My Craftsman 917.382790 walk behind mower has often been hard to start manually. (I gave up using electric start quite a while ago). I've replaced the plug and it's still difficult to start and if started it runs for only about 10 seconds or so and shuts off. This is with air filter removed and not replaced. and after priming. In past years replacing the air filter after starting was OK and engine ran fine. Sears manual says if it won't start replace control bar, but it is not obvious that anything is wrong with the control bar. and I have wondered if the contacts made by the control bar action may not always be maintained. That part of the system is expensive so not to be experimented with. I've not tried to open the box containing the switch. I'm close to taking it somewhere to be repaired, but I'm always nervous about issuing a blank check without some idea of what might actually be wrong with the mower or me.

Grettings, I have a Craftsman 16.5 hp 42' cut Lt 1000 Lawn mower that is giving me problems. Here is the story. Wife left the gas can out in the rain and forgot about it. Need less to say the next time she put gas in the mower there was water in the gas. I removed all the bad gas from the mower and disasembled and cleaned the carb. I have also replaced the fuel filter and spark plug as they needed it anyway. I was able to get the mower working again but, no matter what I seem to adjust (idle screw, carb idle mixture value) the mower runs rough, misses, and or backfires at idle speed. Once the mower deck is on and the RPMs are at mowing speed the engine runs better but, you can still here it miss faintly. What else can I do to get the idle speed and engine to run better. Model: 917-27163 Briggs Engine