[SSE Dad]

I don't own a mower like that but I had a few thoughts that maybe could help. When you say the plug was black, what do you mean? Was it wet and shiny black? Or was it dry/dusty black? Sounds more like it was carbon build up based on being able to scrape the electrode off and start it again. If thats the case then its running rich, which I would see as more of a carb issue than anything else. In my experience bad gas will cause problems pretty quickly when using it, so with a small tank like on a mower I would imagine you would have had problems before you had to empty the grass catcher.

It was more dry/dusty black. The other poster made a good point about me maybe trying to crank it so many times too and that producing a carbon build up. I bought a new spark plug I'm going to run the next time I mow and see how she does. If that doesn't fix it, I guess I'll be looking into adjusting the carb if possible or replacing it altogether.