I am determined to fix this thing

Two years ago, when we moved here, I bought my first lawnmower.  I did some researched and talked to someone who had this specific mower and thought I made a good choice.  For the first year, things were great.  

The second year it stopped working.  It would sound like it was going to start and then die quickly.  I did some research and knew it was the carburetor.  So I replaced it.  

Things still didn't work.  I took it to a shop, they fixed it and told me it was "bad gas".  I bought new gas, mowed the lawn twice, and then it stopped working.   I took it back to the shop and they fixed it for free (this time), and told me it was bad gas again.

It was new gas!  I'd also added something to help with the ethanol!  

A few weeks later, it stopped working again.  This time, I bought the parts I needed and cleaned the carburetor and drained the tank myself.

Things worked great for several weeks.

Until last week.  It wouldn't start again.  I can't imagine having to clean the carburetor every month so I did some research and found that the fuel line (tube) could be bad and that I could add a fuel filter to the fuel line to help keep gas clean.

So I bought the parts this morning and got to work.

The mower "before"

I decided to replace the air filter, clean the carburetor, replace the gaskets, replace the fuel line, and add a filter.  I couldn't think of what else to do.  

The parts

I was annoyed with how much gas I drained and won't be able to use.  The jar on the left was already nasty and dirty, but the gas in the jar on the right didn't even look bad.

Add caption

  I had to cut the new fuel line to fit the space, and cut it to add the fuel filter.  I wasn't sure which direction the filter should go until I found a note online that the filter has an arrow, sure enough, I turned it over and there it was.

The arrow is pointing down in this picture

 And then I took the carburetor off.  I was shocked at how much dirt was in there.  I later found that some of it may have fallen in as I was taking it off, but geeze!

Add caption

 Once I had it all back together, the fuel filter fit perfectly.  And I was excited to test things out.

I poured some special stuff in to help clean the tank and carburetor and fight ethanol issues, and then I had to run to the store to buy new gas.

There's the fluid in the filter

When I got home, I poured the new gas in and it sputtered for about 15 seconds before dying.  I was scared.

I started it up again and it sounded beautiful.  I mowed about half of the lawn (45 minutes) before someone pulled up the driveway and I had to stop.

I'm just glad I was able to get her going again, but the true test will be if she works after the 3rd or 4th job.