sears 6.0 eager1 craftsmen #917-376870?

Please post for me as it is important. I fell guilty for not sharing this earlier.

I had the same problem with a craftsmen lawn mower. (Runs for a few seconds and then stalls out) It has the cast aluminum carburetor with no adjustments. Once you fix the problem, you'll agree that it actually is a pretty clever design. I did absolutely everything (cleaning passageways, checking flatness of top and bottom mating surfaces of carb. etc.etc.etc.)

All you have to do is remove the large flat headed screw on side of carburetor. Inside, behind this screw, is the high speed jet. (A small white plastic molded part with a passageway through it) You blow through it, look through it and its clean, right?? Wrong. The dirt drops down into a recess within the passageway so you cannot see it. When you prime the carb. and start engine it will run, try to pull gas from tank, RE-SUSPEND this dirt which in turn plugs against screen inside this jet, and thus stalls engine. (no gas) All you need to do is poke a hole through screen with small nail or drill, clean with spray, and re-install jet.
Don't even need to take the damn carb. off engine, although you're probably real good at it by now!
The in-line (spinning top shaped) filter (if you have one in the rubber gas line) is really just a strainer (fine screen). The screens in these may not be fine enough to prevent the screen in the gasoline jet from plugging. I put an in-line paper type filter in the rubber gas line. I've read (or been told) that these will not work due to the additional resistance they create on a gravity fed system. It worked great for me. You would want one with enough filter in it and when installed that it would not raise the hose level very much. (The gas tank must be able to gravity feed the carburetor) I had a similar situation with a car one time.
Did everything, finally replaced the needle seat in carburetor just for the heck of it. (Usually you only do this when the float in carb. is sticking) When I removed the seat, it had a screen on it! (What the h---) You tear it off and use an in-line filter (with a paper pleated element). Carburetor manufacturers do this to keep their device clean, it’s up to the lawn mower (auto) assembler to remove it and install an in-line filter.

For air, oil, gas filtration, pleated paper filter media (Fram, Purolator, etc.) is the best.
The more filter area, the better. (Doubling your filter area will more than quadruple the usable filter life!!) Filter paper stops microscopic particulate, protecting your engine. One brand, in particular, really gets me. In fact it's hard to believe there full of it when you see that they are 3 times more expensive. (They're in auto parts stores) They have very little filter and in order for them to work (not cause a big pressure drop) is to have large pores in the filter media. The scam is that: when you spend this much money, you'll swear it's great (more H.P.,nah,nah,nah) By the time fine silica sand damages engine, the car will be worn out anyway. (i.e. You'll never notice)

Have a Great Day!

JFC
(Don't forget to get your old carbuerator back if you get charged for a new one)

John Chudy
May 2008