John Deere 320 lawn tractor has loss of power

[nate81]

Check to see if throttle cable has slipped or governor spring has broke.

Take your hand and open the throttle linkage by hand and see if it revs then.
It may be running on 1 cylinder if I had it in my shop I bet I could find the problem in a few minutes just can't decide what is going on from the description.

exactly! I dont have a truck or trailer, and to have this mower moved would cost so much, and then labor...for someone to fix it in a matter of minutes.....i'm very confident this is a simple 5 minute fix!! I'm hoping I can get off of work a little early today and go poke around on it this afternoon, i'll let you guys know what happened if i can!

 

[nate81]

ok, well the mower is fine now....this is what i did....

changed oil and filter.
changed fuel filter.
cleaned air filters.
cleaned mower deck off grass.
removed spark plugs and adjusted gap to correct spacing.
and voila...its fine...i have no clue what was wrong or how i fixed it, but i just managed to cut an entire acre flawlessly.

Thank you for the help black bart and reddragon!!! it is appreciated!

happy mowing!

 

[reddragon]

things that fix themselves scare me.....i dont know if its good or bad.....but its great that your back in action :thumbsup:

 

[nate81]

It had to have been one of the things I did to it...i suppose had i done each repair individually and started it up, i would have figured out which one was the problem. But since i had it all apart and it only took a few minutes i just did all of it at once and when i turned it over, it ran at low rpms...and then suddenly kicked into high gear, i could actually hear the point where the mower got back to full revs.

I figure it was either the plug gap, or the oil change that did it.

 

[Black Bart]

It had to have been one of the things I did to it...i suppose had i done each repair individually and started it up, i would have figured out which one was the problem. But since i had it all apart and it only took a few minutes i just did all of it at once and when i turned it over, it ran at low rpms...and then suddenly kicked into high gear, i could actually hear the point where the mower got back to full revs.

I figure it was either the plug gap, or the oil change that did it.

Only way what you did could have made such a big change is if the plug was bridged with carbon.

IT may have been and it was very small and you did not see it and knocked it out when you gapped the plug.

I would sooner thing it just happened to open the throttle and your problem will return again.

 

[nate81]

Only way what you did could have made such a big change is if the plug was bridged with carbon.

IT may have been and it was very small and you did not see it and knocked it out when you gapped the plug.

I would sooner thing it just happened to open the throttle and your problem will return again.

I hope you're wrong! lol....i'll write back after a few weeks of mowing and keep you updated, thanks agian!

I also forgot to mention the mower just yesterday hit 500 hours....the mower is probably 20 years old?? google was telling me they made this model in the early 90s...is 500 hours good? bad? whats average? how long do mowers last? i havent the slightest!

 

[walter mullen]

I bought the gas at some old country store in the middle of nowhere, i wonder if it could be cheap gas? is it worth it to drain it all out, (full tank) and dispose of it and get new gas from elsewhere?

yes i would do that i use only high test gas at my shop laast 6 years

 

[nate81]

soooo...the problem came back a week later....same loss of power...i was really really dissaopinted....this thing is tuned up! So, i siphoned out all of the gas, drove the extra few miles and got exxon brand gasoline supreme ....and voila...full power, full rpms. I guess i will be using supreme gas in my mower from now on

 

[Black Bart]

soooo...the problem came back a week later....same loss of power...i was really really dissaopinted....this thing is tuned up! So, i siphoned out all of the gas, drove the extra few miles and got exxon brand gasoline supreme ....and voila...full power, full rpms. I guess i will be using supreme gas in my mower from now on

Fresh gas is good but you don't need premium in fact it will probably run better on 87 octane.

Mower engines are low compression and putting premium in them is like throwing beef steak to the hogs total waste of money.

 

[reddragon]

i agree with Black bart.....87 is fine....my 10 to 1 motorcycles can run on 87 too....high octane is NOT more powerful....it just combusts at higher compression!....thats it.....save your money :thumbsup: