My lawn mower will not stay running; what could the problem be?...details to follow...?

the carburetor needs cleaning out

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What year is the mower? Most running problems occur on older models where compression suffers from old age and wear and tear.

Since you went through some wet grass and that stalled the engine and then the symptoms appeared for no apparent reason I'd do the following:

Take the spark plug out and the air filter off. Tip the mower so the air filter side is pointing up and spray the carburetor with some carburetor cleaner. Might have to open the throttle plate by pushing it with a small screw driver. Then spray the carb cleaner into the spark plug hole.

Let it sit for maybe 15 minutes to dry out. Make sure the spark plug gap is .030 and then put the spark plug back in the head.

Now you can change the oil. Might want to use a 30W rather than a 10w30. Look for signs of metal flakes or residue in the old oil.

Once this is all done then fire it up. If the problem persists, throw it in the river.

Good Luck!

You can remove the air cleaner element, put a couple of drops of fresh gasoline directly into the carburetor opening, replace the air filter element and close the air filter. Start up the mower. If it starts and dies, you need to take it to a repair shop - the carburetor is likely plugged from old gas you left in all winter. It will need a thorough cleaning. Not something you can do yourself. If the mower keeps running after you added gas into the air filter, let it run at full throttle for at least 5 minutes and you should be ok after that.

Craftsman 6.75 Self Propelled Lawn Mower

Sounds like a fuel problem, try loosen the gas cap about 1 turn, if that helps, the the vent in the cap is blocked and you need to clean it. Primer has more pressure than the run state of the engine so that is the indicator.

try this, take a flashlight and look down in the gas tank, shake the mower and see if there is water moving around on the bottom of the tank. if it is turn the mower over and pour out the gas and use a rag or paper towels to clean out the tank. there may be a screen in the bottom of the tank that could be stopped up also. just a suggestion.

Did you check the filter..I change mine at least once a mowing season but usually two since we end up mowing from March to late October .

well i dont know anything about mowers but im a ATV/MX racer so i know about those....and you probably need to clean the carburetor out or maybe you need a new spark plug

Your air filter needs changing or something is making your governor linkage stick.

Maybe it's tired-hee hee!