New to your forum

[ArmiesGQ]

Good morning All,

I am new to your forum and I just wanted to introduce myself to y'all. I am a Union welder out of the pipefitters local and I was reading some of the posts about similar problems the I am now having with my JD LX 178. I have an older 1996 model that I had completely restored by John Deere in 2012. My lawn tractor has never seen rain nor snow and I thought that I was taking very good care of it, until I had to go out of town to work. I didn't drain the fuel out of him and I suppose that is what caused me to start having problems, actually I know it is. So I used fuel stabilizer in my fuel and I only use 100% usually (93 octane) gasoline, (never ethanol) and I am having trouble getting him to start, I have to add fuel to the carb and then baby the throttle to get him to start. Once I get him to start he wants to cut off, like he is starving or thirsty for fuel and if I am fortunate enough to get to engage the PTO without him cutting off, he then doesn't have enough power, not enough to mow my lawn anyway, like he is beat?

What I have done so far is replace the in-line fuel filter (with a clear glass filter so I can see the fuel), I have replaced the spark plugs, cleaned out the bowl on the carb, removed the gas cap to ensure it wasn't the vent or vent blockage. I have also noticed that my in-line fuel filter is not completely filling full in the sight glass? So for now I have stopped messing with him until I get an OEM service manual or some other good advice. If I can avoid it, I am not going to take him back to John Deere to fix for me, I should be able to cure the ailment that I most certainly caused him. Now, my wife wants me to buy a new and improved model of lawn tractor and sell him, but as I mentioned earlier I had this jewel restored in 2012 so I am not interested in buying a new lawn tractor. I paid over $4,000.00 when this lawn tractor was new 20 years ago and he has been a very good ol' friend to me and all of his parts were replaced in 2012 with new parts from JD so essentially, he is a new man.

Any good advice is greatly appreciated and if you have a OEM service manual for this lawn tractor please share it with me at dbrackett0319@gmail.com and I will be more than glad to document with the use of pictures every step I take to nurse my boy back to health.

Nice to meet you all and I really like your forum here.:thumbsup:

Thanks in advance for taking time to read my introduction!

 

[mguitas]

:welcome:

 

[Wagtail]

G'day Mate and welcome to TBN from Downunder.

Enjoy the site.

 

[TBN Support]

Welcome to the forum! :welcome:

I'm going to move your thread on over to our John Deere section to see if we can find you some advice.

 

[beenthere]

Sounds like you are needing a compression check to see if there is enough compression for your Deere to run. Then work from there.

But sounds like a "her", not a "him"..

 

[Richard001]

GQ said:

So I used fuel stabilizer in my fuel and I only use 100% usually (93 octane) gasoline, (never ethanol) and I am having trouble getting him to start,

I don't what kind of stabilizer you used, but I would never use sta-bil. I have seen carbs of users who used this stuff over winter and it turns the fuel in the carb to something that looks like gum.

What I have done so far is replace the in-line fuel filter (with a clear glass filter so I can see the fuel), I have also noticed that my in-line fuel filter is not completely filling full in the sight glass?

This is quite common and is not a problem.

I have replaced the spark plugs, cleaned out the bowl on the carb, removed the gas cap to ensure it wasn't the vent or vent blockage.

Just cleaning out the bottom of the carb bowl is not sufficient. You need to remove the carb, completely disassemble it and clean it using carb cleaner. Most likely the problem is fuel dried and caked in the main jet. I find that sometimes I have to use a small wire to clean out the crap.

Did you drain out the old gas? Old gas will give you fits. Adding new gas to a tank of old gas does not give you good gas, just more old bad gas.

Anything that gives you problems is a her. Sometimes you love her, sometimes you hate her, but she's yours.

Richard

 

[Victory51]

Hello everyone. I'm a 64 yo veteran and a retired teacher. Have 12 grand children and enjoying life. Never had a tractor so bought me a Yanmar 1500D.
Will be glad to meet new people.