bdunegan

Member
I have a 17hp v twin briggs that was running great, never used any oil, but just as I finished mowing with it, the motor started running wide open. I immediately shut it off. checked all cables, and they still work linkage. checked governor springs and still hooked up. checked carb butterflies, and still good. checked valves and still set to specs. I can work governor control by hand and it will slow down, but release it and it goes wide open again. Internal problems? any ideas?
 
that is what I am thinking also. I have checked everything outside I know to check and all seems to be working fine, so must be internal.
 
If you set the throttle down as low as it can go and still run what happens if you try to speed the engine up by hand at the throttle plate of the carb?? Doing so you should get a push back effect form the gov if it is working
 
if I try to slow the engine down at all from wide open, it dies. it will not run at all off full throttle.
 
Sounds like you have a carb problem in general. You need it to be able to run at low RPM or you can not do much in the way of trouble shooting it
 
The buttery fly in the carb would have to be open for the engine to run full throttle even if the governor is not working properly, sound like the butter fly is gone. I've had that to happen on small engines.
 
had this happen also where the screws on the throttle plate came out and ran wide open. this one however, i took carb off and butterflies are still mounted and appear to work fine by hand and by linkage.
 
i have had carb off and took apart and give it a good cleaning, but not above pulling it again to go through it again. I was thinking carb also till i checked everything but i will sure try again and will be tickled if that is what it is. Had throttle plate come off one similar and it done same thing, but plate is still mounted on this one and appears to work fine by hand and linkage. opens and closes fine.
 
Ya first thing you need to do is get it to run from full throttle all the way down to a nice slow idle or your not going to find the root of your gov problem
 
Sounds like either the clamp has come loose where the governor shaft attaches to the throttle lever, or the governor itself has striped or broken.
 
Check the bolt/nut that holds the lever on the governor shaft, It may be loose Even if it isn't the governor may need adjusting, it could have slipped It doesn't take much out of adjustment to make the engine run away.
Most, if not all governors are adjusted in much the same way.
Normally governors should never need adjusting, unless the governor arm is removed or tampered with. But in the event that they do need adjusting, here is how you do it.

Loosen the bolt/nut on the governor shaft lever, push the lever and hold it in the wide open position, while you're holding the lever (carb wide open) turn the governor shaft in the same direction as the governor shaft turns to open the throttle wide open, hold it there and tighten the bolt/nut.
 

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