OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions on Engines Questions On Briggs & Stratton Engines 3HP vertical Briggs starting issue

I have recently received a Rover edger with a vertical Briggs 3HP which would have to date back to the mid '80's. It was my Grandfathers and was one of those machines that is borrowed by all and only ever filled with fuel and that's about it.

It is pretty grotty but all there.

Anyway this arvy I replaced the totally perished air filter foam and to my suprise the carby throat was spotless!! It was that blocked obviously nothing got through. I also threw in a new plug as the old one had no electrode left.

The carby linkages etc seemed to move freely.

Two questions

1/ The oil level, it has two filler plugs?? How do you check the level?

2/ I can only get it to start with some aerosol down the throat. Once it starts it runs like a charm with no smoke and no rattles. It will continue to start after that but if you leave it for 5 minutes it needs a squirt of spray to fire again.

Why the spray and it runs fine yet it won't start up again after a few minutes?

Thanks

Question 1: Normally they have a screw-in plastic level plug, and a screw-in metal drain plug. The drain plug goes into the base. For the level plug, the early ones have it down low and you theoretically fill it to the brim then screw in the plug. The later ones have it higher up and it is a dipstick.

Question 2: Have you found the choke, and are you using it? Sounds like it's one of the old ones with a manual choke, and you aren't using it, or the choke needs to be serviced. If you post a picture of the carburetor we should be able to tell which applies.

Hi Grumpy. I'll rustle up a pic or two tomorrow. At the moment the whole machine need a degrease as you can barely identify it.

does it look like this?

That is it to tee Mower Man.

Unfortunately it looks like the edger is being returned. Word has crept out that I am fixing a few things and the family want the edger back. They actually said they wouldn't pay a shop to sort it out beut seeing I am looking at it if it runs they want it returned!!

Anyway after two cans of degreaser this is what was underneath.





The choke here is visible and it operates off of the throttle. It doesn't come out all the way though and has to be pulled back manually the last few mm's



Does the spring look over stretched to you guys?



Here you can clearly see the two oil fill ports. What level do you fill to?

Pretty sure both the levels are the same height. If they are a plug fill it to the brim. If its a dipstick do what it says.

How many mL does a horizontal like this take??? 600ml the same as a vertical??



Id be telling the family that it was beyond repair.


Bob.

They are both filling ports with no dip stick Rodeo. If I can get it started I will drain it today when it is warm.

I would have told them a pork pie but my wife answered the phone first. I gave them a spray for the condition I received it in at the very least.

Aldo, I agree with Bob - they have supplied two fill points in case one was inaccessible after the engine was installed. I haven't seen one like that before. It is just part of the timing cover, not the crankcase, so it was probably a production option. You are supposed to fill with 600 ml of oil, which brings it right up to the top of the thread, but I have found that some engines leak oil during storage between uses if I do that, so I fill to the bottom of the thread.

That is a Choke-A-Matic choke - not one of my favourite mechanisms. You can adjust it so that the choke is fully open at one end of the range and fully closed at the other, but the link is springy so it may not work well. You might try oiling the choke pull-out and see if you can work out some of the friction. From your symptoms I suspect that at some point, someone has adjusted the mixture to compensate for the choke not opening completely, so if you open the choke properly it may be lean. That would explain the warm restart issues.

The governor spring seems to be a goner. You need to do something about that.

I won't get into the family issues question - for me family ranks ahead of accumulating even more junk that I don't need, but everyone is different.

I won't get into the family issues question - for me family ranks ahead of accumulating even more junk that I don't need, but everyone is different.

Well you did get into the family issue question. When a family member passes away women collect pictures, ornaments, vases etc, I picked up an old temperamental edger because I like to tinker. Since someone finds out I am getting it sorted, and are to tight to go and by a new one, they want it back.

Sorry Aldo, I thought it was the same person you got it from. It is irritating when people swarm over a passed family member's stuff. None of my business, either.

Grumpy you got it right. It was the choke. The hand throttle mechanism was bodged up and not pulling the choke the last few mm. Even if you manually pulled it the last bit it would creep forward. I replaced the hand throttle so it now has plenty of friction and more travel and it starts first pull on full choke.

New belts, cutting blade, oil, throttle, bit of grease here and there, aircleaner, spark plug, fresh fuel and a big degrease and it's ready to hand back to the demolition boys.

Did you adjust the main jet mixture control after you fixed the choke? That might cure the warm restart problem. I have a Briggs with that carburetor, and it doesn't need choke to restart after an hour from shutdown.

It won't be gone long enough for you to miss it, Aldo. They'll trash it and expect you to fix it again.

Fellas I spent yesterday cleaning down the rest of the 3HP Briggs. Underneath the starter cover was chokas with gunk. The cooling fins on the barrel needed picking out with a screw driver then a good hit with a tin and a half of degreaser. The back of the flywheel was also full of gunk. I tried as best as I could to keep the electrics dry but obviously not good enough as now there is no spark.

Wires from the coil run into the engine casing and I am at a loss as to where to start in finding the issue. I left things in the sun today to dry out.

Any pointers on where to go to here?

All sorted folks. It runs like a charm. Pulled the flywheel and cleaned out all the electrics. Didn't seem to be too much moisture at all but upon reassembly it fired up like a charm.

Aldo, that engine will have breaker-points unless it has been converted to electronic ignition (I think they painted them orange from 1977 to 1979, and switched to electronic ignition in 1981), so you may have had some water in the little circular silver box the points are in. (That is the destination of the wire from the coil into the engine casing). It is fairly water-tight, but not intended to stand up to a high pressure wash-down. My favourite way to dry out automotive distributors is to take off the cover, blow them out with compressed air, then wait a while for them to dry out in the sun. Once you get them to start they warm up and dry themselves properly. (Ah, the joys of Lucas distributors. Joseph Lucas is still known in vintage car circles as "The Prince of Darkness" because of the quality of his headlight systems.)

Sorry I wasn't monitoring last night when you posted, but it looks as if it didn't take you long to sort it out. I'll close this thread.