I have a JS46 John Deere walk behind mower, which is made by Murray, and that is beginning to show. It's not the quality I've come to expect from John Deere.
It is a little reluctant to start when cold. It's damned near impossible to start once the engine is hot. Once hot, if shut off, trying to start it with either the electric start or the pull start yields the same results. It's firing, but all I get is pffft pffft pffft pfffft, and it never quite starts building up speed. It almost, almost, almost wants to run, but not quite. It also occasionally backfires. Once it finally does start, it takes it forever to build up to normal operating speed. Once it does, it runs fine, and has as much power as ever. Shut it off, and I'm screwed.
The last time I had trouble, the flywheel key was sheared. I replaced that, and it has been fine for months thereafter. I checked, and the key is not sheared now.
And I don't know if this is related, but the exhaust is suddenly much louder than I remember. The muffler is tight, and I don't see any signs of the head gasket leaking. I serviced it just a few hours ago - run time hours, that is. It has a fresh spark plug, fresh fuel, and a clean air filter. The oil and filter was also changed, not that that matters in this case.
I hope someone has seen this issue before and knows what's wrong. Any ideas???
Thanks...
It is a little reluctant to start when cold. It's damned near impossible to start once the engine is hot. Once hot, if shut off, trying to start it with either the electric start or the pull start yields the same results. It's firing, but all I get is pffft pffft pffft pfffft, and it never quite starts building up speed. It almost, almost, almost wants to run, but not quite. It also occasionally backfires. Once it finally does start, it takes it forever to build up to normal operating speed. Once it does, it runs fine, and has as much power as ever. Shut it off, and I'm screwed.
The last time I had trouble, the flywheel key was sheared. I replaced that, and it has been fine for months thereafter. I checked, and the key is not sheared now.
And I don't know if this is related, but the exhaust is suddenly much louder than I remember. The muffler is tight, and I don't see any signs of the head gasket leaking. I serviced it just a few hours ago - run time hours, that is. It has a fresh spark plug, fresh fuel, and a clean air filter. The oil and filter was also changed, not that that matters in this case.
I hope someone has seen this issue before and knows what's wrong. Any ideas???
Thanks...