great video. Had the same problem on my Sears mower. Took the carb off and blew out everything with carb cleaner and a needle and runs like a charm again! Looks like it is easy for the jet to get clocked with fuel debris.

Excellent! I had the same problem and this worked!! Thank you!

Is it too late to change the video's title? The key point is not that it's a Craftsman brand mower but that the engine is a Kohler 149cc engine. This engine is installed on many brands, Toro & Lawn Boy among them. While the vid description and audio identify the engine, it would show up higher in a RU-vid search if the engine type is in the title. It's an really excellent presentation and deserves a wider audience.

Nice additional information added to a carb cleaning video. K100S+ mixture of 5 ozs. per 19 Litres of fuel for 2 year storage. I have been using half that for one year storage (with Ethanol Free Fuel) and my equipment fires up every springl, any fuel left in the jerry can from the previous year goes into my truck. I always start out with fresh fuel and K100S+ in the spring.

Great video thank you for sharing it was very professional 😊

Thank you for the detailed video!

Thanks so much for teaching this. Appreciate your sharing.

Great video, you are a very good teacher.

Thanks for the explanation, but can't see doing this myself. It worked perfectly fine this summer, til I added more oil, and then it's now doing what you described. (No, I didn't put in too much oil.) Total wicked bummer.

My old mower wouldn’t run. Did everything suggested online and in these videos. The push bar or whatever that should turn the mower off when released was the issue for some reason. Taking that whole assembly off fixed it 🤷‍♀️. I turn it off by removing spark plug now.

Excellent video. Thank you

Damn ethanol...I've had to do this too many times. Thanks for the reeducation

Great video!!! thank you

You should have showed reassembling the carb and reassembling to engine. Thank You for video!

Great tutorial

Thanks again for another informative video.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH

Good day When I was driving for neighbors, checking out side of road, I found a craftsman. Sprayed either started up. It will not start by itself. I usually sell them for $10.00 to a young amish fellow learning small engines. I did keep this one . Thanks guess carb has to come off. Happy Easter

Thanks you did great

It worked. Thanks.

Great video...i found your channel from a kijiji ad!

Good explaining !! Good lighting. Camera little shakey ?

Great video thanks - saved me €€€€

Excellent video. 0

Thank you for a great video.

I am really not looking forward to doing any of this! I am having exact issue.... can I check for bad fuel 1st before taking out and cleaning carbonator? I don't know what I'm doing so I am going to follow your video step by step. For some reason I have to be a jack of all trades and a master of none. Wish me luck.... and thank you for the awesome step by step video. :)

Very nice explanation. Thank you.

Worked like a charm! Thanks a bunch!

Very professionally done. Good detail. The extra step taken to clean the rest of the carburetor shows good business sense. I do this type of work and would charge around $50 plus parts. If it were taken into a mower repair shop it would run $100 plus. Curious, could you say what you charge?

How you know i was working on a carb also but mine is a fuel needle valve not shutting off. i think i have one and a new seat. Have a great Easter Sunday .See you next week.

VERY INFORMATIVE

Great video. Thanks 👊🏼

Thanks for the video. Very well done and informative. Do you use soap in the ultrasonic cleaner at all? I assume the carb needs to totally air dry after that as well?

Fajna robota pozdrowienia z Polski nice job greetings from Poland 🤘

Thanks 🙏 Bro

As usual....great .Stay safe

Another great fix there young man keep the videos coming 👍👍

weekend project, Thanks

I have a Craftsman M40 with the plastic Carburetor. It would do that too, so I took it apart and cleaned everything up, put it all back together. Now it floods and the needle valve won't shut the fuel off. I checked the tip and it's a little hard but not bad, the seat is made of brass and corroded. So I cleaned the hole out and seat, cleaned the metering white two pieces as well. Now It still floods and will start but shuts down immediately, LOL. Yes I blew all the holes out and made sure they weren't plugged. So I'm just going to replace the whole carburetor. Oh on the Craftsman mowers that have the plastic carburetors don't use GumOut, or Carburetor cleaner, it dissolves the rubber seals inside and the actual Carburetor that made of Plastic too. It also devolves the paint on the mower. I just want the old reliable engines and painted parts from years gone by. You used to be able to run it dry and put it up for the winter, bring it out in the summer, gas and cut. Now this alcohol fuel eats & corrodes the metal, and the tips too. I had a Husqvarna with a XT675 Kohler engine on it. It lasted two years before the rings went and started gumming up the intake valve, even with a new valve guide seal you couldn't run it more than once, and I live in a home track and kept good air filters on it. All these new Chinese designed mowers over the last 30 years are just seasonal crap. I'm seriously thinking about finding some of those old motors and putting one of those on my mower. Thanks for the nice video. Best Wishes & Blessings. Keith Noneya

Great tips...stay safe.

great video, helped alot!

Yeah best video I found explaining shit. Apperciate that

Great video

great job! I take a screw and mark the fuel bowl so the drain is in the correct position after I reinstall it

Excellent video, very well done. Can you tell me where to find K100 S+ in the Niagara Region? I can't seem to find it anywhere

Had the same issue, I took my carburetor completely off using this video. It was twice as disgusting as the one you did. Put it back together after cleaning it with a toothbrush, carburetor cleaner and a needle. Now it runs great again.

Is the automotic choke the only difference between the engine with the primer bulb and the the other, without the primer bulb? I recently got one with the automatic choke, and am wondering what to expect if and when it starts having problems....it is working fine at the moment.

On those kohler’s with that air box design, they have changed it. The issue is that the box wouldn’t clip on and stay on. Here is a little vid I did On That ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-tHVI5aGHpuw.html Vid description has the updated part number for the kit. I trash picked one that it was missing so I had to get the kit. Tape works great also

You're the man! 😎🔥🔥🔥