Our Deere 420 rider bit the dust, whats up?

[MilesToEmpty]

Ive been floating around here for a month or so now and now have a need to post so, I registered!

We owe about 40 acres in WV. 2 Seperate locations... 20 is very rough rocks and never gets used but will one day build my own house on it.

We have about 19 acres on the bend of a creek. Its mixed between hilly, grass, rough terrain, and just stuff that doesnt get mowed.

So we have a Deere 420, bought around 5 years ago... Looks like ****, but it has less then 100 hours on a replacement Onan motor.

My dad was out mowing 2 weeks ago and the Deere just conked out on him. The best was I can describe it would be to say the engine sounds and feels like its flooded, then will sputter for a second and run perfect, then back to running rich.

I changed the plugs, which were completely fowled, the fuel filter, and cleaned the carb up. I was looking at the coil wires to see if I could see any arching but I couldnt see anything. Even tried running brand new fresh gas strait into the hose that goes into the carb.

Just looking for an idea on where to start...

We're really stuck right now because out Zero Turn Encore is in the shop, and our Deere is dead.

Thanks!

Charles

 

[irwin]

Sounds like you have to go back to the carb. Did you remove the carb and clean everything? or did you spray something down the throat? even dropping the float bowl isn't enough to clean it properly, could have a tiny piece of debris stuck in the needle and seat?

 

[jenkinsph]

I agree with a better carb cleaning but also would check the tank and fuel lines too. Ethanol fuels will wreak havoc with old fuel systems and it doesn't store as well as gasoline does. I use Stabil in all my gas powered equipment. See if you have crud in the gas tank.



Steve

 

[rayikeo2]

Sounds like the problem I have with my LX279. I was mowing along and it ran out of gas so I filled it back up, it would start and run only if I held the choke on so I had to put on a new fuel filter. It took several minutes to re-prime the system after that to get it to restart. Had to use the choke until it started. Finally started and run fine, it took a while to reprime. You might try cranking with the choke on to reprime yours. It's worth a try. However I found out my fuel pump is leaking. That's the reason I ran out of gas. Now I need to get the pump.

 

[MilesToEmpty]

Sounds like you have to go back to the carb. Did you remove the carb and clean everything? or did you spray something down the throat? even dropping the float bowl isn't enough to clean it properly, could have a tiny piece of debris stuck in the needle and seat?

Didnt remove the whole thing, but the fact that it starts dieing and sputtering makes me think its the ignition. It actually has points where it runs decent. It doesnt run but 100%. If you get it to about half throttle itll run good for maybe 20 seconds, cough, run good for 20 seconds, cough, etc.

I agree with a better carb cleaning but also would check the tank and fuel lines too. Ethanol fuels will wreak havoc with old fuel systems and it doesn't store as well as gasoline does. I use Stabil in all my gas powered equipment. See if you have crud in the gas tank.

Steve

I turned the fuel system off and ran a line from a fresh can of gas to the carb intake. Ran like that for a good 10 minutes, but still ran like ****.

 

[MilesToEmpty]

Well we are just going to take it to a dealer next weekend.

Now to find a dealer that will service it and not charge us out the whazoo in Winchester VA...

 

[irwin]

Well we are just going to take it to a dealer next weekend.

Now to find a dealer that will service it and not charge us out the whazoo in Winchester VA...

Better to have someone who knows what to look for on these small engines.
I still think it's the carb...but it could be an ignition fault..checking the spark would answer that question..with something like this..Lisle LIS50850 Ignition Spark Tester - Toolfetch.com If the spark can't jump the gap, the ignition system could be weak.
Good luck getting it repaired, hope they don't get you for too much $. Let us know what the problem is/was.