BX24 losing power/RPM

[zoltanthegypsy]

I spent yesterday mowing 4 acres with a 42" bush hog. Everything worked as expected, except - there's a very steep short hill in the middle of things. Too steep to operate on safely, but short enough that the BX climbs straight up it relatively easily.

Usually, anyway. Yesterday toward the top of the 20' long' hill or just after climbing it, RPMs would drop drastically, then recover. Then run fine. I could creep up it w/out any RPM drop, but not at mowing speed.

My first thought was fuel starvation - and still is. Filled the tank in case the extreme tilt was exposing the pick up, but no joy there.

I'm going to round up a pair of fuel filters and replace as the next thing to try.

Anything else I should be looking at? The machine's 3 years (or so) old with maybe 120hrs on it.

Thanks,
Z.

 

[radioman]

yup - just one. the air filter. for a tractor 3 yrs old with that low hours on it tells me its been sitting for a long time. I would suspect the air filter is plugged from a nest maybe?

 

[zoltanthegypsy]

I'll check that for sure. Thanks.

Z.

 

[copperhead1967]

I second the fuel filters, had this same type of problem on a steeper incline while doing some FEL work. Changed the one year old filters and no repeats.
I've seen them look dirtier inside before but this was the culprit.
Only other thing would be some sort of gunk or foreign object shifting around in the tank blocking the outlet ? I'd try options A and B first.

 

[ericher69]

Are you mowing in low range or high range?

Just thinking maybe if in high range it's pulling RPM's down

If not try A and B

 

[zoltanthegypsy]

Thanks all for the replies.

Not mowing in high - it would never climb the hill in question in high. Air filter is clean.

I've replaced both fuel filters and tested. Seems OK so far, but I don't have quite the same steep grade to test on. Full pedal on the steepest I could find, with the mower running, no loss of RPM.

I'll go with "fixed" for now.

Thanks again,
Z.