john deere 445 stops dead in its tracks

[rabbitschomb]

Long story hoping to just help someone. My 2000 JD 445 has ran so good for 15 years and this spring at the start of mowing season all went bad. I read alot on here on what my problem might be, none of which fixed my problem. Found a great story on here about a map sensor being bad, I was so sure this was my problem so I bought one at a cost of $270 new and $100 on ebay used, this did not fix my problem, then I read another story about a air temp sensor sensor, it said to unhook the sensor and see if this fixes the problem, it did, tractor ran like new again, this sensor was only $30 so I bought one, this did not fix my problem, so I unhooked it again and it ran for a little bit started missing out again when it got hot or under a load (making engine hot). So after I bought the second sensor and this did not fix my problem I knew something for sure, it was after the sensor so I traced the wires from sensors on carburertor back to the wiring harness and i found the problem. the wire was laying on the oil fill tube and when the engine would get hot it would burn just a little more of the copper wire away, i was down to the last thread of wire in one wire and three strands left on another. clipped wires and rejoined them with wire connector and black electrical tape and wire tided them away from fill tube and this baby runs like kitten at an idol and a lion at full throttle. My point is simple this check for shorts in wires befor you spend $300 on parts you don't need. I put old parts back on and I have no issues. I was able to return map sensor but air temp sensor was new so no return on electrical parts. I do want to say that every JD dealer i call or emailed said they had know idea what my problem was and everyone said they had never sold either sensor before, and no one had either in stock. Hope this helps I have put about 15 hours on tractor since the repair with no issues. I love this little mower I have over 1300 hours on this baby with no issues prior to this one, but I have taken very good care of it.
Hope this helps someone out, taking these to the shop cost way too much now a days.

 

[beenthere]

:thumbsup:

:welcome: to TBN

 

[BBO]

I replaced the wiring harness on mine plus the pins in the connector.
This harness goes to all those expensive sensors and I decided to eliminate bad wiring or connections.
Old wires will get stiff and crack.


I also replaced the wires to the ignition coils.
Replacing the connector is not so easy unless you have a real good crimping tool.

 

[Dave M7040]

What engine is in your tractor. The spec's I find talk about a Yanmar diesel but you are talking about a MAP sensor so I am confused.
Dave M7040

 

[BBO]

What engine is in your tractor. The spec's I find talk about a Yanmar diesel but you are talking about a MAP sensor so I am confused.
Dave M7040

The 445 is a 22hp gas; but fuel injected vs a carburetor.

I think the 455 was the diesel version of this mower.

 

[Todd NE WY]

I had a similar fix on my X465 today. The tractor is about 9 years old with 200 hours on it. Over the past 2 + summers I have had an intermittent issue with it dying out, like its not getting enough fuel, sometimes it would completely die other times it would just kill the rpm's then it would recover. First I replaced the fuel filter, it helped but didn't completely fix it. Today it completely quit me. I figured great Sat at noon, no place would be open that would have a fuel pump, thats what I figured was wrong. So before I got crazy I decided to take a good look at everything. Well the hose from the fuel filter to the fuel pump was just trashed, peeling away in layers. So I thought what the heck nothing to loose so I bought $2.00 worth of hose and put it on. Runs like a champ again. So it pays to check the little stuff before going to expensive parts.