Mower Mechanic MelBMarvis

The mower repair was successful!  It took me all of Saturday afternoon, but I got it fixed.  Some of that time included running to the small engine repair store to get the replacement part I needed.  The main root cause of the issue was found inside the carburetor.  The inlet needle rubber seat was damaged (likely by ethanol in the gas) and began disintegrating and blocking the hole where the gas was supposed to flow through.  The corrective action was to buy a new rubber seat and install it.  I cleaned all the carburetor orifices too while I had it all apart.  For good measure, I also changed the air filter, the oil, the gas line, and put fresh gas into the gas tank.  It runs like a champ now.

Details on exactly how to service the inlet needle and seat.  Thanks to the small engine repair book that was loaned to me.  And some texts traded with the owner of said book.

See that cottage cheese looking stuff down in that one hole?  That's the bad seat disintegrating.  The new one I installed was smooth and had a nice, perfectly round hole in the center where the needle sits in it.  I forgot to take a picture of that.

Labor:  5 hours  (for a rookie - now that I'm experienced, I could probably do it in 1-2 hours if I already had the parts on hand).
Parts:  $30
Skills and knowledge gained:  How to clean a carburetor and more details on exactly how a basic carburetor works.

Having the mower fire up on the first pull after maintenance was complete:  Priceless.