Trading my mower for a splitter, then it happend...

[heat seeker]

The solenoid does NOT shut the fuel flow off to the carb. It merely blocks the main jet so that the engine will not after-fire or run on when it's shut off. A shutoff valve in the fuel line is still needed on gravity-fed machines. The solenoid can and will keep the engine from running, even if the bowl is full - that's it's function, after all. When you turn the key on, it should click. If it doesn't click, check for 12 volts on its wire when the ignition is turned on. If it's not there, you have an electrical problem.
If the solenoid doesn't click, it may be dead, or just gummed up so that it won't operate. You can remove it by unscrewing it (gas will leak out, have the shutoff valve closed to minimize the spillage). You can test the solenoid by using a good 9 volt battery on the bench. The plunger should retract with voltage applied. You may have to give it a little help, some of them have a quirk that I won't explain right now, but they need to be pushed in about â…›", then they pull in the rest of the way.
The engine can be run without the solenoid, just use an appropriate sized bolt to hold the bowl onto the carb.
Hope this helps, it can be confusing….

 

[sblat]

That does help a lot! I got everything apart and cleaned yesterday. Changed the oil, installed the shutoff. Me being new to this, of course I had my few hickups with it. I forgot to put the gasket back on the bowl, so it origanally fired, then died out, but not with the big cloud of white smoke. I then realized gas was leaking from the bowl (no gasket) so I pulled it back off again, put the gasket back on, and over tightened it and snapped the bolt of the solenoid. The soleniod was working fine. When I removed it from the bowl, I checked it by turning the key to on, and it clicked and went down. But I think I am going to remove it right now, and just put a bolt to hold the bowl on. Thanks for the thoughts, it has really help a lot, and saved some money...

 

[sblat]

I did all the work over the weekend and first part of this week. I ended up removing the solenoid and just using a bolt to connect everything back together. My next question is how do I adjust the carb? I found one little screw on the carb when I take the bowl off that has made a little difference. The first time, I screwed it all the way in, and the mower would only run on full choke. The second time I loosened it up a couple turns and it would run out of choke but still want to cut out. I moved it a couple more turns, now it will fun too hard, and will no throttle down at all. Any ideas of what I need to do, or how to fix it? Do I just have to keep fussing with that screw until I get it right? Thanks

 

[Highbeam]

Before you fiddled with that adjustment screw you should have counted how many turns it was backed out from fully tight. There was no need to adjust that screw. At this point, just keep fussing with it until it runs right. It sounds like the slow jet (aka: pilot jet) adjustment. Figure that most of those screws are meant to work in a range of 1 to three turns out. Work in half turn increments. You'll only need to guess 6 times.

 

[sblat]

Thats where I was heading. I think I am close now. The last time I adjusted it, it ran strong, but was not able to idle it down. I will start from there and move back a half turn at a time. Thanks for the help.