won't stay running

[gravel roads]

I have been busy building my cabin and haven't had the Argo running in 2 or 3 weeks. The last time I ran it it was fine.

I started it this morning and I had to use the choke (which I normally don't have to do). I can get it to run, but it spits and sputters. I can feather the throttle to get some rpms up, but each time it sputters and stalls out.

Any ideas?

[Rock Doctor]

Possibly a bit of crap plugging up your pilot jet (Idle Jet) in your carb.
pull the top off your carb and remove the idle jet, if it's plugged off, clean it. If that does not solve the problem you might have to take the carb off and clean everything.

Just a thought.

RD

[jerseybigfoot]

Recently had a similar problem with a Briggs Vanguard 18 hp. Found the brass emulsion tube (Idle Jet) bottom hole plugged with a piece of brass. Being brass it looked kind of normal, Blew cleaner through it ok. Reinstalled it and it idled ok, throttle responded ok. Drove it a few feet and the same problem and it would die. Used a wire from a welding brush and pushed out the piece of brass and found it was a brass chip from manufacturing. The weird thing would run well sometimes and not others.

[gravel roads]

Thanks guys,
This gives me a place to begin looking

[gravel roads]

I'm definitely no mechanic. I took my son out to look at it, and he said that the carb all looked good. It runs for about 30 seconds and then peters out and kills. Does this thing have a fuel pump? I'm wondering if the pump is out.
Any ideas?

[plott hound]

did he pull the carb all apart and clean it properly?9 times out of 10 its a dirty carb,especially when our regular gas has a shelf life of about 60 days.

[Mike]

Like everyone else is saying, you have to pull the carb apart and spray carb cleaner through all of the ports to make sure they are free of debris. You can usually tell by looking in the bowl that there is some sediment, dirt, grime, slime, etc. there but it's always a good idea to check each opening in the carb anyway.

[phil_1066]

Sounds daft as you only had it running a few weeks ago but I always start by flushing and changing the fuel. I have had lawnmowers etc do the same thing and it was just bad fuel in the end

[gravel roads]

Simple fix

I came here last week looking for answers to why my Argo wouldn't stay running. Thank you to those of you who responded.
Everyone seemed to feel that it was dirt in the jets or in the carb, so that's where I started.
I replaced what was obviously a dirty fuel filter and then cleaned out the carb... no change though. Then I sucked on the gas line to make sure that I was getting gas, and I could not suck gas. I took the line off at the tank (I had to cut it off). It looked like a clogged artery... full of gunk. I also took off the nipple that sets on top of the tank and feeds the line. It was also clogged shut.
I replaced the fuel line and it's running again. I just wanted to thank you folks and to let you know what the problem was in case you should ever run into a similar issue.

[mark m.]

Yup. It's always a good move to start from the source and move towards the carb. Now you have first hand experience should it ever happen to that machine or another. Good job.