I recently pulled a push mower out of the garage. It had been sitting 2yrs. I removed the drain plug from the carb and drained it. The gas tank was empty. I filled it with fresh gas and primed the carb. It would only run 30 seconds or so. After a few failed trys, I pulled the carb and removed the bowel. There were no foreign materials or bad gas. However, I found the float pin was actually stuck in place due to a gum coating that formed from dried gas. Point is, you might need to pull the bowel from the carb and check the function of the float and float pin.

My 18 year old JD170 finally 'died'. Or so I told myself and my wife. :-) Actually, one of the spindles broke and everyone knows that a broken spindle can't be fixed. Right? So what's a guy to do (sob). What any guy would do -- I went and bought a brand new X300 which will be delivered in 2 days. I only cut a mostly flat 1/2 acre so the X300 is overkill but who cares! I do want to buy the snow blower attachment and figured the X300 will be excellent for that purpose. I really can't wait. By the way Jaws, the spec sheet says the X300 has the K46 transmission, not the T46. I didn't read this post until last night, so I didn't get down to look at the sticker. All the posts though just confirmed that I bought one great machine. I might bypass the RIO switch though as I didn't buy the 4WS and do back up quite a bit. My 170 still has a perfectly running Kawasaki 14HP engine and tranny. What a workhorse! I gave pause to look at the HuskVys and Cub Cadets, but my 170 made me a JD loyalist. It really gave me outstanding service and I wasn't one to take care of it much. Lacking a shed and garage space, I often left it out all year, including severe upstate NY winters. It always started right up in the spring. But rust (wonder how that happened), deteriorating bags (hmmmm), and faded paint (go figure) convinced me that it was time. Actually, the fact that my 10yo son will want to be cutting the lawn in a couple years had something to do with it. Figured I want a some time where it's just MY machine. Don't worry guys -- I promise to take care of my new machine. I'm 53, and want this machine to last me 20 years or more -- or until I get the itch for a new model, whichever comes first. JD did give me $250 for a trade-in on the 170. I might had got more for it if I wanted to fix the spindle, clean it up and put up for sale -- but that would take time away from my X300. I'll let you guys know how I like it. Who am I kidding... I'm going to Love it!

I had the same thing. I stressed over it for a few days, thinking what the dealer would charge to get it fixed, then I read this page, bought the time delay module, for 20 bucks, and in ten minutes was out mowing! That little part is big trouble when it fails. At least its easy to change, and cheap. I'm so glad this forum exists, it saved me a lot of time and expense for sure.

If it's that new, probably not the battery failing, but there are always defective units to be wary of. Check that all of the conections at the battery cables are tight, since a charge may not be getting through loose connections well enough. The next step I would do is take a meter and see what voltage readings you get at the battery with the engine off and then with it running at a decent speed. When running, you should see an increase due to charging. If it is charging, you may just be waiting too long between uses, as it sounds as if battery is low but not actually flat. Another step is to test for a battery drain by measuring current flow from battery with key off. Remove one of the battery cables and hook up tester between cable and battery terminal so it is in the line of flow. Should be zero flow with everything off.