Lawnmower starts, smokes, and stops after 2 seconds?

I had the same problem recently....If the smoke is black (like mine was) it is probably over fueling...Turned out the choke valve was stuck closed. I took off the air cleaner and pushed the valve open with my finger. It felt a little binding so I sprayed some carb cleaner on it and worked it back and forth. Works great now and was fixed in less than 5 minutes. Hope this helps...

Mike O.
July 2009