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John deere L120 problem. Need help?
It's kinda hard to make this short, don't really want to leave anything out. I have a john deere L120 riding lawn mower. It has the briggs Intek V-twin engine with DOHV's. It's about 10 years old roughly. The other day I left it on a bit of a slope (sideways), for awhile. When I got back on and started it up, it was smoking like keith richards. I kind of expected that. The next day I started it back up, and it just really didn't sound right, like it had a touch of a sputter in the idle. I figured since i'd be investigating the issue I went to Lowe's;
I changed the fuel filter, the oil and oil filter, air filter and spark plugs. It started right up but didn't seem to have as high as an idle as it normally does when I open the throttle all the way. I proceded to drive it around and it's running at about half the power as it normally does. It didn't really have enough power to cut the grass when I engaged the PTO.
The one curious thing I discovered is that even with the new plugs, the right cylinder plug is black as night (I just ran it a total of about 5 minutes with the new plugs).
I checked the throttle, choke, and governor linkages and they appear to be doing their jobs, so I don't think I have a slipped cable and the throttle isn't opening enough. Why is the right cylinder flooding the plug. It is smoking still, but not near as bad.
If anyone can help me out, i'd appreciate it. I'm not a beginner, and definitely not an expert. I have a service manual, it tells you how to do anything to the tractor, but not the WHY. No real troubleshooting advice given. and again, any advice will be appreciated. Sorry so daggone long
i want to say the plug was more on the greasy side. i just cleaned it up and put the plug back in and of course a few minutes later came out the same way again. The smoke was grayish. The plug being greasy or dry is a guess really. My neighbor looked at it and he is very good at this sort of thing with one exception, if the machine doesn't have points he doesn't really know. Meaning the newer the models, he doesn't really know much about. He seemed to think it was too rich after playing around with it. hope that helps, thanks for the replies. I appreciate it
i knew this was the way to go, there's always people on here that know their stuff. a lot of great answers. renpen, i'd hoped you would answer, you definitely know carbs. i've voted for a lot of your answers. it would be really hard to pick a best answer, because i don't even know who's right yet. i took the carb off, it's never been removed. not bad for a ten year mower. but i think it's time to clean it out anyhow. I think the problem mainly lies in either the coil, or with what hondu suggested. i will find out soon. thanks for all the great answers, really helped out a lot
10 Answers
- DSM HandymanLv 59 years agoFavorite Answer
NOT too long, you did great. Was the smoke gray or black? It makes a huge difference.
Is the black plug dry and fluffy or is it a bit greasy? Also makes a huge difference.
Trying to determine if it is too rich or oil in cylinder.
Additional: greasy plug plus gray smoke means burning oil. Dry plug and black smoke would have meant running rich. VERY unlikely to have different air/fuel ratio in the two cylinders if there is a carb. Is there one coil or two? If one, it can't be the problem because only one cylinder has the problem.
You could try running it with only one plug wire connected. Short the other to the engine, do NOT try to hold it with your hands. Obviously, it will run very poorly, but does it smoke when running only on the good cylinder? That should tell you a lot.
- HonduLv 79 years ago
When the machine was sitting on the slope which side was on the down hill side? If it was the right side and the slope was steep enough that crankcase oil could seep past the piston rings it may take several spark plug cleanings and more than five minutes of running to burn that oil out. Pull both plugs and spin the engine over for a minute or two to blow any excess oil out of that combustion chamber, clean and dry the oily plug once more, install both plugs and see what happens.
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- renpenLv 79 years ago
I am going to take a guess here and say that the problem is in the carburetor. Could be that being on a slope caused some gunk in the float bowl to get into the main jet or to hold the needle valve open. I would try some in the tank fuel system cleaner like sea foam first but a carburetor cleaning may be the answer.
- gordon1212Lv 59 years ago
I have a JD L145 and they are suppose to run on a slope but maybe the fuel float allowed the fuel to soak the air filter (just a wild hunch) anyway run it without a air filter and see if that proves anything ,is it white oil type smoke or black to much gas smoke?
- ?Lv 45 years ago
I had that problem when mowing with my LA145. A wire to the connector on the PTO clutch came off. Fixed the wire, worked for awhile. Recent problem, the wires all got ripped off the PTO clutch connector. Reason for that was the "clutch stop" (not sure what the proper name is) it s a black metal piece that is bolted on the left side of the frame and goes to a hole on the clutch to stop it from spinning. The tip of the stop broke. I couldn t find a part number for the stop but it show in photo s of PTO clutches on Amazon. Called different JD stores, think I found one, will get it tomorrow. Repaired the wires and with a new stop I should be back in business.
- GkellasLv 59 years ago
sounds like the sparks plugs both are fried and it suck in iol into the cylinder and it may take time to burn the oil out the cylinder/ then again you may have blown head gasket our going to have clean it up and it may burn out/ you may have put comprssion check on there and see if they are laking pressure
- 6 years ago
why does my mower run fine at idle speed but when I push the throttle up half way it idle up way to high like its about to blow the engine
