Me 2/Lawnmower 0

See the lawnmower sitting under the tree?  We bought it last year @ my cousins estate sale.  It's an old craftsman, lots of HP.  Well evidently it hadn't been used much and the blades were wacky (as in they fell off or twisted off more than once), after we got that problem solved it's worked like a top.  Till last week.  Oh the 3 mowers before that?  Ran out of oil for various reasons, mostly child centered.  Two John Deere's and a BRAND NEW Cub Cadet that was the biggest lemon I've ever seen,  couldn't keep belts on it (expensive and I bet we went through between 10 and 15) and then when we did get it to keep belts on it shook so bad that it came apart partly and the motor blew.  It was 4 years old.  No warranty, less than 150 hours on it, less than 125 I think.  Shaft driven kind just in case you are contemplating a new mower.  My daughter has the belt driven Cub from about the same year.  It runs like a top and she has 3 boys....
If I haven't lost you from pure boredom there is a point to this all.
You see my husband is like this genius mechanic for most motors.  NOT SMALL ONES.  And I will never be the fixit person my dad was but I manage.
Said craftsman lawnmower broke about a week ago, so I sit there with the hood open not moving because my husband was on the tractor and this is what wives do if there is any hope they won't have to get dirty.  So he stops and starts taking stuff off that I have NO idea WHY he is taking off.  It was to get to the spark plug which I believe you could reach without taking ALL that stuff off but that's beside the point.  It's getting spark.  Gas is like pouring out and it's flooding though.  We get it started again and it dies.  Husband says call Danny (that's what we call our mechanic for complicated things which means anything other than a diesel motor on a big truck, also Danny is his name)   So I do finally call Danny and he tells me the float in the carburetor is stuck and I need to take the bowl off the bottom and clean it out.  So I get the air breather off.  Locate the carburetor and the floppy things in it.  The bowl on the bottom of the carburetor?  It's metal, first strike against it, and it's got an electrical part of some sort under it with a wire going to it.  Looks like it could break easily.  So I mess around a bit with the floppy things in the carburetor, check the oil, try to start it and it starts and RUNS!!!!  I break my arm patting myself on the back too.
So I start mowing and mow off and on for a couple days.  Almost through mowing across the driveway on the part of the lawn that PROVES we are crazy (we mow like 5 acres, it's sort of a family thing, used to be mowed all along the highway for like a mile....) and I'm doing pattern mowing which  means the lawn is sort of zebra striped in the middle.  Lawnmower quits.  It's POURING gas out.  It's getting dark.  Mechanic is mowing the lawn @ his church so I can't talk to him.  He calls later and tells me that the metal thing with the electrical part IS the bowl for the carburetor and I CAN get it off.  Yeah right.  BTW husband is gone so he isn't fixing this.
So I google and I find this WONDERFUL article about craftsman lawnmowers....
The nut holding the bowl is on top of the electrical thing  and it does take a THIN 1/2 inch wrench to get it off.  BUT you have to have said wrench in the right position or it won't go on which means it has to be AGAINST the hood or the hood has to be OFF.  You have to unhook the electrical thing.  AND when they say float I pictured like a fishing bobber?  Nope it's more like the flapper on a toilet or @ least this one was, it's on a little shaft that goes up and down to the electrical thing.  (electrical thing is probably a solenoid like the article says)  The mower will run without said electrical thing but not for long and not happily.
My bowl had grit and brown waxy like stuff in it from old gas from a gas can and being stored both.  So I mowed part of the lawn by the house.....hopefully when I go back out it will start.

Moral of the story?  email me if you have lawnmower trouble.  AFTER you google for about a month and call your mechanic!