JD 318

I have an older JD 318. The tractor runs like a champ. It has a little bit of a surge to it, that i cant seem to fix. How ever my real problem lies within the deck. When the tractor is sitting still, i can engage the deck with out a problem and it will stay running. Some times i will need to choke it before hand other wise it will attempt to kill the engine. Also after the deck finally does engage if i am not moving, it will stay running. How ever once i try to mow with the tractor it wants to die. Then i have to stop turn the deck off really fast, and reengage the deck. I can go about another 50 secs and it does it again.

This is the best mower i have ever had. I bought it used @ a sale. I can get a model number here in a bit, that is if you guys need it. As far as i know it is the orginal engine. I have put the following on new: Plugs, Plug wires, Coil, fuel pump.


Last summer i had the tractor in town at the shop and had the carb reword. Cleaned new seals ect ect. It ran fine for a while and now it is doing this crap again.


So if any one could give me any ideas on what could possibly be wrong. I found a bare wire that i belive is the voltage sending wire for the electric clutch. I repaired that how ever still has the issue. I have put a new ingition in the tractor and rewired most of the dash. Looks like it is comming down to me getting a wiring diagram a bunch of new wire. Pulling the body off of the frame and completely rewireing the tractor.

Also any one have any idea why my rear lift wouldnt move? I have the lever for it but rear doesnt move.


Another question did those all come with a rear pto? I have a spot in my dash for one but no switch.

One last question, why in the hell would my battery light stay on constantly. I cant get it to shut off, is there an alternator on them, or like a stator on a quad. Could that be my issues, where its not getting enough voltage to keep the clutch engaged after it gets warm? I hope it is not the windings in the clutch.

Thank you

If that carburetor has a main jet adjusting screw to enrich the carburetor you need to open that. I would open it one full turn to see if that keeps it from stalling. Hal

On the electrical...It is possible that your alternator may not be creating enough juice to keep the clutch solidly engaged,but battery should make up the loss.Does tractor have an ammeter?You should be able to see it show a + chg when running,and a drop when PTO,lights etc are activated.Clutch circuit could be temporarily bypassed by running a switched jumper direct from battery+ to clutch + lead.Such would bypass onboard switch/circuit/connectors.
Note/safety switches can cause PTO issues too.I fought with an older Deere for 2 days,that instantly died when PTO was switched on,elsewise ran fine....turned out to be a bad seat switch and when activating PTO,even w/my fat fundament on the seat,it was "reading" No operator(Shut Down!,fat fool fell off the tractor again)

When my 318 would shut off when mower engaged, it was my battery. Have you checked your battery? Battery could be shorted out, my did. The Onan B43G and P218G both had stator behind the flyweel. these were the two engines used in 318 mowers. You can go to "jdpc.deere.com" and type in 318 in model and see parts and diagrams for the mower.

So i got my original deck issues fixed. Here down under the battery plate where the battery connects to the selonid, the wire was corroded bad enough when the mower was moving the vibration would cause it to cut out.

So after some rewiring the tractor has started to run really good, until the other day.

I was mowing and all of the sudden the deck shut off and would not reengage.

So i thought mabey my pot engage switch went out. I went and bought a new one and put it in, nothing. I have voltage going to the switch.

Now comes the questions, does the deck pto switch have 2 or 3 wires coming off of it, my plug in only has 2, i don"t know if one came out or not. I dont have another tractor to look @ to compare.

Also is there any way to test to see if the clutch his good? any one to apply direct current to it while the mower is running to see if it engages?