Ariens YT12 engine bizareness- only runs for 5 minutes with PTO engaged

[drgrant]

Subject says it all.

I can fire the tractor right up, turns over no problem and motor
runs... but if I turn the PTO/blade on, after about 5 minutes of mowing, the
engine will surge/burble/etc and then die, and I can't restart it until it
cools down. If I come back 10 minutes later it will start right up again.

Strange thing is that the machine will run just fine as long as I never
run the PTO... eg, I can let it sit for 10 mins at full throttle, hop on the
thing, drive around the yard, and it doesn't care... but turn the PTO on,
and inside of a few minutes it will conk out.

-Mike

 

[MikeD74T]

Do you have an electric clutch that is overpowering your electrical system? ...and robbing power from your ignition or affecting an electric chok or anti-backfire solenoid ? Or is the engine overheating & vaporlocking?? MikeD74T

 

[bontai_Joe]

I think Mike nailed it with a clutch over powering your electrical system. It's sucking out amps faster than they can be replaced, and apparently it does it quick! Your shutting it down and allowing it to sit for a while, allows the battery to recover enough to give you a start.

 

[drgrant]

I -think- the clutch is manual because its a big huge lever sort of
affair... of course, I wonder if there is some kind of short circuit in maybe
the PTO safety switch thing- eg, something that robs power whenever the
circuit is on a certain way? This might make sense, considering that
none of the safety switches on the thing work, except for the switch that
requires you to be in neutral before starting the engine... that one seems
to work.

Someone told me to take the cap off the gas tank and run it like that
for a bit, but that didn't seem to make any difference.

-Mike

 

[DieselPower]

The fuel line isn't run close to the exhaust anywhere is it? Being a manual PTO that kind of eliminates the power consumption idea like Mike had. My thought is that when the engine is running under load the engine is operating at a higher temperature and maybe the fuel system is vapor locking. Just a thought.

 

[drgrant]

The fuel line isn't run close to the exhaust anywhere is it? Being a manual PTO that kind of eliminates the power consumption idea like Mike had. My thought is that when the engine is running under load the engine is operating at a higher temperature and maybe the fuel system is vapor locking. Just a thought.

No, the gas line comes down on the left side of the engine, where it plugs into
the carb, and then the exhaust is another couple of inches away. Is there
a test to see if it is vaporlocking or not?


-Mike

 

[ccsial]

Try the spark plugs. I've seen that happen because the plugs wouldn't fire well under load. In the process of elimination that is an easy thing to try.

Could be a partially blocked fuel line or plugged fuel filter too.