New Guy with a question from PA

Cubpwr1811 · #1 02-23-2018, 10:35 AM

Hello All,

I recently (last weekend) bought a 1992 2082 with a 374 Haban deck with 550 hours on it. Nice machine, but the seller had told me that it was having trouble starting. He told me he had to start it only on low idle and very slowly increase the throttle as the tractor warmed up. Upon going to pick it up, I confirmed that this is the only way it would start and run. It idled fine & smooth and once warm, sounded fine wide open. If you try to give it fuel too fast it would sputter & cough whether it be directly after starting or after being warmed up. Being that he told me this tractor had been sitting in his garage for the last 3 years (since he bought a new Kubota) and he only fired it up to move it out of the way and mowed once or twice a summer with it I assumed old gas had gummed up the carburetor.

So last night I drained all the gas and flushed the tank & fuel lines with fresh 93 octane with no ethanol. I installed a brand new carburetor, new plugs, new fuel filter, and a new air filter. When I went to start the tractor I couldn't even get a sputter like it is even trying to start. Engine is turning over fine, I have a spark at both plugs, and fuel is getting to the cylinders. The engine immediately flooded in that the plugs we're saturated in gas. This being the case, I removed the carb took it apart to confirm the float was working properly and it is. I put the carb back on tried again, and same result.

I set the carb to initial starting specs, plugs are gapped properly, and I have a spark and fuel in the cylinders. I'm sort of at a loss here. The one thing that I am curious about is that the previous owner told me he had put a new vacuum style fuel pump on the tractor thinking that was the problem with the hard starting which obviously didn't fix the problem. In my troubleshooting last night, I noticed that this fuel pump is prob twice the size of the proper fuel pump after I compared it to the vacuum pump on my 1993 1861. I took the line off leaving the pump heading to the carb and turned the engine over to verify it was pumping (this is before I removed the plugs and found them saturated in gas). It is indeed working, but it seems to be pushing a tremendous amount of fuel through the line all at once, way more than what it should be I think.

My question is, does anyone think or has heard of having too big of a fuel pump on one of these tractors and it possibly flooding the engine before it can even start?? I don't know if this is something that can happen or not. My plan is to borrow the factory sized fuel pump off my 1861 to see if I can get it to start with it, and if it will get the correct one for the 2082. I was just wondering if anyone has any thoughts on this issue or any incite on what could be wrong.

Thank you!!

R Bedell · #2 02-23-2018, 12:48 PM

First, welcome to OCC.........

Quote:

does anyone think or has heard of having too big of a fuel pump on one of these tractors and it possibly flooding the engine before it can even start??

YES, Kohler had a specific specification to their Fuel Pumps. The right amount of Volume and Pressure, without over powering the Carb. I would suggest you obtain the "correct" fuel pump that was dedicated to that engine. Use: 52-559-03-S Fuel Pump Kit

Cubpwr1811 · #3 02-23-2018, 01:34 PM

Awesome, thanks for the info!

J-Mech · #4 02-23-2018, 10:29 PM

There are two different fuel pumps depending on SN of the tractor. Either the vacuum style, or the mechanical style.

http://www.cubcadet.com/equipment/AR...0-A/0035700028

Fuel pump over pressure it possible, but if it's a vacuum style pump designed to work on a carbureted motor, I doubt it is. More likely that the needle valve isn't working as it should, or you have a weak spark. You need to figure out which it is.

Cubpwr1811 · #5 02-25-2018, 01:52 PM

Well, I switched fuel pumps and had no luck, so I removed the carb again and checked the needle valve. Cleaned the carb all up and blew it out with air. Pulled the intake & cleaned and blew it out. I put it all back together and was able to get it to start, but not very easily. It ran for about 10 minutes or so and sounded pretty good. Then while I was trying to fine tune the new carb I went a little too far and it shut down. After that it wouldn't fire again. If you let it cool, you can sometimes get it to start again.

I did notice yesterday that I have an orange spark in one cylinder and the other had some orange with a little blue. So now I'm leaning towards a weak/failing ignition module. How do you test them to make sure that is the problem?

J-Mech · #6 02-25-2018, 02:25 PM

Unless you have an oscilloscope, or an ignition meter, no way to test for weak spark besides looking at the fire from the plug. Should be a nice tight blue spark. If it's orange at all, the mag is bad. Make sure to test with either a new, or good known spark plug. Engine removal required to change the mag.

I thought it sounded like weak spark.

Cubpwr1811 · #7 02-25-2018, 03:04 PM

Okay, yeah I think I partially thought that too but just wanted to run through everything else first before I yank the engine. And yeah they are brand new plugs on there so that shouldn't be an issue, and there is definitely a lot of orange. Any place better than another to get a genuine Kohler replacement ignition module? I'm not about to put a cheap aftermarket module on there especially considering the location and pulling of the engine to replace.