John Deere L130 Problem

[Gopher Baroque]

Taking the carb off was a pain in the butt. John Deere has a brace bolted onto the tractor right in front of the carb, and from what I could see the ONLY way to take that brace off would have been to lift the engine vertically because the bolts that held th brace in place were too long to be removed with the engine as it sat (bolts were under the engine and they were hitting the frame). This looked like a deliberate design to intimidate most people to take it in for the work to be done, and that would have cost some bucks as the engine has to be dropped in with this brace already attached as there was NO WAY it was coming off with the engine in the tractor

Turns out you can circumvent the bracket hassle by disconnecting the solenoid wire and using a 19mm wrench to unscrew the solenoid while the carb is in place. For the carb to clear the vertical rod to port, remove the shroud over the muffler (two little bolts front and two hood spring bolts on sides) and the throttle lever on the top of the rod to allow the rod to pull up and move to side (not needed to be completely free of the vehicle). At least these fasteners are easier to get to than those four bracket bolts too close to the exhaust pipes!

BTW my no-fuel problem seemed to be not so much dirt in carb as corroded ground wire for fuel solenoid. That lug is conveniently on the top of the carburetor, so worth checking/cleaning first!