Mount field M1 Gardener not running well

[walsie]

I’ve got a mountfield M1 Gardener with a 4hp B&S engine. It starts ok but the running speed (RPM) can be quite random, sometimes just idling, other times at its correct running speed. The start/stop lever has no affect on the speed but when running slow if I manually wiggle the lever sticking out from under the carb it will pickup speed, but then slow down when the blades dig in.

The cable from the start/stop lever is connected and secure.

When starting with the pull cord it can pull back almost taking my arm off!

I have no idea when it was last serviced.

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[davidbliss]

Someone may have at sometime adjusted wrongly the valve clearance by grinding to much off the stem of the valve, this stops the very crude rubbish compression release from working, it consists of small bump on the back of the cam. Seen this done to worn out engines to get better running they do idle better but at a cost to your fingers being stretch if its not done aggressively to get the engine to turn over. and a loose blade causes same issues as there is then little inertia help given from the blade. ignition points opening rather early is another cause, expect its one with short peg that rubs on the crank, measure the clearance under the peg to points arm, just increase the clearance a little and then check the points actually open as it a bit of a juggling act as sometimes with block and peg wear.

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