Briggs & Stratton (Classic) surging
This video walks you through the repair of a very common B&S (Classic/Sprint/Quattro engine) surging cause.
A bad spark plug can be the route of many problems, be sure to check the plug before performing carburetor work.
Classic manifold replacement
Briggs & Stratton (Intek) surging
This video covers the repair of a surging Briggs & Stratton Intek engine.
A bad spark plug can be the route of many problems, be sure to check the plug before performing carburetor work.
Briggs & Stratton (E Series) surging
This video covers the complete surging repair of the Briggs and Stratton E series engine. It's one of Briggs latest engines and fitted to many mowers. The carburetor is plastic and causes some very common surging issues.
A bad spark plug can be the route of many problems, be sure to check the plug before performing carburetor work.
Kohler surging
This video covers the complete repair of a surging Kohler engine. Kohler engine are easy to work on and in many cases just a few minutes work solves the problem.
A bad spark plug can be the route of many problems, be sure to check the plug before performing carburetor work.
Over View
You’ll find useful resources on this page, tips, links to tools, parts and supplies required to complete your repair.
All mowers suffer from carburetor problems and surging or erratic idle is a common symptom.
However, other causes of surging should be eliminated before cleaning the carburetor. Go ahead and drain the carb bowl, remove, clean and gap or replace the spark plug, check if the gas is fresh, is air filter OK?.
Having eliminated these, it’s time to clean the carburetor idle jet. Many mowers will allow easy access to the idle jet, and for others we’ll need to remove the carburetor.
Surging or erratic idle may also be caused by a faulty carb, or vacuum leak caused by bad carb gaskets or manifold.
This video shows the complete job start to finish for many common engine types.
Before working on your mower be sure to remove the plug wire to prevent accidental starting, see “Repair Safety Video”.
Tools & Parts
To nail this procedure you may need the following tools, parts and supplies.
Ratchet Tool Set
Before we can do anything, we'll need tools. I've selected this set as I own some Craftsman tools and while I have worn some out, they did do a lot of work. So I expect this set will last the occasional user quite a long time.
This set carries both metric and standard sockets and that's important, because some mowers will have both type of fastener sizes. Set includes spark plug sockets. Picture links to Amazon.com
Gas Line Clamp
Briggs & Stratton
This is a popular Hooai Carburetor fitted to walk behind mowers with Quantum engines, but check the engine codes listed. This is an Auto choke carburetor.
This carburetor has a fuel feed bolt in the base of the bowl, dirt in the bolt feed hole is a common issue. Picture links to Amazon.com
Briggs & Stratton
This is a after market replacement carburetor for the Briggs 4-7hp engines. This is the primer bulb style carburetor.
This carburetor has a fuel feed bolt in the base of the bowl, dirt in the bolt feed hole is a common issue.
It comes with a replacement air filter/primer bulb housing gasket. Without this gasket your primer bulb won't work. Picture links to Amazon.com
Briggs & Stratton
Drill/Screw Gun
John Cunningham is an Automotive Technician and writer on Lawnmowerfixed.com. I've been a mechanic for over twenty years, I use my knowledge and experience to write "How to" articles that help fellow gear-heads with all aspects of mechanical repairs, from lawn mowers to classic cars.