Hi all, I'm Back....

Got the breather box correctly connected to the carb and the rest of the engine based on the responses to my last post. It worked fine. Thank you!

The next problem is this. The engine (7.0 HP on a riding mower) was running well, burning some oil, but nothing too troublesome. I was cutting some tall grass (very Tall) but I was just in the creeper gear and listening to the blades go round making sure they were'nt getting bogged down - and they weren't, they were spinning just as fast as the do in the regular grass. Then the mower started to sputter. I disengaged the blades and headed back to get some gas figuring that was the problem, but it turned out that it wasn't.

I can't figure out what's going on. The mower will run, and it will sit at idle, but every couple of seconds it skips a beat. It becomes more prounounced when the mower calls for more power ( either by engaging the blades or transmission) The engine will keep running in either case, except that it goes then sputters, then goes, then sputters etc.)

I pulled the carb thinking maybe there was water or other junk in there but it looked very clean. Pulled the Plug and and cleaned it (what should the gap be?)and while it had some carbon on it, it looked ok.

I ran it with the gas cap off and I also tried it with the airbox open and filter out, but still had the same problem.

The only other time I've experienced this type of situation is when I've pushed the throttle up too high and accidently engaged the choke while driving the tractor, but that made it act much worse than it is now.

Any suggestions??

Thanks!

 

The spark plug is probably a Champion J19LM and should be gapped to .030 from what I see in the Champion book.

What make is the body/unit?

 

Mower is an Ariens RM 728 (Model No. 927001 Serial No. 003659)

I played with the carb settings a bit to see if maybe one of the needles just slipped (there are 3 one at top that seems to be Idle adjustment, one in middle of carb, and one at bottom of carb bowl) and the thing kept running, just not very well. It's a tough engine for sure.

Thanks for the gap info.

 

Still .030, but uses different Champion #s depending on whether it's a side valve engine or not.

What plug is in there now? I would think by this Champion book I'm looking in a J8C...

Good luck.

 

Hi Joe_F. Sorry it took so long for me to get back to you.
the spark plug is a Champion RJ_8C.

By the way, any ideas on why the engine would run so rough?? Is it carburation or something more serious?

Thanks again.

 

Tom knows more about these little tykes than I do, but I would check what he outlines for such problems.

Check the plug gap. That is important. Since it only has one cylinder, it's important and simple to check . Start with a clean plug.

Run the engine without the gas cap to check for restrictions in the venting system.

If all else fails, I would check the carb. out to see if there is dirt or contamination in there.