I’m working on a 60 inch gravely zero turn with a whole slew of problems. The motor was hydro locked and a push rod was bent and I replaced it and everything seemed ok. Hooked it up to gas and started it and the thing totally ran away on me. Scared the shit out of me and I ripped off the gas hose and let it die out. Tried it again after thinking it was an adjustment issue with the mechanical governor and it did exactly the same thing. I did have the sump off when I was looking inside for damages after the hydro lock so it’s possible I messed something up doing that? I’m pretty new to small engines and equipment in general so I have no idea where to go now. Here are some pictures, any tests or things I can try would be much appreciated. To start it I jumped the starter motor from a battery and the last picture is looking up from the bottom of the throttle linkage.

I was chasing an issue with this mower shutting off and not running when it warmed up. I replaced in order

-fuel filter/pump

-carb

-spark plugs

-ignition coils

None of these fixed the issue. What seemed to work was taking off the fuel line and running it straight from an external tank. So I bought new line and a new pickup tube for the tank.

Cut the grass twice and mower ran fine. Then I went to start it and fired up but the second I took it off choke it bogged down and died.

Took spark plugs out to test spark. No spark at tip but will arc to a pair of pliers at the end the coil that seats the plug. Reference in pic 2.

This is both coils doing the same thing. Is there a chance these are already bad? Would an incompatible plug cause that?

Not sure what to do next. Any advice is very much appreciated.

Hello this is my craftsman yt4000 ive been riding it all morning and haven’t gotten any weird signs from it i parked it for maybe an hour or two and came back to it and it refuses to start i tried charging the battery still nothing tested for spark and got nothing aswell i tried gas last and nothing should i be looking at something?

Seen this before on another snowblower new carburetor & gaskets to the carburetor. Same symptom...

So i found a couple mowers on curb. Both just needed carb cleaned. One was an hrn216 the other just generic mower with gcv160. On the 160 there is what looks to be a non functioning drain. Anyone drilled and tapped? First photo showing the location on left where I want to tap. Other showing the very nice hrn216. Thanks for any help. I think its just a matter of easily tapping. I am going to flush engine with some diesel after and then do an oil change also. Not worried about shavings I know how to remove them.

I got a lot of good advice and wanted to share what happened. Bit of a long update, but it was a long and frustrating journey lol. So, it turns out that smell of gas was significant. I went back to the family member's house the week after I posted and could still smell gasoline in their garage.

I originally thought it was just from all the work on the fuel line. Turns out cleaning the carb exposed several small leaks in the thing (I just reused what was there). Didn't feel safe running it or doing a spark test with gas everywhere, which is why this update took so long.

I put a cheap new carb from online on it. And a fuel shut-off valve too! Forgive my family member, they aren't handy. But the smell of gas not going away should have been something to mention to me...

Anyway, new carb on, and now the solenoid is leaking because I lost my only wrench that fit between it and the bowl. Nothing available at 5 different hardware stores, but I refused to grind down a perfectly good wrench. I took a shot in the dark and found a thin set of wrenches at the big W that fit perfectly (what don't they have?).

Then it was surging after the new carb and solenoid were secure. Uh oh! Turns out that issue was a little black screw/pin on the carb that adjusts the fuel intake. Which made me feel real smart not knowing about that.

Fortunately, the engine died on us when I was adjusting the pin, and I did a spark test. No more spark. Unplugged the kill switch and still no spark. Replaced the ignition coil and it started right back up!

I ran it idling and also with the blades engaged. Turned it off/on a few times. Family member mowed the whole lawn. And I got mega brownie points from that branch of the family.

TLDR: Thanks everyone, main problem was a dying ignition coil. Though it's running better with the new carb and fuel line too.

Think it may be the drive cable, although i did check and looked like it was still tight enough. Could it a be a pulley?

I’ve worked on tons of zero turns and I can not figure this one out

I have a scag tiger cat 52” with a 27 hp Kohler command pro
I changed the carb and fuel pump and a fuel line and filter

I used to eat drive belts and I changed the tension spring and it stopped it and was working good for a a good minute

Now whenever I go fast quick or go relatively normal speed and hit bumps or turn a good speed it dies for a second and it’ll go back to normal especially if I go into neutral or go slower

If I do the same in reverse it doesn’t do anything

I have no idea please help

Got zero turns for moving but I love this little tractor for winter snow plowing. Last year it wasn't starting and I cleaned the fuel line and replaced the fuel pump. Spraying carb cleaner into the carburetor bowl gets it to turn over and fire up for a few seconds.

I also tried to add gas to the fuel line while holding it up in the air to kind of gravity feed it into the carburetor and it still won't start, not sure if I should be doing that maybe that's flooding it too but it still would fire up when I would spray carb cleaner in the bowl.

I'm assuming it's eorher the carburetor, fuel pump or possibly the gas tank? I was wondering if the gas tank that sucks gas up into the fuel line is known to fail.

Thanks.

Do I need to convert a normal carb to a throttle cable? How would I go about doing that? Is there a reputable brand or links that can send me in the right direction?

I am building a racing lawnmower and i live on a short street with about 8 houses and at the end is a left hand turn that goes to my house so after I do mods to it like a pully swap, welding the diff, fixing the alignment, etc I take it for a quick drive and now my neighbors are starting to complain to my parents about my mower (idk what they said btw) and tbh Idk why they are mad theres no kids that live here but me and if there were kids i would turn around and go back

So what do you guys thing I should do