Help me out here

[Toyboy]

My 2230 started acting up last winter (dieing like you turn the key off for a second or two and then recovering) when I was traveling to a snow removal job. When it first done this I thought it was a load of iffy fuel and just put some SeaFoam in the tank to rid it of moisture.

Well it's summer now and several tankfuls later it's still doing it. No rhyme or reason for when it happens.... straight & flat, a little hilly, sometimes bumpy, only now it's happening when deck is engaged & cutting, once maybe twice in a 2+ hour period where before nothing other then hystat was engaged.

I keep going back to the seat safety switch which I've cleaned an put dielectric grease on now. But when I start it and lift the seat to engage the switch, the seat has to tilt up quite a ways to kill the engine. I always wear my seat belt so I'm not bouncing on the seat to trigger it. So I don't know how it could be the seat.

Filters changed last fall and I've only got 23hr run time on them so I've kinda ruled that out.

Where else should I look?

 

[85Hokie]

My 2230 started acting up last winter (dieing like you turn the key off for a second or two and then recovering) when I was traveling to a snow removal job. When it first done this I thought it was a load of iffy fuel and just put some SeaFoam in the tank to rid it of moisture.

Well it's summer now and several tankfuls later it's still doing it. No rhyme or reason for when it happens.... straight & flat, a little hilly, sometimes bumpy, only now it's happening when deck is engaged & cutting, once maybe twice in a 2+ hour period where before nothing other then hystat was engaged.

I keep going back to the seat safety switch which I've cleaned an put dielectric grease on now. But when I start it and lift the seat to engage the switch, the seat has to tilt up quite a ways to kill the engine. I always wear my seat belt so I'm not bouncing on the seat to trigger it. So I don't know how it could be the seat.

Filters changed last fall and I've only got 23hr run time on them so I've kinda ruled that out.

Where else should I look?

first thought is still fuel, but it could be a safety switch, you better hope it is fuel, a lot easier to fix!

 

[ShaunRH]

You could bypass all the safety switches and see if it does it still.

Could be a wire worn against something that lets it short out, temperature, bumps, whatever make contact and 'stutter'.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

You said you changed filters last fall yet your problem has happened over the winter on threw now summer, I would think change the fuel filter first!
If there is water in the filter hosing, I would consider dumping your fuel and replacing it with new!

 

[Mike_B]

I had a starting problem with my B2320 & traced it to a spade connector on the starter solenoid. I just squeezed the rolled pay off the connector to make it hold better. It just happened again last Monday, 5 months later. It was more difficult for me to fix this time because I'm not there. I talked my wife through getting to it & correcting it over the phone. I too thought it was the seat safety switch first. Take a look, pretty painless.

 

[Toyboy]

I had a starting problem with my B2320 & traced it to a spade connector on the starter solenoid. I just squeezed the rolled pay off the connector to make it hold better. It just happened again last Monday, 5 months later. It was more difficult for me to fix this time because I'm not there. I talked my wife through getting to it & correcting it over the phone. I too thought it was the seat safety switch first. Take a look, pretty painless.

Starts fine, always has. It's after it's been running say 1/2 hour or more, is when the stumble occurs. It seems like once it does it a time or two, it doesn't happen again Some times it's kind of mild like a miss, other times it drags it down so much, that when it recovers it'll blow smoke out the exhaust like when it's first started.

A fiend of mind thought that if it was water, it would not hit all cylinders at once. Maybe a filter change again is in the future.

 

[cerlawson]

Electrical connections seem to be the issue. So look where there most likely is corrosion, but also where does temperature change a lot to induce expansion and contraction. One such place is a battery, but that is more common at starting than running. Using the electrical schematic helps a lot when deciphering these.

 

[ipz2222]

On the left side of the eng is the fuel shutoff valve. Raise the hood, with the eng running, turn the key off while looking down the side of the eng. You'll see the valve move. There is one spade connector on it, make sure it's tight. While it's doing the shutting off and on, lift the hood and see if the solenoid is cycleing.

 

[Toyboy]

When it stumbles and coughs-what color is the exhaust smoke when it clears? White, black, or gray?

It looks black.

 

[Toyboy]

Well I dug this up to let you know the latest.

After thinking repeatedly that it was fuel and getting nowhere, I pulled apart, cleaned & lubed all the electrical connections on the safety switches and every bayonet connection I could find.

Good news is it's running normal again, no stutter the last two cuttings.

Bad news is I'll probably never know which connection was causing all the trouble.

Thanks for all the ideas to try.