185 John Deere

Martin Reece · Aug 16, 2013

Good day,
I have a 1989 model year 185 Deere mower. Has not given
me a moments trouble until now.
As I am cutting grass the engine will just die , like it"s starved
for fuel. (I changed the fuel filter ) it is really hard to start. It will
smoke black and then start and run great with no smoke and then after a
while it will miss and sputter and die.<brI am wondering if it's not an electronic issue ( not sure if it has any electronic parts)>any help or advice is appreciated, Thanks Martin

JT · Aug 16, 2013

I would get an inline spark tester and check the basic thing first, is it loosing fire, as soon as it dies, jump off with a spark tester, hook it inline and see if it has fire, that will narrow it down to fuel or igntion.

joe csuti · Aug 16, 2013

After checking for spark as JT said,if you have spark I suspect a problem in carb,black smoke is an indication of an extremely rich fuel mixture which can be caused by a sticking float,a float that's out of level or dirt in float needle seat & float valve leaking when eng running/at rest.

A sticking float,dirt in needle seat & dirt/water in carb bowl can cause eng to go lean/stop when running,if carb has a fuel shutoff sol on make sure connectors clean/tight & that you're not loseing power to sol either from a loose connector at sol or a problem in ign sw/tractor wiring

joe csuti · Aug 17, 2013

Another thing you might want to consider doing if no problem with ign system(eng has spark)and before removing/checking carb if eng burning/hard on oil do a compression test or leakdown test on eng.

When you consider the fact eng 24 yrs old and an unknown number of operating hrs the simple fact may be eng needs a rebuild/replacement due to wear on internal parts.

If eng burning oil,black smoke/hard starting is normal on an eng with a large amount of internal wear(worn cyl/rings,worn valve guides,leaking head gasket)due to fact you have to almost flood eng to buildup enough compression for eng to fire/run,after eng gets hot & internal parts expand compression may be getting even lower & fuel mixture now too lean for eng to run/run correctly,you also have to consider wear in driven loads(drive train,mower deck)which add additional drag/load to an eng that's getting weak & cause eng to run hotter.

rrobert · Aug 17, 2013

I have a 185 Hydro with a Kawasaki 540. I had mine do the same thing and never figured it out. It cleared up on its own.

I did find a leaf before the needle once before tho.

If there is water in the gas, it will clog a new fuel filter.

The Kawasaki engines use a "trigger" separate from coil instead of points. Common failure issue.

Change sparkplug and make sure it has a bright blue spark when it gives you this symptom.

185 John Deere

Martin Reece

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JT

Well-known Member

joe csuti

Well-known Member

joe csuti

Well-known Member

rrobert

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