Small Engines (Lawn Mowers, etc.): Sears Lawn Tractor Floods, adjustment screw, fuel pumps

Question
Hello,

My Sears tractor has a B&S 407677-0229-e1 engine. it seemed to work fine last year, When i tried to start it this after noon it started for a moment then thick smoke started to come out of the engine and it died. It would not start again. so i removed the air cleaner and noticed that the carb input located under the air cleaner was filled with gas. I soaked the extra gas out and it started right up. then filled up again. I noticed large amounts of fuel was getting injected into it. I soaked up the fuel again and then Removed the fuel line. It seemed to run fine for a few minutes until the remaining fuel was gone. Then attached the fuel line again and the problem started again. I then removed the fuel line and just cracked the engine over and noticed that the fuel pump was pumping a large amount of gas. I thought the fuel pump might be bad but not sure if a bad fuel pump would pump extra fuel. . Any suggestions?

Thanks
Steve

Answer
Hello Steven, it is not your fuel pump. Because when fuel pumps go bad it surges. Try making adjustments to your high speed mixture adjustment screw, this regulates the amount of fuel necessary for anything than idle operation. The engine has to be running, when doing this.