In case you're unaware, the blades are measured diagonally. That's why you can have 63" on 60 " deck. Also, sloing down your mower speed can sometimes get rid of those stripes. The first thing I would check is belt tensioner(2)
Was this perhaps your first mow of the season? Or, had you just added fuel that has been sitting for awhile. You might have some water in the tank, check with a turkey baster, just not the one that your wife uses.
Yeah, my point was that a response from the OP would be helpful. Star Tech spent time and work providing answers, knowing if they worked or not could be very helpful.
You just diagnosed the problem yourself. If you put gas or starting fluid in the carb and it runs for a few seconds, the carb is plugged. Take it off and clean or replace it. The problem can not be anything else.
As long as you're spinning it up in the dark, reinstall the plug and see if you see any spark when you turn it over. I've seen automotive plugs with internal shorts under compression that allow the spark to jump to the engine head, bypassing the cylinder.
Sta-bil claims that a bottle kept beyond it's shelf life will not hurt anything, it will just be less effective. Also, it should be noted that a full system won condense and an empty system won't condense, you don't want to store equipment between those extremes without using a fuel stabilizer.
This isn't so much a JD question as an on-line seller question. I saw this on a website called alll2digit.com and I want to know if anyone has used this company and could they possibly be legit?
Z315E
Z315E 42 in. 20 HP GAS Dual Hydrostatic Zero-Turn Riding Mower BG21296...
I believe your son hit something and caused the flywheel key to break, the engine turning over out of time caused the push rods to bend. It's not the eng of the world, but hopefully that's the extent of the problem. Check youtube for some how-to videos. You can use a soft faced mallet to tap on...
First check your flywheel key, before spending time on anything else. I would suggest that you just go ahead and change the key in case it's cracked or something and you can't see it. That key controls the engine timing.
I have cut those "haloes off, then cut a straight groove in the top of the adjustment screws and used a straight screw driver to adjust. Works like a charm.
I'm not going to go look for the model number, but I bought my Toro walk-behind used about twelve years ago. I've never had a lick of problem with it, never even had to give it a second pull. If I could figure out how to keep the gas cap from falling off it would be the perfect machine. By the...
You have described the sounds of a typical solenoid failure. The click is the solenoid trying to work, the whine is the starter turning without being engaged to the flywheel by the solenoid.
This statement jumped out at me: "lowered the fuel line to let the filter fill and connected it back to the carb". Are you certain that your fuel line isn't routed such that it's higher than your tank level?
Somebody mentioned above that you need air, gas, compression and spark to run your engine. That's true, but these things all need to be timed, too. Check your timing on the flywheel and gap the coil.
Remove all of your outlet and light switch covers, put boric acid inside the walls as much as possible. Good Luck. Before moving into my house I had to do this. The day after treating the walls I found hundreds of dead roaches in the pool.
I think you have a very small (for now) crack in your plug insulator(s). Everything is fine until the plug grows enough from heat to open that crack and cause the spark to jump out of the insulator to ground. I've seen this happen with automotive plugs many times.