re: Diesel mechanic help with lawnmower sounding like it’s starving for fuel when in a bind.

quote:

---

Just replace the carb while you’re at it. It’s fairly cheap and easy


This is going about how I expected to be honest.

---

Can you turn your blades by hand? Are they too tight against the bed knife. Please don’t smash your fingers. Do your rollers move freely?

Does it do this when you first start it or after it has ran for awhile? That model is notorious for having a clogged fuel cap vent. That would only normally show up after running for a little bit. You could remove the cap while it is running just to check though.

Put a load on it by driving up a hill or pulling your truck down the driveway.

If it doesn't bog down, there's something binding up between the engine and the blades.

If it does bog down, it's fuel related as others have stayed.

It’s definitely fuel related. I drove it next door to park it out of the weather and it was like it was in low throttle but trying to move wide open if you understand what I’m saying. The throttle wouldn’t give me enough to get rpms up but could still go about 3-4 mph. Causing it to almost die because the fuel was not available. May be fuel lines collapsed

Tonight I noticed some black smoke coming out of exhaust. Does this sound like it could be clogged injectors or injector pump? It’s a 2005 model and has only 1100 hours on it. Could it be that it has carbon build up? Just hoping the engine isn’t going bad.

find where the lift pump is. Take the outlet line off and then crank the engine. Fuel should shoot out of the pump. IDK on JD's but on a Detroit Diesel 60 motor its around 50 PSI which makes it shoot all the way to the back of the truck. If it doesn't shoot out you know the problem is either the pump or from the fuel tanks to the pump. If it does shoot out you know its between the pump and injectors. Good Luck.

Black smoke is too rich of a fuel mixture. Not enough air or too much fuel, usually caused by a leaking injector.

Diesel fuel absorbs water easily. It may have become contaminated. Try known fresh diesel fuel.

Verify you have good fuel flow to the injector pump.
Grab a wrench and bleed the injectors, there's lots of tutorials online if needed. It's really easy to do.

Look at what's coming out each injector when you bleed it.
Air- keep it open until fuel starts coming out without air bubbles.
Nothing- injector pump issue
Fuel- the injector pump is working properly. Could be the injector or something in the engine.
White liquid- water contamination. I've had this happen a few times and had to use a polar solvent to like isopropyl alcohol to flush out the water contamination from the injector pump before it would run right. Be sure to disconnect the lines if you have to flush it and re-prime with diesel before reconnecting. You don't want much alcohol finding its way to the combustion chamber.