New member from Mississippi

Deltabull · #1 02-12-2015, 09:22 AM

Hello all. 61 year old from Mississippi here. I purchased my first Cadet this past Sunday from a Craigslist ad and I'm hoping for a little assistance with a few problems. I hope I came to the right place. My tractor is a 2166 with 332 hrs. on it. ( for those who are curious I paid $550). The tractor was owned by a middle aged man who was killed in a car wreck, and I bought from his son who didn't know anything about the machine except that his dad took good care of his things. The tractor looks really good. The oil and tranny fluid is the color of honey. The fuel smelled good although the mower hadn't been used since last summer. The fuel filter needed replacing so I took care of that. I put in a new 340 cold cranking amp battery. The engine cranks right up with no smoke and purrs like a kitten, revs up just fine but as soon as I pull the pto switch (at high rpm ) it acts like I pulled the choke knob out. It sputters and spits out puffs of black smoke. If I cut the pto off, it continues to sputter until I cut the engine off. Upon re-start if i cut the throttle down it sputters for a brief moment then purrs like a kitten, revs up smoothly. I can engage the pto at idle and then rev the engine without a problem.
My first thoughts were crap in the carb so I looked in the tank and saw that it was low on fuel so I added about 4 oz. of seafoam to the tank and ran it at idle speed for about 15 to 20 minutes. this didn't seem to help so I removed the fuel line from the filter and let the fuel pump suck up about half a cup of straight seafoam right into the carb and cut the motor off as soon as it started to sputter. I let it sit for an hour, then restarted it. I was expecting to scare the neighbors with smoke after restarting but to my surprise I didn't get one puff of smoke. It cranked right up and ran like a champ until I tried the pto again. Same problem...... I ran it around the yard until it ran out of gas, then filled the tank with fresh non-ethenol fuel with 3 oz. seafoam added. I cut the pto on at idle, revved her up and then cut my entire yard without a problem, except when I had to back up and the pto disengaged. When I re-engaged the pto at run speed the sputtering black smoke all over again. Any ideas?

olds45512 · #2 02-12-2015, 09:06 PM

welcome to occ.

bocephus1991 · #3 02-12-2015, 09:44 PM

Hello and welcome! Sounds an looks like you got a good deal. Congrats on your first cub! Honestly I don't think there's anything wrong with it. It is not good to kick the pto on at high rpm. I never turn mine on at high Rpms or off at high Rpms. It hard on belts, bearings an in the machine in general. I wouldn't keep doing it. If turning your pto on at low rpm is working fine keep doing that.

Deltabull · #4 02-13-2015, 07:11 AM

I wouldn't have a problem with that if I was mowing an empty lot, but I have a yard ...with trees, and bushes, and flower beds, and a stump or two, and a flag pole, and sheds, etc....... Which means backing up twenty or thirty or fifty times, and my pto cuts off each time. (mow 10 feet, pto off, back up, idle down, turn pto back on, idle up, mow 13 ft., repeat process.....)
This is why I bought the Cub to begin with ( to avoid the hassle of clutch, change gears to reverse, back up, change gears to forward, etc...)
I absolutely HATE the pto disengage in reverse. It's just the two of us living here, no kids around to run over in reverse, and our cat won't get off the porch. I cannot find any definite instructions as to how to override the safety switch on the reverse. If I can't figure out how to stop the pto from cutting off I'' have no options other than to sell this thing and buy another mower that WILL cut backwards.......WTH????