Its fine if the throttle plate moves on its own- its hooked to a governor that automatically opens the throttle when the engine is running slower than it should.

It could be that you saw the choke valve- it should close when the engine isn't running and open when the engine is running.

What I did on my mower was move the spring on the govenor to a hole higher up, it allowed the motor to run faster so it would not stall out.

-Jay

thanks! looks like i got a lot to learn about mowers.

taking a break right now(dinner). but, i've torn it apart, cleaned the carb, and emptied the gas tank. let's see if i can put it back together...

I'm just curious- was there any junk or water in the carb bowl or tank?

Dinner @ 4:05? You certainly are on Florida time! I just got back from Lunch here in Virginia. ;)

-Jay

The only two problems I have with small engines are water and crud in the carb jets.

The water can be drained from the bowl or gas tank, depending on the model.

The crud manifested itself by surge-die-surge-die-etc. I wound up pulling the paper off a bread tie wire and reaming out the carb jet(s). I've used Sta-Bil ever since and never had that problem again.

Once in a while my dad would remove the needle valve and spray it down with carb cleaner. He never used Stabil, but the last time he used the mower in the fall he would let it sit and idle until it ran out of fuel, then put it away for the winter. - this way there was no old gas left in it to create varnish over the winter.

-Jay

If the mower has been sitting for several months with gas in it it is very possible that the gas has gummed up the carb, but the carb cleaner should take care of that if that's the problem. Stabilizer is a good idea if you're going to leave gas in it between seasons. I always fill my motorcycle up with gas in the fall and put stabilizer in it then run it a few miles to get it all throughout the fuel system. Usually that tank will last for what little riding I do during the winter months, but if I need to refill I just add more stabilizer.

there was a bit of build-up in the carb. now, the good, the bad, and the ugly...

the good: got it going and finished mowing. runs like a champ; thank you, one and all! :thumbup:

the bad: don't know how i fixed it...besides cleaning the carb, i fooled around with the linkage during re-install. which fixed it?

the ugly: there will be no shopping for a reel mower, at least for now.

https://smiliesftw.com/x/big_rofl.gif

Ok, now that that's out of the way, someone else mostly answered your question. To rephrase and add a little...

- If it's a 4-stroke engine (most likely) you don't mix oil into the gas. Look for a tag with the model and serial number to look it up and find out if it's 2 or 4 stroke. Look for an oil plug/fill hole, maybe near the bottom of the engine; if there is one then it's probably a 4-stroke engine. Change the oil, it's probably awful by now.

- If it's a 2-stroke engine (possible), you probably will have to mix oil into the gas. You must use oil made specifically for the purpose. You'll have to find out what ratio to mix it at; that same model number you looked for as I suggest above could help, or it may be marked on the gas tank, or it may be a mystery. The nice thing is that if you know the ratio, you may be able to buy 2-stroke oil that's prepackaged in measured bottles so you just dump a whole little bottle of it into a gallon of gas.

- If it's a 2-stroke engine that mixes the oil automatically (highly unlikely), you'll need to find out exactly what type of oil to use with it.