17.5hp Kawasaki in John Deere F710 hard starting and back firing

[ljms]

I have a John Deere F710 with the Kawasaki 17.5 hp engine. I bought it used in 1995, very low hours then. Just recently in the last 3 weeks it's been acting up. After starting and running for a while, and then shutting down for a few minutes it is not re-start. It cranks and cranks and sometimes backfires. Occasionally it will start up after cranking and cranking on it but usually have to let it cool down a while. It's been a good machine all these years but I do recall a few years back something similar occurred and I replaced a small module of some sort that bolts onto the side of the engine. My question is does anybody know if this sounds familiar and do you know the name of this module? I've been searching the web for it or something like it but all the engine parts diagrams don't seem to list anything that I can see like that. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks
LaVern

 

[Scrubcadet10]

with the engine being that old, I would start with checking your valve clearance.
It maybe a Igniter module you mentioned, it's basically an electronic points set.

Did it look like this?

 

[ljms]

I think it does look like that maybe an inch or inch and a quarter at the widest dimension. I'll have something by name to look for now. Thanks.
LaVern

 

[slomo]

Inline spark tester.
Remove fuel line where it enters the carb. Make sure you have good fuel flow to the car-bu-trator.
Clean the carb or replace it.
Set valves to proper clearance.
Clean all the oil, dirt, grass and bugs from the engine cooling fins.

slomo

 

[ljms]

Inline spark tester.
Remove fuel line where it enters the carb. Make sure you have good fuel flow to the car-bu-trator.
Clean the carb or replace it.
Set valves to proper clearance.
Clean all the oil, dirt, grass and bugs from the engine cooling fins.

slomo

Thanks for more information and the suggestions. I've got a busy day infront of me today so I'll be using this information over the weekend.
LaVern