Hello, folks. I hate to revive this dead horse, but I'm having the same problem described in this thread -- again. The starter on my John Deere RX-75 is refusing to turn over again, unless I happen to catch it in the right mood. It fires off fine when I walk by and flip the key in the garage. But sometimes it doesn't after I've turned off the motor -- usually with half of the yard still to cut. I've fiddled with the shift lever to make sure it's in neutral, and I've checked all the wiring that I can see. Any other ideas? When this happened last year, I tried some of the tricks mentioned here. I thought one of them must have worked, because the mower straightened up and cranked right. Last summer I took the mower to a John Deere dealer after this happened. It cranked like a new mower in the shop, of course, so I figured (hoped) they had cleared up whatever the problem was. No such luck.

First, you should try draining the float bowl and restarting and letting it run a few minutes. If it ever got tipped too far on its side, then the carb could have filled up with oil and it will smoke like that for a long time even after putting new gas in it while it clears out the bowl. But I'm guessing you've thought of that, and also this would happens the second it starts instead of waiting for warmup. Which all leads to the head gasket probelm that has affected early examples of the FJ180V. Is that the engine you have, or is it the FC150V? If it's the FJ180V, then you may have a blown head gasket and/or warped head that only loses its oil seal after it warms up and expands. When you took the head off to check the bores and ring gaps, did you replace the gasket? I don't know if just replacing the gasket solves the problem. I think the newer engines have a lower compression ratio to solve the problem. That's all I can think of.

hey i have an rx 75 deere steering is out and im not going to fix it everything is there and it runs have in great shape rear bager complete also have manl. book,, i live in ohio first 150.00 takes it 740-244-9478

It could be that there is poor flow of fuel to the carb itself. It runs itself out of fuel in the bowl and dies. I would check that the fuel shut off is open and good flow first. Fuel pump on these? Try it w/ the fuel cap loose to ensure it is venting. A can of carb spray would be useful. If you go this far and still not running, a squirt down the throat of the carb as it is dying would tell you if you still have spark anyways and would indicate you need to go further w/ the fuel system. There could be other issues pertaining to ignition as well. Let us know what you learn.