I have a 5 year old Murray push mower that came from walmart. It has a 4.5 HP Briggs and Stratton engine. It just started to run like qrap last week when i was mowing on a blistery hot humid day in Northern Indiana. It managed to finish the job but I had to go slow with it or it wanted to die. This week it will run but if I try to mow any grass with it it will die. I changed the spark plug and the 5 year old air filter (lol) but that didnt seem to help at all. I'm not sure what I should do next. I made a video with my digital camera and posted it to youtube. If you dont mind could you look at the video (it is short) and give me your best guess as to what is wrong and what i should do? Thank you.

Here is the video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZMBmEMG4b0

Carb problem. Not getting enough air/fuel. is there an in-line filter?

There is no in-line filter on a diapragm carb (this is a carb mounted to tank style) sprint? maybe...
Clean the carb (blow out any and all holes with carb cleaner) and clean the pickup tubes at the ends. Replace the diapragm/gasket (cheap, around 3 bucks) and clean the tank out when you remove the carb.

Carb,sounds like linkage maybe jamed with grass or choke stuck?
Love the vise grip use. lol

Finally, a novel use for YouTube :)

It sounds to me like it's fuel starved. I'm not sure if that model has a high speed air/fuel adjustment, but maybe the needle has become contaminated?

Is there any gunk in the bottom of the tank?

-Larry

That model would have a plastic carb, non adjustable.

Yeah I cant adjust the carb any, I managed to get my yard mowed with the rider (it misses spots so I have to over the yard a few times to get them all) This weekend I'll take the carb off the tank then clean it and the tank.

Thanks alot guys, if I know whats wrong or at least have a place to start I can usually fix anything but I'm not very good at troubleshooting.

Thank everyone I'll keep ya posted.