This thing has several safety switches and I imagine this is another. It cranks over and fires but then dies. If I give it a shot of ether it will still run but dies soon. Something has shut the gas off. Filter is clean. There are electrical wires going to the bottom of the sediment bowl. What the heck???

Try it with the cap off the gas tank. Mine started shutting off and here the little vent hole in the cap was varnished shut.
Next might be fuel-pump?

We have an old Honda rider that does that if we don't leave the gas cap a little loose.
You have checked to see that gas is not shut off?
The carb could be dirty.
If you left gas in it for more than a couple months without Stabil, or some other treatment in it, you might have other carb problems.
If it starts, then shuts off, I wouldn't think it's a safety switch.

Does the lead to the spark plug fit tightly?

The wires going to the carb are for the fuel shutoff solenoid. You can test it by unscrewing it and turning the key on and off. The plunger should go in and out of the solenoid. You may need to ground the body of the solenoid for it to work. Be careful! Don't let it arch near gas!

There is a bolt on the bottom of the seat and sometimes it comes loose, when you move your toooshie it shuts off the machine.
Sometimes the reverse sensor is shutting it off. Go back and forth with the shifter, it may get back into the neutral where it will run

Gary, with the lack of info can't advise. However, some of those have a switch under the seat. If the switch does not make contact the ignition will not feed the coil.. (no spark). Pull a plug and check for spark.

An outboard motor does that when it has water in the fuel tank

clogged jets in the carb is as good of guess as any. Take off the fuel line past the fuel filter and crank to see if you're getting gas to that point

Sell the Craftsman for scrap and buy a Ferris...

yer welcome...

what he said, its not getting enough fuel. take the bowl of the carb or take the drain plug out of carb and be ready with a metal can to catch the gas coming out of the bowl. look for milky color gas. if it fires with ether it has spark, sounds like its not getting enough fuel.

Sounds like main jet clogged , if it runs on starting fluid but not on its own

Without putting my hands on it....


1. Turn key on and off. there should be an obvious clicking coming from the carb where those wires go in. It's a selonoid. No click - no run.
2. The above selonoid may still be plugged - take off the bowl and look.
3. With the bowl off - check the tube going stright up the middle of the carb - spray brake cleaner and shoot some air up it.
4. if it's a briggs it may have a fuel pump - pull line off by the carb, turn over engine to see if it's pumping.

Mine did that . Found out that there is a backfire arrestor on it. If it shorts out it will shut off the spark. Shop bypassed it runs good but will occasionally backfire if it isn't idled down before shutting off.

The fuel that most people use now is pretty much junk with the ethanol they are adding. I would put money on it being a clogged up carb issue.

To prevent this, use non ethanol gas and then add Stabil or something similar when not in use.

To fix it, before you take the carb apart, try mixing up some gas about half and half with a real carburetor parts cleaner like Chem-Dip. Fire up your engine let it run for a bit and then shut it off. Come back in an hour or two and repeat the process. If the mixture is getting into the carb far enough it will usually dissolve the gunk that's causing the problem. It should run a little longer each time you do this procedure. Once things seem to be cleaned out, dump out the mixture and replace with clean new gas.

I had someone tell me once that the Chem-Dip will wreck some of the gaskets in the carb, but I've never had a problem doing it this way.

I run 10 outboards (both four and two strokes), four four wheelers, snowmachine, and a bunch of other small engines.
The biggest issue that I have gotten a handle on in the past few years is keeping them running reliably.
First; use good gas (non-ethanol), use water separators on all outboards (any fuel injected small engine must have a water separator imo), and add fuel stabilizer when not in continuous use.

Yes, listen for the click.

i would unscrew the bolt holding the carb bowl on first. run a wire down in the hole that's in the middle of the bolt and into the hole in the side of it first. clean it out good. 9 times out of 10 that will fix any fuel problems once you replace old gas with new.

If it starts at all, the saftieses/seat switches/fuel shut off solenoid is probably fine. If you can start it, try spraying some brake clean/carb cleaner in the carb, 1 quick shot every couple seconds is all it needs, and see if you can keep it running that way. If you can, you need a carb. If it still shuts off, you're looking at maybe an ignition issue.

always the fuel pump