Outdoor Power Equipment and Small Engines - craftsman tractor will backfire and stall after 10 minutes???

I have a 93 craftsman riding mower with a 14 hp kohler engine. i changed the air,fuel,gas,spark plug, starter selonoiod and it still keeps backfiring and shutting off. what do you think the problem might be? i think the tractor sat around for about a year without anyone starting it.

If it sat around for a year,you would be ahead to put in a carb kit!
use a good grade of carb cleaner.
getting the old varnish and assorted gunk.that gets in there,outta there!
make sure all the orifices(holes) are free of gunk,use bread tie wire
remember where all the linkages go.
the number of turns for the different screws.
use new gaskets,don't scrimp by using the old ones.
some more silly wild a$$ guesses.
hope this rant helps you! good luck
T.J. terry

i really have no idea how to clean a carb. Is there any tutorials on this site or online that might help me out. I really need to get this thing running. I can't even find someplace near me that will help me out.

Hi
Certain models have relays in the wireing behind the dash panel. They are about 1 inch square and have 5 or so contact prongs plugged into the harness. Unplug and check the contacts for burning or blackening. If any of the contacts appear to be off color or burned, replace that relay. If that is not the problem you will have to go through the carb.

thats not the problem. i already replaced that too.

how do i clean the carb?

What exactly is it doing? Does it start and run at all? Does it run well for any amount of time before backfiring and stalling? You may need to clean the carb, but we don't have much detail on the actual behavior of the engine.

To clean the carb, remove it, disassemble it, soak it in a carb cleaner solution, rinse it, blow it out, reassemble.

it runs great for 10 minutes then backfires and stalls.

You need to determine if the trouble is ignition or fuel related before you do anything. At the moment the engine quits, you need to remove the spark plug and check for spark. The tricky part is that you'll need a second person to do this. Have a spark plug wrench ready, when it dies have your helper remove the plug, place it back in the plug terminal, you will crank the engine over and the helper will look for spark at the spark plug. No spark - ignition related (most likely the coil), spark - most likely fuel related. Let us know your findings and we'll go on where needed.

I had a similar problem with my 99 craftsman 16 HP. In addition to the backfiring and difficulty restarting, it tended to "surge" and sometimes act like it was going to stall before it actually did. After trying everything you did, I wound up replacing the carburator with one from Sears ($125) and now it runs great.... except for the fuse problem. I still need suggestions on that.

cold motor = runs good...motor warms up and then backfires and dies..refuses to start...most likely bad coil...the suggestion to check for spark emediately after stall is best suggestion

I agree, sounds a lot like a bad coil, but check it and see.

Guys it's not the coil or the solenoid. I have the same problem with my craftsman with a kohler motor. I have replaced the coil, solenoid and all 3 realys. After I replaced the 3 relays (earlier today) I started it up and it ran for 5 minutes then back fired and died. Now I have no power to the starter, but power to the lights. The 15 amp fuse is fine and I can't find any other fuses to replace. This mower has been down for 5 weeks. It is driving me nuts. Thanks Glenn