lawnboy hard start

[38racing]

Same mower with the coil issue. I am running the original coil. After sitting for a period of time it won't start. It has a primer but no choke. It sounds /feels like the primer is working but it only starts if I remove air cleaner and spray carb cleaner into air intake. Are these lawnboy primers similar to tecumseh one that pressurize the fuel bowl and force fuel through main jet? I had one of those fail once because of bad carb bowl gasket. I guess I will elevate it so I can see if fuel is actually going into carb on priming.

[bgsengine]

Trick with most primer bulbs - Not a hard and fast rule (I can think of a couple designs that don't match) but most of the time if a primer bulb has a vent hole (usually in the bulb) they're a "dry" bulb in that the bulb pushes air to the carb to force fuel somewhere - Other type is the unvented "Wet Bulb" primer where it actually sucks in fuel and then pushes fuel out to the carburetor (They'll usually have a check valve in the system somewhere)

Most lawnboy primers I have seen have vents in the middle of the bulb, so would be the "dry bulb" type but as noted, there's a couple styles I can think of that are not the "typical" - some Tecumseh primers draw in air from inside the carburetor air intake and pressurize the fuel bowl - they're a "dry bulb" too - there's other primer styles where the vent is located in the base, and are also dry bulb but won't find a vent in the bulb itself..

The ones with vents in the bulb are sealed by the finger pushing on the bulb - but they can develop cracks that leak, lines can leak, etc - or as you noted fuel bowl gasket can leak. easy test - block off the primer line where it hooks to carburetor and see if the bulb will press in or if it resists as pressure builds - (it should build pressure and hold pressure until released) if it passes that test then you're probably looking at carburetor service of some type.