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jim buford

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I have a D110 John Deere mower purchased from Lowe's about 7 years ago. It ran fine until last year but continues to run a while then cough and sputter and stops. It will restart but dies again. The next day it may be fine for about 15 minutes and then does the same thing again. I have had it to 3 different shops and no success. It may run fine for an hour with the blade not engaged but once the blade is engaged it may or may not start to act up. They have put a new carb, spark plug, coil, fuel pump, air cleaner, and other electrical items but without success. Do any of you guys have a suggestion? Thanks
 
How old is the battery ? If original I really suspect it. My mower once started and ran fine but once I engaged the electric clutch it died. Those clutches take a lot of power and my battery was old and weak.
 
It must be a fuel problem, either too much or not enough. If it hasn't already been done you might change the fuel filter. Sometimes it's something simple overlooked.
 
I had a 175 that had a sensor on the side of the carb that I took off and put a plug in and never had any trouble after that don?t know if yours has the same thing or not but I just sold it and I run it with that plug in it for 20 years after trouble free
 
Thanks guys. Until last year I had not used ethanol free gas but do now exclusively. I have thought about the fuel lines collapsing but
looks like they would stay collapsed and cause a continuous problem. The fuel filter is new. The battery is original but cranks quickly
every time. There is no sensor on the carb and the original one did not appear to be fouled in any way.

I will check the battery. Could it be a poor ground and what about the plug wire. I will change the wire, check the battery. The old fule
filter looked great. I am leaning toward a bad plug wire or collapsed fuel lines. Fortunately, my son in law lives next door and I can use
his. I will post back.
 
I second MikeM to a point. We used to see this fairly often, as the PTO clutch ages it begins to draw more and more as it heats up causing the resistance to go up and at some point the battery/charging system cannot keep up. It's a bit of a PITA, but take the clutch apart and look at the electromagnet, you'll probably see that the epoxy sealant is "bubbly" looking from being hot. You may or may not be able to get the magnet separately from Deere.
 
When it begins to die, try a partial choke. If that makes it run better, even if for just a second, pretty good indicator it is fuel related. Does this have dual tanks? Is there a valve to switch tanks? Try a direct hose from the fuel pump dropped into one tank through the cap, just to eliminate possible air leaks in the fuel lines.

Another test for ignition related, under the cowling, locate the coils. Remove the kill wire from each coil, put the cowling back on and do a test run. That wire has a diode in it that can go bad and short the coils, also there can be a problem in the safety switches, ignition switch, wiring, anything in the kill circuit that could be going to ground intermittently. Just be careful, with that wire disconnected the safety and ignition kill will not work.
 
rubber fuel lines can collapse when under vacuum--but rebound when the engine is stopped and fuel will flow and fill the carb--then same starvation occurs again after a few minutes of run time
 
We have an old 38" Snapper with Briggs engine that would be cutting good, then just sputter and die.

It has an "anti backfire solenoid" on bottom of carb that is supposed to shut off fuel when switch is turned off, like an electric fuel shut off valve.

I found that to be defective. My solution was to cut off the tip of the plunger. Haven't had a problem with it since.

If your carb has one and carb was replaced it should have replaced the plunger, but in todays world "new" doesn't necessarily mean "good". Might check wiring to plunger, especially if there is a disconnect plug in the wires.
 
(quoted from post at 10:11:16 06/02/18) We have an old 38" Snapper with Briggs engine that would be cutting good, then just sputter and die.

It has an "anti backfire solenoid" on bottom of carb that is supposed to shut off fuel when switch is turned off, like an electric fuel shut off valve.

I found that to be defective. My solution was to cut off the tip of the plunger. Haven't had a problem with it since.

If your carb has one and carb was replaced it should have replaced the plunger, but in todays world "new" doesn't necessarily mean "good". Might check wiring to plunger, especially if there is a disconnect plug in the wires.
Click to expand...
X 2 I had that problem too.
 
Gotta love the parts swappers especially the ones that sell their services professionally and the customer allows them to get away with it.
 
Those bent through a rubber button type flap in the gas it will crumble and fall into the tank a plug the fuel line look for black stuff floating on bottom
 
I ran into a similar problem and asked a long term service fellow for his thoughts. He said that most problems he has run into are FUEL related. He says run only "premium" fuel and no ethanol ever! Plus buy a good filtering funnel ( Mr. Funnel) and be sure gas tank is clean. Change the fuel filter and you're done. Yes, it worked for me and never a problem since. Good luck, hope this helps.
 
