Neighbor thought he had a dead battery.

Geo-TH,In

Well-known Member
Come to find out his battery was good enough to fry the starter.

The motor was locked up because the cylinder was full of gasoline and the crankcase was full of gas too.

The carburetor float or needle valve didn't do its job on this very old MTD 16.5 hp briggs.

Have you ever had this happen to you?
 
How long do you sit there and hold the key when you know it is not cranking? Cannot remember who but one of the elders in my extended family had a saying.. ..Some peoples kids!!
 
I had a guy call me this summer to work on a riding lawn mower. The air cleaner had been left open and it was sitting out side. I pulled the dip stick and found it had a lot of water in the engine. I then changed the oil and installed a new battery. It would not turn over so I pulled the plug and water came running out of the cylinder. Spun it over with the plug out and checked for spark. I then found that the carb was full of water and need to be rebuilt. He sold it before I could get back to it
 
Those are known for it. Had a2 year old mower given to me. They thought the wife blew it up. It was parked in the lawn for days. The Niki carb 's needle and seat didn't hold. The tank of gas filled the cylinder and crank case with gas hydro locking it tight. The intake valve was apparently open.I knew it wasnt blown as I could barely rotate it over by hand from the flywheel screen. I took it home and drained 2 gallons of gas/oil out of it. Pulled the plug and cranked it over. Gas shot out of it. I put in a fuel shut off valve in line and run the carb dry each time I used it. I used it for 5 years that way and sold it for $500. The ones with Walbro carbs didn't do that.
 
He held the key long enough for smoke to come out of the starter. Starter is shot. fried, cooked, junk.
 
My elderly lady neighbourgh had same issue with husquwarna lawn mover. She did not fry the starter.
I was able to fix iveasily.
 
This one would have been okay if the air cleaner had be closed up like it should have been since that is where the water got in from the rain
 
I had the fuel pump fail on a 24hp B&S 2 cylinder engine once and cause the same problem.

I'm not sure how, but it did it. Maybe gasoline continued to siphon through, but with not enough pressure to close the float valve?
 
Not so. The same person had a craftsman rider he left outside with cover on the breather. The Carb, crankcase and cylinder was full of water..
It's hard for you to get your mind around leaving things outside isn't a good thing.. Pulleys were rusted, steering box froze up. Craftsman starter froze up. Idler pulley bearings shot, both spindles on the mower deck locked solid..
 
I have a good number of old lawn mower that sit out side and NONE have water in them unless they have been under water.
 
(quoted from post at 14:40:51 09/17/22) This one would have been okay if the air cleaner had be closed up like it should have been since that is where the water got in from the rain


Too bad that no one noticed that carburetor in between the air cleaner and the block.
 
Buddy of mine hydro-locked his small block ford 8 cylinder. He was big into that mud thing...guess he got in a little too deep, with the rev's up. Yeah, you want to keep the carburetor above water. I really really wanted to get that bent connecting rod out, but geeze louweeze that thing was wedged in there. Missed a chance at a piece of history to torment him with. Darn.

My John Deere B has tried to hydro-lock, but that thing is built like a beast, with the 6-volt system I don't think you have enough oomph to do any damage. Or it hasn't yet anyways.
 
We sell starters all the time to people who haven't checked to see whether their engine can possibly turn over or if it is full of gas. All you have to do is put a wrench on the nut holding the pulley or clutch on and giving it a tug. The bad thing is our policy is we don't return electrical parts. Because we don't know if the customer let the smoke out of the new starter too.

To wade in on the water in engine thread/(rabbit trail): We leave mowers outside all the time with no problems. I worked on one today that we put outside in June 2000 because the customer didn't want to fix it and it had no water problems attributed to being left in the weather. (It had the wrong carb. needle in it.) Its stuff that is left under a tarp that fairs far worse. The tarp holds moisture and speeds up corrosion, quickly causing mechanical and electrical problems. Stuff left in open air can dry out sometimes. (P.S. I am in NC. snow is not a problem here.)

But several years ago I worked on a rear-engine rider that the Tecumseh engine was full of water. Brim full! You couldn't see anything on the dipstick and it only took 3-4 oz for oil to overflow the dipstick tube. But you know, I drained it, let it drip overnight, and put in fresh oil, cleaned the carburetor and it started right up! I did warn the customer that I didn't know how long it would last after that.
 
I have one of these on my old tractors and one
cvphoto136001.jpg

On a mower.
 
Had the same thing with my John Deere riding mower. Needle valve leaked over the winter and filled a cylinder with gas and also enough gas bypassed the piston to fill up the crankcase with gas too. Lesson learned - always turn off the gas and let the engine burn the residual gas in the carb before parking the mower.
 
Mom had a mower that the gas would fill the cylinder, she couldn't turn the gas off manually so I installed an electric shutoff until I had a chance to rebuild the carburetor. Left the shutoff in so she wouldn't have any problems.
 
I always give the key switch the shortes little bump possible before giving it a real start attempt. Give the cats warning to abandon ship.
 

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