K301 Loosing power
 

I'm totally new to the Cub Cadet 127! This one belonged to my late father in law and had been laid up for about 5 years. I charged the battery, checked the oil, and added some Sea-Foam to the gas. Amazingly it started almost immediately! She chugged a for a moment then settled into a nice idle. So, I attached the mower deck and went at it!

Seemed that under heavy load she'd loose power. If I could disengage the mower, she'd chug along for a moment then resume normal running.

On another thread, I found a similar issue and the cure seemed to be either a dirty carb or the coil was failing. I'm hoping it's the carb. I have removed the carb and it's soaking in Sea-Foam overnight. Hopefully I can get it back together tomorrow and see what happens.

What do the more experienced members think?

Soaked the carb overnight, reassembled it today. Ran for a bit then the same thing under load. She also seemed to be running quite hot, not just today. Not sure if this is normal or not. Seems to be hotter than it should be.

Check the timing...that will cause the symptoms you describe.

Thanks Matt.

I just have 2 questions:Do you have a photo from further back of the points cover. I'm not sure where to find that on the engine.How do I turn the engine by hand?

I'm pretty new at small engine repairs. I have done some work on my motorcycle (not really) so I figure that if I can figure out where things are I might be able to make them worse:biggrin2:

It's at the left front of the engine. You'll see it when you look. To turn it by hand, simply turn the 'basket' pulley on the PTO end of the crankshaft.

Thanks again Matt. I've been reading some more and I just found the service manual. Glad that you've confirmed my findings. Now to put it into practice. My project for this weekend.