I had a john deere(not the same modle proably) that did similar symptoms and it tuned out to be the ignition module on the side of the engine. It run till it got so so warm and then would die. After that it was the ignition switch that shorted the coil to ground. The module builds up heat and then fail. But follow up post of what you find would be great.
 
I have used e10 for years in just about everything with never a fuel related issue. This includes everything from an old gasoline powered semi truck, to straight grain trucks, tractors, cars, lawn tractors and lawn mowers. In many vehicles and equipment e10 is left in the tank over winter and they all start right up in the spring. If anything it's the crap gasoline being produced and the refiners mix in ethanol to make it usable. It's just amazing what ethanol gets blamed for by the uninformed.
 
I agree with you wgm, ethanol gets blamed for every problem! I use E10 in all our 4-stroke engines with no problem whatsoever. Our Farmall C had set with 1/2 tank of E10 since last October and yesterday it started right up. Same thing with lawnmowers, nothing but E10 and they start right up in the spring and run great. I do buy ethanol free premium for all our 2-strokes that I mix gas for, had a problem on a couple of older ones (40+ years old) where the gas caps swelled or cracked. I suspect someone used some E10. The best theory I read on here about the problems with E10 is that using premium you build up varnish, and then when using E10 the ethanol loosens the varnish and it causes problems, and of course it's the ethanol's fault!
 
My first thought is the gas cap vent, often gets overlooked, and very simple to troubleshoot without spending any money. Take the cap off, put a clean rag over the filler spout with tape or rubber bands to hold it in place, and go out and mow!
 
Do you mean that little square thing a little bigger than a postage stamp and maybe 3/16 inch thick. Kawasaki engines. It is called an igniter. Actually is a variable resistance device for the coil. DO NOT jump them out !!! They are cheep on Ebay. Trick is they go from a little over $10 to over $100 depending what you have. It sure sounds as if you have a heat dependent problem. If you are talking about something else then ignore this reply.
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a269258.jpg
 
Jeffcat, that is exactly what im talking about. They fail when the engine heat heats them up a little. Let them cool down and they will run.
 
Those mower deck electric clutches pull close to 5 amps normally. If your machine has an amp gauge you should see it do a pretty good drop when you flip the switch. If the charging system is at all compromised you will poop out pretty quickly. With your engine shut OFF. Turn on the mower deck switch and then turn the key to the run position. You should hear the clutch click. You might need to sit in the seat. After you run your mower and it Poops out. With the engine OFF reach up and see how hot that clitch is. It is going to be pretty hot. If it is burn your fingers off super hot hot then you need a new clutch.
 
Yup, that controls the voltage in the ignition coil. From a dealer they can be very expensive. Go on Ebay and buy one. Hope it fixes you up. There are some universal ones listed but with a meter they only read a couple of Ohms resistance. They usually go open.
 
(quoted from post at 21:59:58 06/02/18) My first thought is the gas cap vent, often gets overlooked, and very simple to troubleshoot without spending any money. Take the cap off, put a clean rag over the filler spout with tape or rubber bands to hold it in place, and go out and mow!
Click to expand...

Double on this. Fought it for two years trying everything and all it was, was a dirty vent!!!
 
(quoted from post at 21:42:05 06/02/18) I agree with you wgm, ethanol gets blamed for every problem! I use E10 in all our 4-stroke engines with no problem whatsoever. Our Farmall C had set with 1/2 tank of E10 since last October and yesterday it started right up. Same thing with lawnmowers, nothing but E10 and they start right up in the spring and run great. I do buy ethanol free premium for all our 2-strokes that I mix gas for, had a problem on a couple of older ones (40+ years old) where the gas caps swelled or cracked. I suspect someone used some E10. The best theory I read on here about the problems with E10 is that using premium you build up varnish, and then when using E10 the ethanol loosens the varnish and it causes problems, and of course it's the ethanol's fault!
Click to expand...

Ethanol may not be the problem for everything but it causes more problems than varnish ever did. Just tried fixing a year old weedeater for a friend. So much corrosion in the fuel system from ethanol it wasn't worth fixing. At least a little Seafoam would clean out varnish. It won't fix corrosion.
 
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