I have a Craftsman Pro Series garden tractor, with 54" deck and 27 hp Kohler Courage motor, that is 4 years old. I am a stickler for maintenace ,so this thing is still like new. Just FYI ,I hate it. Worst weight distribution and center of gravity ,mower Ive ever owned. Its a backup for certain places ,to my Gravely zero turn. Yesterday while mowing up hill, it shut off. Would not start , but sputtered as if it wanted to. I pushed it down to flat ground , it started , I mowed flat ground 15 minutes , started up the hill ,it shut off at top of hill, pushed it around to point down hill, it started, mowed 15 minutes, tried up hill again, same thing. So I got it to the shop, and bypassed the fuel filter. Mowed 20 minutes, no problem on flat groumd, went up hill ,half way up it shut off. pushed it to point down hill, started it , and parked it in the shop. The gas tank is gravity feed to fuel filter, then back up to fuel pump, so my best guess is the fuel pump is bad. Any ideas? Jim
How old is the gas in it? The ethanol crap we are forced to run is causing havoc on all our non-computerized engines in So-Cal. It gums up the carbs and we need to run the ethanol treatment 100% of the time.
We dont have ethanol in west Ky, and this like the 4or 5th tank this year, always fresh. It will mow in heavy grass all day on flat terrain. Jim
When we go to TN, thats what they have, its cheaper, but I always try to fill up at home before I go, I do not get as good mileage with ethanol. Jim
Does it have a kill switch in the seat that shuts it down if you get off it with the blade still engaged? Maybe it has worked itself loose, needs adjustment, or is wore out. You might lean forward a bit when headed up hill and taking a lot of your weight off the seat
Good thought, but I had to bypass that switch when it was new, its permanent. This thing is so bad off center of gravity, I had no choice, because you had to constantly use your body as counter weight ,slightly leaning out of the seat. I did check it though, just to make sure. If you lock the parking brake and are not on seat, it will start, except when it shuts down going up hill. I am going to remove fuel line going to carb, and crank it to see if its pumping sitting level, then raise the front with hoist and see if it stops pumping. What do ya think? Jim
I had a snowblower once that did the same thing. The bowl below the carb has a finely tuned needle adjustment that if not set properly,will shut the gas supply off when on an angle,or in your case(and mine) a hill.I pulled my friggin hair out till it was explained to me by a small engine mech. I was able to buy parts and replace it myself too. hope this helps.
Its commonly called a needle float if memory serves. The thing would run all day long at the top of my driveway! About a quarter way downhill,it would shut down.
check the manual about fuel float level. if not set to spec could be flooding itself out going up hill. ( float level too high allowing more gas than needed into the carb bowl)this would be noticeable if you see fuel in the air cleaner as it world run out of the air intake sideof the carb. if the float level was set too low ( not enough fuel in bowl ) the carb would run out of gas but it would take much longer to stall. you can check you tube videos for setting float level. no tools just bend a tab till float is horizontal w the gasket surface of the carb bowl.
Does it have a tip over switch. Goldwings have 1 called a bank switch. Shuts the engine off if the bike leans enough to be crashing. They go bad sometimes and have to be bypassed or replaced. I bypassed mine before it went bad.
Followup ,,, I checked the fuel pump output, it is good. Removed fuel line from carb and cranked engine, plenty pressure there. There is no low oil sensor. I removed the fuel line going to top of tank ,blew some air into tank, blew out the vents on gas cap. Mowed up and down the hill for over an hour, no problem. I dunno, its working. I just noticed also, that there is never any gas sitting in the fuel filter, thats odd to me,but heck its running better than ever. Thanks for all the tips,guys. Jim
Iinspected that visually and could not see anything. It is a rubber cup ,with 3 little holes ,about .050" in dia, and the whole cup is flexible. So I blew it out real good with pressure ,along with the dip tube that goes into top of gas tank , Im thinking that diptube probably has a filter on it , If this problem comes back, Imay need to remove tank and cleanit out. I still dont understand ,why it only shut down going up a steep hill. Jim
Well, I reckon if someone made me carry a sit-down lawn mower on my back, up a steep hill, I'd shut down as well!
Mine is boggling my brain now too. (Briggs push mower) Starts and runs fine. Gets hot runs fine. Shut it down and try to restart while it's hot...won't start. Let it cool down, starts fine. Oh well...my boss sold me a like-new lawn boy for $50 that is the best mower I've ever had. 2-4"narrower deck but still mows my yards faster than the old one. Sent from my PH44100 using Tapatalk 4 Beta
