Hello all. I have a Swisher ZT1436 Zero turn. It's old, but I've kept it up pretty well. Has ALWAYS started with full choke right away, then I take choke off immediately, and she runs like a champ. A few weeks ago, I ran the back in to a good size hole, and she started smoking badly, burned the blade belt up badly. I guess the blade was jammed against the wall of the hole. Anyways, I changed the belt, and since then, the mower has been giving a LOT of trouble. First, it just died mid mow and would not start. Newer battery and starter solenoid. Figured it was maybe a safety switch, but after messing around, got it started, but ran very rough. Took to my shop, and went through everything. New plug, oil, filter, air filters. Thought maybe stale gas, so cleaned out tank, replaced fuel filter and all fuel lines. Cleaned carb, and choke, etc. was working properly. Now, it falls flat as soon as I start. While it is dying, I can turn the key to kick it back on for a few seconds, then starts to die again until I bump the key again. This continues until the engine is warm enough, then it will start and runs great once warm. No stalls, no smoke, nothing. I can turn it off and it fires right back up. Sounds like a choke issue, but I verified the choke plate is closing off when engaged. I can't figure this out and it is very frustrating. Today while on the side of a small hill, it puffed a large plume of white smoke, and smelled like a belt. I disengaged blades, and it ran fine Engaged blades again with no problems. I'm thinking when I was in the hole that maybe the transaxle belt burned up partially. Would this belt have anything to do with the hard starts? It's too hot right now to check out the belt, but I did order a new one. I wouldn't think this was my issue though. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance.
