I have a 15 Hp Simplicity garden tractor with a Kohler engine. This machine is about 13 years old and I have had it since it was new.
I went out to mow the grass this weekend and the engine died on me after about a half an hour. It just suddenly stopped and made a couple of small back-firing noises.
I noticed it did still have a few inches of gas in the tank but I topped off the tank with fresh gas anyway. But before I put more gas in it I took off the fuel filter and noticed there wasn't much gas flow from the tank. I blew out the filter with air pressure and re- installed the fuel filter. It still wouldn't start even after adding more gas to the tank.
I poured a little bit of gas in the carburetor and it still wouldn't fire. I spent some time trying to get the hydrostatic transmission release lever to disengage so I could push it back into the garage but never got that to work so I left it alone for a while.
After a few hours, I went out and it started right up. It ran good for
15 minutes and then quit again. I left it in the yard until yesterday morning. It started right away and I pulled it into the garage. While I was out and about yesterday, I picked up a new fuel filter and installed it just in case that would help.I started mowing the yard with it again today and had the same problems. It ran good for about a half hour and quit. I waited a few hours and it started and quit again after about 15 minutes.
I was very hot Sunday when this started but not as hot today and even cooler this afternoon. But I'm still wondering if it has a vapor lock problem.
Anybody got any more ideas I can try?
Thanks, David