A few weeks ago I mentioned a problem I was having with my LX188 John Deere. It would stall after about 40 minutes of mowing and would not turn back on for more than 15 seconds before it would stall again. Soon, this 40 minutes turned into 10 minutes. I assumed this was some sort of overheating problem causing the motor to shut off.
But this past weekend I mowed the lawn for about 1 hour and 30 minutes and it never stalled. The only difference is I moved the mower deck height up two notches. Up to 2.5 from 1.5.
So this brought back some memories. The stalling didn't happen until I had sharpened the blades, taking them off and then putting them back on. After doing this is when the stalling began to happen.
What I remembered is that, with one of the blades, I was having a very hard time loosening the bolt that held it on. I usually stick a 2 by 4 in between the blade and the mower deck to prevent the blades from turning as I loosen the bolt. This one stubborn bolt would not budge. So as I applied more pressure the bolt started turning but it was just turning, not being loosened. Even with the blades unable to move, the bolt was still turning.
I finally got the bolt off by taking the 2 by 4 out and putting a wrench on the top side of the deck to stop the bolt from turning, which I should have done in the first place. I sharpened the blades and put it back on.
Then the stalling started.
Did I mess up that bolt and other things to make the engine have to work a lot harder to turn that blade? It has been greased.
That's the only thing I can think of at this point.
Thanks