Lawn Tractor Question

Sep 08, 2003 7 Replies

Run the 18 HP Cub Cadet 90 minutes, take a break for an hour, then the Cub won't start, regardless of whether I use full choke, partial choke, or no choke. Battery is OK. Next day, tractor starts fine, no problems.



Is the engine still overheated after a one-hour rest? Any tips.



Thanx, Jack


I just had that exact thing happen with my 20hp Cadet. After MUCH work, the repair people discovered it was a "bad coil" or something which when heated up failed and when cooled way down was OK. I was told that they had to pull the engine to get at it so the repair bill was pretty high. Assuming no shenanigans (sp?), they did a fine job and I consider the $ worth it. The machine is over 15 years old and runs like a top!

Bill

What you have is a classic case of "vapor lock". You can turn the gas valve off and run the starter for 20 seconds and then give it gas again on no choke and try it. or you can cool down the carburator by running water on it.

candice

check and see if you are getting any fire(spark) from the spark plug wire after it kills and wont start...that is where i would look first.. it might be the coil heating up and doing that...if thats OK then you check the spark plug(a spark plug that is contaminated with deposits will start up fine and glow when hot and act like its firing all the time and not let the engine run at all.. once the engine cools down the spark plug will cool down and act OK and the engine will run fine until it heats up and do the same thing again.. we had a car back in the 50's that did that once a week on our trip to the park.. my dads car would conk out in the same spot each trip.. wait an hour and start right up..

see if it isnt getting spark when it wont restart, could be coil ,or ignition module

Yep classic bad coil symptoms, check the spark when you have the non starting problems. You want fat blue not skinny yellow.

When it refuses to start, pull a spark plug and check and see if you have a nice hot blue spark. If not it more than likely is a bad ignition coil. They are more apt to fail when they get hot. If its got a good spark I would look at the carb running a bit to rich, and possibly cause it to flood when shuting down. This may be from some trash in the bowl and getting under the seat of the float inlet valve, or an adjustment. More than likely its a bad coil or trash in the carb, or possibly a filter.

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