OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions on Engines Questions On Briggs & Stratton Engines B&S Quattro, govenor speed again

Looks like this


I got it started easy enough, took a few pulls after draining the brown fuel from the tank ( i think i might have missed some water).


Sounds good at full song, shift it to slow speed and the RPM pretty much stays the same but the tone/note changes.

Are they meant to be like this??

Closed throttle


Open throttle


Well i think thats the way it works. Cant remember was a few hours back i took the picture.

Any thoughts/ideas would be appreciated. Bob.

Sounds about right, the newer briggs motors dont idle very low at all, I would suggest pulling off the cowling and cleaning out all the dirt and dust out of the cooling fins on the block as the newer engines cook pretty easy.

You can adjust the idle revs by gently bending the tab on the small govenor springtoward the back of the mower bit by bit till it has an idle acceptable for you.

Cheers, Joe.

Thanks heaps for the advice Joe.

Will do and will do. This one has not seen the hose yet A bit slack of me, i usually do that first.


It has a bar with blades on the end. Is that normal??

Cheers, Bob.

I had a MTD 21" 5hp that had the bar blade on it back when I first started up as a Lawnie (backup mower). Actually asides from the size, the base looks very similar to mine, except I needed an ocky strap to keep the height selector from slipping and leaving crop circles in clients lawns. After a while the ocky strap broke from the sun exposure so I just stuck a stick or screwby in the gap and it worked a treat.

I found it always gave a nice cut with the bar blades, but I quickly worked out it was best to use it for level yards without rocky patches, or slashing through thicker stuff.

Was a great mower for my needs. I ended up swapping the engine off to another base for a friend when I bought my new Honda mower, as I prefer 4 blade swing-backs for what I do.