John Deere L130 kills when brake is released.

Hello everyone,

I am new here. Learned about your forum while looking for help with a couple of lawn tractor issues. My primary grass cutter at our rural property is an old IH Cub/Farmall tractor that we rebuilt a couple of times. Rescued it from one of our epic floods down here in the Louisiana swampland. Had a few lingering electrical issues, but we finally installed electronic ignition and it runs very well now. That one is good for now.

The issue of the day is I also have a John Deere L130 with auto that was running pretty well, but suddenly ran poorly and then stopped. I cleaned out minor debris from the blade area and let it set for a while before trying again. It would start and run poorly but die when I would release the brake pedal. After looking at the manual, I did an oil change, installed new plugs, new air cleaner and fresh gas. Have a new fuel filter, but not yet installed. Tried to start again and it will start and run well but will kill right when I release the brake before I can get it to roll more than a few inches in forward or reverse. It starts easily and sounds strong but only kills when I try to let off of the brake. My thinking is that most of the safety switches such as the seat and blade engagement can be ruled out as being before that part of the electrical chain. Any thoughts on what the issue might be?

I have to say that the John Deere electrical system has been such a major pain that I would almost prefer to rewire the whole tractor and eliminate all of these switches. They are expensive and totally unreliable. I can do without some "Progress" in my life!

Thanks in advance,

RT

Oops - sorry to have placed this here. Was intended for the John Deere forum. New to this forum and goofed.

Nope I don't think it's a switch issue...... I think you are running one only 1 cylinder.......

If you got flooded out 2 times in 2 years then you are in my area..... Or you around East Baton Rouge area..... August was the major flood when we had 40 inches of rain in a 36 hour time frame here in the Eunice area.....

Plus the next year we had another deluge of it that was almost the same, but more in my area and not around the BR area....

Let us know Mon Ami ~!~!

check the clutch/brake safety switch. There are instructions on bypassing on youtube, most on this site dont approve of bypassing safety switches so i wont post them. The switches are not nearly as expensive as a ER visit.

Boudreaux In Eunice La. said:

Nope I don't think it's a switch issue...... I think you are running one only 1 cylinder.......

If you got flooded out 2 times in 2 years then you are in my area..... Or you around East Baton Rouge area..... August was the major flood when we had 40 inches of rain in a 36 hour time frame here in the Eunice area.....

Plus the next year we had another deluge of it that was almost the same, but more in my area and not around the BR area....

Let us know Mon Ami ~!~!

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Well - we are east of your area. I did work in EBR for many years, but moved long ago. Are now spread out from just east of Hammond to Bay St Louis, but I actually live North of Covington.
We get flooded at times at some properties, but not our homes. Spent time helping people in Baton Rouge and Denham Springs after the floods that got them so badly. Reminded me of Katrina relief efforts. Our issue was minor by comparison. Just lost some furniture and had to de-flood the Cub/Farmall. Hope you did okay as well. Y'all got hit pretty badly too.

As to this John Deere, it sounds pretty strong for running on one cylinder, but I guess this is possible. I replaced the plugs and the gaps all looked the same as the ones that I removed. The wires looked good. I guess I will check for spark at both cylinders.

RT

After a long series of diagnostic measures and repair efforts, the primary problem is resolved. The seat safety switch was loose and causing the stoppage. Not sure why this caused it to stop when the brake was released, but it did. I will not burden the forum with details of the work-around out of deference to the liability-averse among the audience. The mower is now functioning quite well.

Now I need to dismount the belly assembly and change out the worn and damaged blades. Will look at all bearings while apart - it is a bit loud. Will likely assault this tomorrow - had enough fun in the sun for today. Besides, it is about to rain. (the real reason is that I need to work on an enclosed trailer to haul a Harley to the shop. It needs the chock installed and that job is in the shade...)

Thanks for all of the info and advice!

RT

Because the engine was running and the clutch was out, but the mower thought nobody was in the drivers seat.

ILENGINE said:

Because the engine was running and the clutch was out, but the mower thought nobody was in the drivers seat.

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So the seat safety switch only stops the engine when the brake is released rather than at all times? I thought it was designed to shut it down anytime. That factoid would have saved me some diagnostic time - hopefully will help someone else some time who reads this.

But all is well. The tractor is running and tucked away in the garage.

RT

Rabby Tat said:

So the seat safety switch only stops the engine when the brake is released rather than at all times? I thought it was designed to shut it down anytime. That factoid would have saved me some diagnostic time - hopefully will help someone else some time who reads this.

But all is well. The tractor is running and tucked away in the garage.

RT

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There are normally three safety switches on the mower. Seat, Clutch, and Pto. On most mowers the safety system consist of two systems. A 12v system for starting which included the clutch/brake and pto. the safety kill system consist of the seat, pto and clutch/brake. When you are on the seat and engage the pto or let out the brake it allows the ground from the ignition system to go through the system, but the seat switch terminates the ground therefore no engine kill. It would of killed the engine if you had tried to engage the blades even with the clutch/brake pushed in also.

I have no idea why I was stuck on thinking you saying Blades instead of Brake...... I reread the post and seen where you were cleaning debris from the deck pulleys and such........