2004 cub cadet 18.5 42'' cut

[jtm53]

I have a cub cadet 18.5 hp. 42in. cut that has 900 hrs. and it has been a great mower. Last year I replaced the pto clutch and it ran good last season and now when you engage the clutch the engine boggs down, backfires and loses power. Anyone have any ideas on this problem? Thanks jtm

 

[cpurvis]

Probably a carburetor problem.

Have you tried closing, then quickly opening the choke when you engage the PTO? This is a hack, not a fix, but usually will eliminate the bogging down if it's a carb problem (low speed circuit dirty).

 

[bertsmobile1]

When you engage the blades you put a heavy load on both the electrical system and the engine.
Thus the governor allows the throttle to open fully.

So start the engine then go around and open the throttle manually by pushing the governor.
If the engine does the same thing it is time to clean out the fuel system, from the tank to the inlet valve.

If it accelerates smoothly then you have an electrical fault .
Either there is a short in the PTO circuit or a break in the charging circuit.
The voltage drop causes the fuel solenoid to shut off of flutter

 

[cruzenmike]

You can also get the battery checked and check the charging system to ensure that both are putting out the correct voltage. My mower would bog down and die when I would engage the PTO at half throttle (which is the correct practice for my machine). Come to find out the engine was running 400rpm too low at full throttle and my voltage regulator was bad. For about $50 I had both problems fixed. It sounds like you have gotten a lot of use out of your machine. . . .

 

[jtm53]

Thanks everyone for the input on my mower problem. I opened the governor and it continued to back fire and stall so I checked the fuel lines and fuel pump everything seemed o.k. Next I checked voltage and was good but I had corrosion on terminals and battery so I cleaned that real good. I started the mower again same problem. I wiggled wires, checked connections and looked behind dash and decided to unplug the pto switch and there was come corrosion on plug I cleaned that and lubricated it and decided to try it again and engaged the pto no backfire, no stall, the mower engaged perfectly. I don't know for sure what I did to correct it but it seems to be working fine as I cut 1/2 acre grass later. I bought this new in 04 and it has been well maintained with oil changes every 25 hr. Maybe it will last another 900 hrs. Thanks to all who took out the time to respond to my problem. Thanks,JTM

 

[bertsmobile1]

Glad to hear it.
Wait till it gets a bit hotter.
Buy a small tube of di-electric grease, also called contact grease.
Get a tooth brush sized wire brush.
pull the plugs from the back of all of the switches, give the terminals a little rub followed by a heavy dab of grease, work it through the plug so it coes out the wire side then push the plug back on the switch
Do the same for the connectors near the engine.
If one switch has ended up with a corrosion short the others wont be far behind.

 

[jtm53]

Thanks for that info my friend and if this happens again I will certainly keep that in mind. Thanks again Mate!

 

[BlazNT]

Bert here in the US we have a pressured can that injects it slow or fast for you. I love it. I use electral contact cleaner then di-electric grease. I use 2 cans of it a year at least.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Bert here in the US we have a pressured can that injects it slow or fast for you. I love it. I use electral contact cleaner then di-electric grease. I use 2 cans of it a year at least.
View attachment 36527

Yeah, you buggers get to pay with all the good toys.
I am not a big fan of contact cleaner and even less so now it has been freformulated to be "enviromentally Friendly" so you need to use a whole can to do what a 2 sec burst of the real stuff used to do.