I'm starting to run out of things to test. I bought this at an auction because it ran, but assumed I'd need to put work into it. After getting it home I found that it would run for 10-20 minutes and then shut down. Took it to the local dealer expecting them to find and fix the problem. Long story short, they sent it back to me knowing that it wasn't working and charged me $900 anyway. I think they assumed that I didn't want to spend the money on a new fuel solenoid and TDM, which they determined were the problem. In the mean time, I have learned a lot about diesel engines and lawn mowers in general to try to repair this myself. I've even had a diesel mechanic come look at it for me. Still can't figure out what the issue could be. Here's what we've ruled out:
-TDM (replaced)
-Fuel solenoid (replaced)
-Fuel pump (tested)
-Alternator/Battery (both tested)
-Water pump (tested)
When I turn the key, the solenoid does not click, however, if I manually push it in, it will stay in until I touch the pedal to go forward. Then the solenoid closes and the machine shuts down. What is strange is that I can manually keep the solenoid open with a bungee cord and the machine will run for 10 minutes, but then loses power for 10-20 seconds before it then shuts off. After that, I need to wait 20 minutes before I can start it again. For what it's worth, the electrical system has been jerry rigged in all kinds of ways by the previous owner. I think that has something to do with it, but I can't figure out why it runs for a while and then shuts down even with the solenoid wide open.
Other than what I've learned over the past couple months, I have no mechanical acumen, so if anything above doesn't make sense or if I'm missing key information, please let me know. But if anybody has any other ideas for things that I can try, I would be all ears. Thanks in advance!
-TDM (replaced)
-Fuel solenoid (replaced)
-Fuel pump (tested)
-Alternator/Battery (both tested)
-Water pump (tested)
When I turn the key, the solenoid does not click, however, if I manually push it in, it will stay in until I touch the pedal to go forward. Then the solenoid closes and the machine shuts down. What is strange is that I can manually keep the solenoid open with a bungee cord and the machine will run for 10 minutes, but then loses power for 10-20 seconds before it then shuts off. After that, I need to wait 20 minutes before I can start it again. For what it's worth, the electrical system has been jerry rigged in all kinds of ways by the previous owner. I think that has something to do with it, but I can't figure out why it runs for a while and then shuts down even with the solenoid wide open.
Other than what I've learned over the past couple months, I have no mechanical acumen, so if anything above doesn't make sense or if I'm missing key information, please let me know. But if anybody has any other ideas for things that I can try, I would be all ears. Thanks in advance!