John Deere Hydro 175

[Feoe]

I bought a hydro 175 in pieces the other week from a guy that tried to restore it and gave up after a year. I worked on in after work all week and all weekend... many hours later its completely restored and running great. idles great, really smooth running mower. im not much of a mechanic or anything so have a one problem i cannot figure out. When i engage the blade clutch, the engine shuts off. It starts right back up after flipping off the blade switch. Im thinking its something electrical. I bypassed the seat switch for testing and still no luck.
If anyone has any idea what could be the problem i would appriciate it greatly.

[Ken Cunningham]

Assuming its wired correctly then i would look for a short in the switch, wire from the switch to the clutch, or the clutch it self. One thing you might try, if there is a plug on the wire were they attach to the clutch, unplug it and then try it. If it stays running then you are going to need a new clutch. I would find some test procedures for the clutch to make sure its bad before sinking money it.

[davkir]

I don't know if this is relevant, but I put a new aftermarket seat on my STX that didn't have a safety switch.
The connector had an internal "safety" built in to it so you couldn't just unplug it to bypass. You had to jumper the wires.

[Feoe]

Thank you for your input. After seeing your post, i unpluged the clutch and still the engine dies after engaging the blades. Also i made sure that the bipass was made with a secure connection. I began peeling off all the protecting plastic on the wires to look for any kinks or shorts in the harness, so far I've found none. I'll keep on looking into it though. Hopefully ill figure it out b4 the weekend... my grass is growing fast haha.

[jinman]

Thank you for your input. After seeing your post, i unpluged the clutch and still the engine dies after engaging the blades. Also i made sure that the bipass was made with a secure connection. I began peeling off all the protecting plastic on the wires to look for any kinks or shorts in the harness, so far I've found none. I'll keep on looking into it though. Hopefully ill figure it out b4 the weekend... my grass is growing fast haha.

If you have a reverse kill feature for the engine, that could be the problem. Reverse kill only comes into play when the deck clutch is engaged. If that switch is shorted, it's telling the mower that you are in reverse all the time and as soon as the clutch is energized, it kills the engine.

[Feoe]

So i finally figured it out and was able to mow my grass finally... i looked up the engine diagram for the kawasaki engine and figured out the kill switch was the little white wire beside the dip stick and disconected it. So now there are no safty switches on the mower, the only thing that kills the engine is the fule cut off in the carburator wen you switch the key off., if you do this always check that your in neutral before starting the engine. so it ran for a good while and then quit on me. the motor turned but there was ablolutely no compression... how this happend after a day of running fine, i do not know... so i took the valve cover off and the intake valve was not hung but was very stiff and wouldnt spring back like is should so the push rod ended up coming out of place... i oiled it up really good with some liquid wrench and it finally broke loose. put it all back together. then the fuel pump got clogged so i took it apart and stuck it back on there... now it runs like a new mower. in all ive got around $400 in the mower now (not including my labor) so i guess after eveything im still well off... if anyone has questions regarding a hydro 175 email me, i feel like i can just about take it apart and put it back together with my eyes closed by now lol...
feoeatm@yahoo.com

[Beavis]

If you have a reverse kill feature for the engine, that could be the problem. Reverse kill only comes into play when the deck clutch is engaged. If that switch is shorted, it's telling the mower that you are in reverse all the time and as soon as the clutch is energized, it kills the engine.

How can a person bypass the reverse kill feature: lets say on a LA175 that you would buy at Lowes ?

THANKS

[jenkinsph]

Shorting the terminals of the RIO switch renders it inoperative and bypassed. A short test lead with alligator clips that can be removed before returning to the dealer for service works well.

Not that I would recomend to others doing such a thing. I would also think keeping children and pets inside while mowing is a good idea as I hate to read about them being hurt by following a mower or hit by rocks.

[Beavis]

thanks..........

[jinman]

I would also think keeping children and pets inside while mowing is a good idea as I hate to read about them being hurt by following a mower or hit by rocks.

Perfect plan with the RIO switch.

I'm also very fond of telling people that mowing and bush hogging are NOT "spectator sports." People need to stay well away and young kids need to stay very far away from a mower whether going forward or backwards.