Outdoor Power Equipment and Small Engines - craftsman eager-1

Reading all of the other posts about the eager 1 it seems like most of the trouble is with the carburetor. It seems like I have some of the same problems but not exactly. My mower wont start and when I pull the rip chord the engine goes tuh tuh tuh tuh and then doesn't start. Also after doing this a few times a white smoke comes out of the carburetor leaving through the air filter. The next thing is that after pulling a few times the rip chord will shoot back into the pulley and then slam your hand really bad.

oh and also the fuel drips out of the thing below it sometimes. Not sure what its called. Idle screw? It is on the carberatur

If the starter cord rips out of your hand bad, you might have a sheared flywheel key. There are many posts on removing the flywheel and key.

I figured it out. I had to put the blade back on for it to work. Any ideas why this is? Is it a safety feature?

The blade is part of the "rotating weight" & acts as part of the flywheel. Without the mass of the blade, The engine doesn't have enough inertia to carry it over the compression part of the 4 stroke cycle.. Roger

Reading all of the other posts about the eager 1 it seems like most of the trouble is with the carburetor. It seems like I have some of the same problems but not exactly. My mower wont start and when I pull the rip chord the engine goes tuh tuh tuh tuh and then doesn't start. Also after doing this a few times a white smoke comes out of the carburetor leaving through the air filter. The next thing is that after pulling a few times the rip chord will shoot back into the pulley and then slam your hand really bad.

If you post the 143.xxxxxx engine model no. , we can give specifics on your carb.