Hi everyone! I would like to thank you in advance for any help you can give me. I have a Craftsman lawn tractor with a 22hp Briggs and Stratton V-Twin engine. I can start the tractor fine and it runs fine for 30 minutes of mowing, but after a while it will start running rough and I can hear it backfiring some. When it is doing this it really looses power too. A lot of times, I can disengage the blades and idle it down low and just sit there. After a little while of sitting there with it running rough and spitting and sputtering, I will hear a click, then engine will rev back up to normal and it runs fine again. Any idea what in the heck this could be?

See if there is a fuel sylnoid at the bottom of your carb. when it starts acting up touch it with the back of your hand breafly to feel how hot it is.

First try loosening the gas cap and make sure you don't have vapor lock. I had a brand new craftsman that kept stalling and it was due to the gas cap not breathing. Try that first. If that doesn't fix it, check the spark plug and spark plug wire.Next, you should have an in-line fuel filter, check that too and clean it. How old is the tractor?

The tractor is 3 years old. I just put a new carb on it last spring. As I said in my post, when it does this, I can disengage the blades, idle it down, and sit there and eventually I will hear a click and then it revs back up to its normal running RPM and quits backfiring. At this point it will run fine for a while and then do it again. Does this sound like a coil problem? I would think that if it were a fuel, fuel cap problem, once it did it, it wouldn't get better. Also, if the fuel filter was dirty, wouldn't it do it all the time? I am just tossing out ideas, because I have no clue. Thanks for your help. What are your thoughts?

the fuel sylnoid will click.

DEFIANTLY check your fuel solenoid, cause that is really the only thing that might CLICK and change the running or the motor

Maybe your dog could hear the fuel solenoid click while the engine is running, but I doubt that a person could hear it above the sound of the engine running. If the fuel solenoid was closing off, the engine would die, especially a twin cylinder.

When it does this you should check for spark on each of the cylinders, you may be dropping a cylinder, one of the modules may be losing spark intermittently. The sound you hear could just be the dead cylinder coming back to life. Perhaps a look at the valves may also be in order, as a sticking valve could also cause this as well. Some water in the fuel is also a possibility.

Best of Luck...