How to Fix a Flooded Lawn Mower in 5 Easy Steps

If you’ve ever had the unfortunate experience of flooding in your lawn mower, you know that it can be a real pain to fix.

Luckily, there are things you can do to get your flooded mower back up and running again. In this blog post, we’ll how to fix a flooded lawn mower. Keep reading for more information.

Causes of Flooding                                                

There are a few things that can cause your lawn mower’s engine to flood:

• Over Priming: Priming is when you put too much fuel in the carburetor, and it causes a vacuum leak. The vacuum leak causes insufficient air to enter the engine, and the fuel cannot be ignited.
• Spilling Fuel:  If you spill or overfill your lawn mower with gasoline, that excess fuel will cause the engine to flood.
• Too many Failed Starts: The engine will flood if you’re constantly starting and stopping your lawn mower. One reason is that if you continue to pull the rope without allowing the fuel to burn in the combustion chamber, it can cause a vacuum leak.

Another reason is that after time, dust and debris fall into your carburetor’s fuel system and can cause it to malfunction.

• Too much Choke:  Another possible cause of the flooding is having too much choke. For most small engines, it takes about 10 minutes to completely warm up an engine before you can cut your grass.

If you’re constantly cutting your grass with just a few minutes between each cut, that’s too much choke, which will cause flooding.

How to Fix a Flooded Lawn Mower

Step: 1. Drain the Gas Tank and Pull the Spark Plug Wire

If your lawn mower is flooded, much gasoline will likely be sitting in the bottom of the engine compartment. Before attempting to fix a flooded lawn mower, you need to drain this fuel out so that it doesn’t cause any problems later on.

To drain the tank, remove it from your mower and turn it upside down to drain the gas into a bucket.

Once you’ve drained your fuel tank using this method, you’ll also want to pull the spark plug wire off of your lawn mower. This prevents any chance of accidentally starting up your engine while working on fixing a flooded lawn mower.

Step: 2. Drain any Gas Still in the Carburetor

Now that you’ve drained your lawn mower’s fuel tank and pulled the spark plug wire to prevent it from starting, we can start working on actually fixing a flooded lawn mower.

The next step is to drain any excess gasoline out of the carburetor. To do this, you’ll need to locate the drain screw on your carburetor.

Typically this is located near the bottom of the carburetor and has a small hole or slot for draining out fuel.

Turn this screw counterclockwise until all excess gasoline drains out of your mower and into a bucket below.

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Step: 3. Make Sure that Your Carburetor Is Clean

You’ve drained out the gas, but there’s still some cleaning to do. Now that you’ve got access to your carburetor take a look inside and see if there is any excess dirt or debris.

If so, use an old toothbrush or other small brush to scrub it out. A dirty carburetor can cause flooding, so it’s important to keep yours as clean as possible.

Step: 4. Reinstall the Spark Plug Wire and Your Fuel Tank

Now that you’ve cleaned out your lawn mower’s carburetor, you can reinstall the spark plug wire and your fuel tank.

Make sure to put a little bit of clean gasoline into your tank before you reattach it, as this will help remove any of the debris from your fuel system during the next step.

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Step: 5. Start Up Your Mower and Let It Run for a Minute or Two

Now that you’ve cleaned out your carburetor and fuel system, you can finally start fixing a flooded lawn mower.

Start up your mower and let it run for a minute or two to allow any extra debris from your carburetor to work its way out.

Once you’ve done this, take a look at the bottom of your mower to see if any excess gasoline is spilling out from where your fuel tank sits on top of the engine. If none is leaking, you’re finished fixing a flooded lawn mower.

If some is still spilling out, the problem may be in your fuel line or with gas that’s still sitting inside of your carburetor. Extra debris from the carburetor can cause flooding, so it’s important to keep yours as clean as possible.

If you follow these steps, you should be able to solve the problem of a flooded lawn mower and get yourself back up and running in no time.

This process is relatively simple and only requires a screwdriver and some patience. If you put in the time to fix a flooded lawn mower, your machine should be as good as new.

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Frequently Asked Questions on Fixing a Flooded Lawn Mower

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When your lawn mower is flooded, it can fail to start up. This could be because too much gasoline has made its way into your carburetor or fuel line.

A flooded engine won’t run properly, so you have to fix a flooded lawn mower before using it.

So, there you have it—a few tips on how to fix a flooded lawn mower. If you follow these simple steps and are patient, you should be able to get your mower back up and running in no time at all.

Have you ever had to deal with this issue before? What was your experience like? Let us know in the comments below.