I got my mower about 2 years ago, I haven't used it a whole lot the only thing i've ever done is change the oil regularly on it and sharpen the blades after each use. Never gave me much troubles. It's one of the ones you push the bar in and it will go faster or slower. It has no choke it's one of those always pull starts...

I used it about a week ago no problems, I got it out this time and it starts great but the second I push the bar in to move it it stalls. If I keep letting lose of the bar it will come backon. Runs for ever fine and sounds normal just stalls when I push the bar in to move. If i lift it off the ground the back wheels move fine as it starts to stall. Not sure what the issue is

 

You may have to remove the transmission belt and see if you can easily turn the tranny pulley. Sounds like it's binding.

 

Ok I will try that tomorrow. One other thing, If I slowly push the propel bar in and lift the back wheels off the ground(it's rear wheel drive) they will start spinning to move it forward but since it's barely in its not enough to actually move it with power but when I push it in all the way or farther thats when it stalls. Soon as I let out it comes out of the stall unless I keep it held and then it stalls all the way

 

Most likely the zone cable the one attached to the bail wire that you have to hold down to keep the engine running is stretched or miss adjusted so when you push down to self propel it kills the engine. What is the model & serial number of the mower?

AJ

 

Hey. I was curious if you ever resolved the issue? I am experiencing the exact same problem with the exact mower, only mine is about three mows old. The mower runs fine until I engage the self-propel bar which kills the engine; but if I release the bar in time, it will restart. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

 

however, my engine does not stall.

this is a heads up;

serial #'s 311055247 to 311107477 have been recalled to check/or replace 3 screws in transmission causing failure to self propel.
the notice included 18 other model #'s also.
bought mine in may 2011.
mine worked for 1 mow, then i adjusted cable for a couple mows until total loss of self propel.
has been in shop for 2 weeks, now they say will be 2 more weeks.
i'm beginning to be unhappy with toro repair shop in n houston. to be fair i did not buy from them as this was a homedepot sale.
i know enough diy to have repaired myself but only became aware of this issue accidently on toro's site. thankfully, my 23 year snapper still works, so my yard in not knee high.
after taking my mower to service center, i belatedly registered this mower on toro site which allowed toro to mail me an extra 1 year onto the tranny warranty.

 

I stumbled upon this thread when I encountered the same problem with my Toro. It would start fine, but everytime I tried to engage the self-propel it stalled out on me. I just bought it today so I decided to poke around with it.

Solution:
It turns out that, in my case, the cable connected to the trigger that you hold to keep it running had come out of the ring on the side bar of the handle. It must have created just enough slack that when I tried to engage it, the mower would stall out. All I did was slip the cable back inside the ring and all is fine with the mower.

I hope this helps others.

 

RIToroGuy- Thanks for the help. This was the issue with mine and I found your post right before I started taking my mower apart. You saved me a whole Saturday, so thanks!

 

Not to steal your post,but my NEW Toro's mower bag door gasket FELL OUT causing the grass clippings to spew everywhere.
My fix was to put some RTV sealant on the foam gasket seal, and put back in its door groove. Not happy with Toro on that issue

 

RIToroGuy -

The same issue lives on - I bought a new 22" Toro self-propelled and everything was great until I engaged the drive shaft - then it died. Your insightful help was perfect...

 

RIToroGuy to the rescue! Returned the cable to its rightful place and I'm good to go.

 

I came upon this thread via Google and almost instantly read RIToroGuy's solution.

"It turns out that, in my case, the cable connected to the trigger that you hold to keep it running had come out of the ring on the side bar of the handle. It must have created just enough slack that when I tried to engage it, the mower would stall out. All I did was slip the cable back inside the ring and all is fine with the mower."

I ran outside and, sure enough, cable had slipped out of the ring (has a small opening in it) and I tucked it back into place. I started up my Toro Recycler 22 and when I pushed on the self propel bar it worked perfectly instead of stalling, as it had been doing.

I was all set to take it to the hardware store where I gotten it two years ago and this tip saved me hauling the mower up into my Subaru Forester and probably paying a substantial fee to have the repair guy do what I just did for free.

Thanks to "Do It Yourself" and to RIToroGuy for posting his remedy!