# craftsman/tecumseh diagnosis



## bartleby (May 5, 2009)

Hello All-
My name is Bartleby and this is my first time posting here. Getting towards my wits end trying to repair my mower, and after reading the tecumseh manual, searching online, and browsing this forum (briefly), I thought i'd post my problem.

Here's the specs: I was handed down an old craftsman mower with a tecumseh engine. the cross-reference model suggests is a TVS-90 (it's an old 143.XXXX, and best i can interpret its probably from the early 80s) and it has a series 9 carburetor (float). 

Here's the story. Last cut of last year, it was working fine. I ran it until it puttered out of gas and drained the oil for winter storage. A few weeks ago i pulled it out for the first cut: put in fresh oil, fresh gas, but no new plug (replaced plug middle last season, and visual inspection was fine).

i pulled the cord, and it had good compression, no pullback but oil blew out of the muffler on the front left of the engine. i tried a few times with the same result. then i checked the carb, and it was slightly gacked (with some residue left in the cup). took the whole carb system apart and cleaned till it was spotless (including cleaning out the little holes on the cup screw), and replaced and started again. it started on the first pull, but this time it was slightly jerky with low rpms. When i manually moved the governor, the rpms increased and the jerk diminished slightly, but wouldn't maintain. 

i decided to take the engine off and inspect the engine. i took pretty much everything apart, stopping with the front cylinder case (pistons looked ok), just to inspect and clean. the blade was bent in the middle, so i bought a new blade. the flywheel key was intact and the crankshaft did not appear to be bent. everything else appeared to be ok, so i rebuilt. new gas and new oil again, and after priming and few tugs it starts but with low rpms. there is still a slight jerk, and it's a little noisy (kind of like a loud chug sound) manual movement of the governer increases rpms but does not maintain.

the only thing i can think of is that i might have messed with the governor spring and stretched when replacing, or that it was just getting old in the first place (or a combination of the two).

sorry to be so long, but wanted to be thorough. any ideas?

thanks very much.
b


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## bartleby (May 5, 2009)

well, that was easy enough. governor attachment was in wrong hole.


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## light mechanic (Jul 18, 2008)

That's how we are started learning by yourself and had to think it through, sure would have been nice to have the net back then, sounds like you are well on the way of getting your mechanic work done, glad for you, have fun and learn at the same time, Light Mechanic


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