My mower had a weird fuel problem today

[musician/lawnman]

I run a 52" yazoo kees zt with a 23hp kohler. It has duel fuel tanks & often you run til one is empty & it stahls out, switch the tank toggle, fire it back up & keep mowing. Today I did just that again, switched tanks & finished the last 5 minutes of 1 lawn, on to the next. Started it up at the next stop, went up the right side of the drive way, around the house & was coming across the front yard again & it stahl'd again. Only this time it wouldn't restart, It was cranking but no fire! I checked fuses & relays, Saw nothing wrong still no start. Popped the bolts on the hydralic lines to release the pressure so it would free spin & pushed that 900 lb thing back up & onto the trailer. 45 minutes & about 25 miles back to my local shop where they looked at it for minute, turned the fuel switch to off & cranked the starter for about a minute & a half & it sputtered back to life. He said it was flooded & that sometimes when they run out of fuel from a tank like that the needle in the carborator can get stuck & dump more fuel than needed on the restart & flood the engine. Anyone ever delt with this before? It cost me a ton of time & aggrivation today. Still got 18 stops done though!

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[Steve]

Lawn care business tips

That is very interesting! I would figure you could take the spark plug out and see if it was wet with gas. Then you could take the carb bowl off and see if the float was stuck. I am guessing that's what he meant? The float stuck?

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[musician/lawnman]

I guess, I mean it kinda makes sense, As a carborated engine runs out of fuel the float woud drop wide open (gasping for fuel) & if it got stuck it would probably flood the engine like that. Was just really annoying waste of time for a mower with only 230 hours on it.

[Steve]

Well on the bright side, if it ever happens again, you will know what to look for first.

It's a lot like an older toilet that has the long arm and float. Sometimes they stick and the water keeps flowing until you jiggle the handle a bit.

[All Aspects Landscaping]

hoped you learned a lesson not to let your tanks run out of fuel...lol

[musician/lawnman]

Yesterday I was in the middle of a lawn (I haven't let it run outta gas since the above occured Jamie) &it started sputtering & missing out of nowhere, I turned the blades off & the rpms seemed o come back up a bit, re-engaged them & it dragged down & died. I ended up pushing this machine back onto the trailer (9 months old - 250 hours on it) & bringing it back to the shop. The fould the carb needle stuck again, Took it apart, cleaned the carb, replaced he spark plugs & the fuel filter. They did this in about 45 min while I waited & covered it under warranty which is good, but the down time for such a new machine is really dissapointing. Seemed ok afterwards, we'll see about that today.

[Steve]

Was the needle stuck or the float?

[musician/lawnman]

I belive he said it was the needle