John Deere D160 Won't crank/ Dies when i engage mower

jd160

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  • / John Deere D160 Won't crank/ Dies when i engage mower
I recently bought this mower with 55 hours on it. Started fine and mower engaged fine until i serviced it yesterday. Changed the oil and greased it. Mower spindles looked like it had been a long time since greased if ever so i put about 15 pumps in them. [Maybe too much?] Anyway, it started up fine, i let it warm up good. I went to engage the mower and it killed the motor. After that it would not crank. I eliminated possible seat and clutch switch problem,it's not there. Ignition switch is powering through. Fuse is good and gets power. The starter solenoid is not getting power to energize it. I did get it running by hot wiring the solenoid. When i rev it up and engage the mower the blades start to turn but it kills the motor. Any ideas to a newbe. Thanks.
 

tom3

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  • / John Deere D160 Won't crank/ Dies when i engage mower
I wonder if those spindle bearings are double sealed, grease impacted the seals into the actual bearing? Can you turn the blades by hand (motor off, PTO off?
 

bertsmobile1

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  • / John Deere D160 Won't crank/ Dies when i engage mower
Not cranking is an electrical problem.
Did you turn the PTO switch off after it stalled out the first time ? we have all done, some more times than others ?
Next take off the deck belt and then engage the PTO.
If the engine dies then again you have an electrical problem , if not it is mechanical in the deck .
 

jd160

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  • / John Deere D160 Won't crank/ Dies when i engage mower
I turned the outside blade by hand but i will check the other blades. It's not the PTO switch. It does kick in and out. I did try engaging it several times on and off to try to get the blades spinning and every time i engage it, it wants to kill the motor. I will remove the mower belt tomorrow and see if it stays running. [ I think it will because when i engage the mower it really pulls the motor down.] I wonder if i put too much grease in the spindles that would make too much drag to get the blades spinning . I still will have the electrical issue, wonder if it could be somewhere in the mower clutch system.
 

Rivets

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  • / John Deere D160 Won't crank/ Dies when i engage mower
I have had that problem caused by the lose of one cylinder. Many people cannot tell if an engine is running on one or two cylinders. If it is only running on one cylinder, it will not have enough power to properly engage the clutch.
 

jd160

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  • / John Deere D160 Won't crank/ Dies when i engage mower
Well that was good advice. I took the mower belt off the clutch pulley, started it again by hot wire. When i pull the knob to engage the clutch it dies. When i just turn the key to on and push and pull the clutch, i can see the clutch working. So, it is electrical, have to see what i can find. I did clean a lot of debris from that area when i serviced it, apparently i screwed something up.
 

jd160

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  • / John Deere D160 Won't crank/ Dies when i engage mower
Went out to look it over again. All wiring looks good, to the mower clutch also. I took several wire connections apart to check for corrosion, all seemed good. Put everything back together, still will not start unless i hot wire it. I pushed it back to it's spot in the garage. Tried it one more time and it started on it's own, mower kicks in and runs fine. Engaged the mower several times and it worked great. Shut it off and now won't start on it's own again. Gotta be something in that clutch circuit i'm thinking. I think i may go see if i can find some electrical contact cleaner to clean all the connections. Any suggestions are appreciated.
 

PTmowerMech

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  • / John Deere D160 Won't crank/ Dies when i engage mower
Did you check your ground connections? Sounds a little like short somewhere. Does fine one time, then won't do it the next.

Safety switching, IIRC, either work or they don't. Unless there's a short in it.
 

jd160

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  • / John Deere D160 Won't crank/ Dies when i engage mower
Good point on the ground connection's. I'll do that along with cleaning the connectors.
 

bertsmobile1

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  • / John Deere D160 Won't crank/ Dies when i engage mower
Because I get these sorts of things all the time I made a set of bypass patch wires.
Short ones to make the switch connections and longer ones to span the space between switchs.
Start by pulling the plugs on each switch, one at a time and use the patch wires to make the switch's normal connections
Before you start, pull the key switch plug & jump the B & S + the M & G wires .
Thus when you find the problem the engine will crank but not start
Because mowers vibrate a lot it is quite common to find a wire that is broken just where it is crimped so you get a works / won't work situation just like you have, but a worn out switch will appear the same.
 
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