older john deere commercial walk behind no spark

77shovelhead

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I am trying to get an old john deere walk behind running. It is not getting fire to the plug. This rig belongs to a friend of mine and he ran it last year and parked it in the shed. This year it will not start. I have done some searching on the net and it seems that the igniter is the most common cause of no spark.

I pulled the plug wire from the spark plug and with a screwdriver in the wire, held it to ground and no spark.

I have removed the engine shroud checking for mouse nest, chewed or bare wires, checked the coil gap (.012), removed the rust off of the flywheel and bypassed all the safety switches by disconnecting the white wire from the coil.

To replace the igniter, I need a model number. There is a number plate on the frame (SERIAL# *MO17PDX116040* with 17HP below), deck (SERIAL# *MO48CMX116841* with 48 COM MOW below) and engine cover (CODE # FC540V-BS01) but the SERIAL # is rubbed off. The john deere dealer says that none of them are good enough to identify the mower.

I did find specs for ohm checking the coil and igniter, but I don't know if it is for this mower, and my multimeter doesn't have rx10 setting.

Does anyone have knowledge of this mower? I need to test the igniter and the coil but I can't find enought info on this thing.


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77shovelhead

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I pestered the JD dealer enough to find out that this mower has a 17 hp motor and was manufactured in the late 70's early 80's. But he couldn't find the model of the mower.

I replaced the igniter/control unit. No fire. Replaced the coil and set the gap at .011. Now the engine runs sometimes and sometimes not. I installed jumper wires bypassing all saftey switches and neutral switch. No change, sometimes it runs and sometimes not. I can turn the key to start and it will not fire up, then turn the key off and back to start and it might fire up. Sometimes it will start 3 or 4 times and then not start.

Any thoughts or experence with this old JD?

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KennyV

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The age would have little to do with it... I have an IH that is over 50 years old, runs like a new one...
All you need to make any gas engine run is ... Fuel spark and air, all happening at the approperate time and in the correct amount.
What make is the engine? John Deere did NOT make the engine...
I would guess it is most likely a Kawasaki engine. KennyV
 

77shovelhead

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The age would have little to do with it... I have an IH that is over 50 years old, runs like a new one...
All you need to make any gas engine run is ... Fuel spark and air, all happening at the approperate time and in the correct amount.
What make is the engine? John Deere did NOT make the engine...
I would guess it is most likely a Kawasaki engine. KennyV

This has a Kawasaki engine.

Got it running. The coil or the igniter was bad. I couldn't test either so I replaced both. This solved the no fire at the plug issue.
Adjusted the shift linkage, that I thought I had bypassed, because the shifter was moving in and out of neutral and this solved the intermittent starting.

Thanks for the reply Kenny
 
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