165 JD hystat

I am going to pull my hair out. (Whats left anyway...)


I have a JD 165 lawn tractor with a fb460v Kawasaki gas. I started it up and moved it across the shop. Next day I jumped on and she turns and turns and turns and nothing. No pop, no backfire, nothing.

So I go thru the usual steps, fuel, spark, compression. Plug is wet, changed it anyway. Spark like crazy. 65lbs compression. Valves good.

Turns over and nothing. So I pull the plug, spray a tad of ether in there, she takes off and runs for 2 minutes and dies. Wont start. Try the ether again, nothing. Either in the carb or the combustion chamber, nothing. No back fire, popping, nothing.

Pulled flywheel, key is perfect. Pulled carb and cleaned thoroughly. Changed ignitor on side of engine, when I disconnect it while trying to start, spark goes way down so I am assuming its working. Disconnected all safety switches and ignition switch, nothing. (but I would have no spark if one was open)

If I didn"t know better I would say I have no spark, so maybe the coil isn"t strong enough to spark under compression? I haven"t changed it but don"t want to spend $70 on an experiment. Any ideas before I fall over dead??? Thanks!!

That compression figure sounds pretty low to me ? won't hurt to check valve clearance adjust and see if any are tight ?

Diagnose the problem before you start throwing money and parts at it. I'd start by determining if she has spark. Remove the plug, reattach the plug wire and use a Vice Grip pliers to clamp the hex of the plug to a known good ground on the tractor. Then in dark, poor light or shade, crank her over. Look for good blue spark at the plug gap. If no or weak red spark, go after the igniter coil.

Makin'hay: Replace the coil. It is firing out of time. I had one last year that drove me nuts and I finally took the coil off of another mower to make sure I was going in the right direction. Look on Ebay for coils. They are OEM ones much cheaper than JD is right now. I also think Stens has them now as well.