Norm, Good stuff! Your wife bringing more mowers instead of asking you to get rid of the pile.
Tyler, Yes some people they prime the mower 10x and flooded the engine. This is one this that people needs to remember that mower priming is different from trimmer priming. The mower uses float type carburetor and when you prime, you initially inject fuel into the carby (for 2-stroke Victa plastic carby) or piston chamber for briggs engine. Unlike trimmer or other small engines which use diaphragm type carby is you can prime even 100x without flooding the engine because it just cycle through the metering chamber. Priming a trimmer allows you to pre-fill the metering chamber with fuel so it's easy to start.
Last Saturday I fixed a Victa 2-stroke which doesn't start. Replaced the warp primer cap, cap o-ring and pull starter o-ring then starts. I showed to the customer how this type of carby works and how to pull them apart to replace parts.
The next day he texted me..."The mower doesn't work again and it revs very high then it stops". I replied..."Ok bring it back and I will have a look what's happening". Yes he did brought back the unit with top cover removed, fuel tank removed, carby pulled apart. I said..."What's happening?" He replied..."Ok I tried to fixed it." Then I found out that the float and needle was missing. I asked him..."Where is the float and needle? He replied..."No it doesn't have it! Then I said that mower won't run in the first place and will overflow without them. Then I found the two parts on the base mixed the leaves and dirt. I assembled the unit, prime and it ran first pull but it started to revs very high then stopped. I then realized that this is a fuel issue when you normally runs out of fuel, the mower will revs high then stop. The tank was full. I suspected that there must be a vacuum issue when the fuel cap is fully closed. I left the fuel cap loose and the engines runs fine so I replaced the fuel cap with a new one and he's happy to pay for the new fuel cap.
