Pictures would be fantastic.
Is the Needle in round the right way. Pointy end in, rounded end to float.
And yeah, blocked jet. They can get clagged up with fuel varnish, dried out oil and a combo of both of the above and water.
It hunts, what does it do when you push it into grass and load it up??? Does the govenor work???
Fuel level is everything to jetting.
You replaced the face of the carb. Does it have the right needle in it for the new face??? There are different length/colour needles, if you have a sort needle and it needs a long one the needle wont be able to close off the fuel supply. that will usually get you fuel dribbling out the primer bubble. To check it;
Take the face plate off, assemble it with needle and float, push the float up to closed and eyeball the semi circle at the top of the float against the circular recess in the back side of the face. You need it to be a mm or two lower. If you have a black white or red needle, you might need a longer yellow one. If the needle is too long, you can eyeball the lower radius of the float against the lower edge o-ring of the face plate.
If all you have is the yellow or long needle you can carefully trim bits off the end with a sharp stanley knife to make it shorter. Try and keep it square and round off the corners. Fine sand paper works too.
They are $1 from a mower shop. Generally they have the short black and long yellow ones.
Depending on the exact model, theres a good chance in raised letters on the throttle housing it will say 'turn fuel off after use'
Victa rule number 2. Engine off, fuel tap off.
Rule one is put the oil in the fuel can before you buy the fuel, no matter what, no exceptions. Even if you have to go in the servo and buy the oil first. Its all better than a blowed up mower. If you do that you can look in the can and check to see if there is oil in there, once the petrol is in all bets are off.
A good check is pull the fuel line off the carb let it hang with tap off and see if fuel drips. If it does replace the tap. They either leak like this or they drip fuel from the tap when on. You can buy the taps at bunnings.
