Our son came over and he said "oh, I know what the problem is." He said there's a little hole in the gas cap that could be clogged." We cleaned the little hole and it started right up. Hope this will help someone else whose mower wants to start, but won't. Just something else to check. Bill

This is my first time on here, so I don't exactly know how to post so here goes. My JD-425 has a flooding problem. Sometimes it runs ok, and sometimes not. When I turn on the ignition, the fuel pump starts (as normal) and I can usually start it. Then, after running for a while, it begins flooding. This is between 15 minutes and half an hour most of the time. I can keep it running if I go full throttle and have the tractor under load, like mowing grass, but there is so much gas entering the carb that there is a bit of black smoke as well. If I stop it and remove the air cleaner, and look into the carb, there is gas everywhere. Here is what I did so far... The carb was new 3 years ago. But I removed it, and took it apart (did this 3 times). Each time I took it apart and put it back together, I know I did it right because the machine started and ran as noted above. I thought it just might be plugged or something. The first time I took it apart I also replaced the electric solenoid valve, just to be sure. And I know it works, because I saw it operating with the carb disassembled. Then, I thought it might be that the float valve was leaking or perhaps the floats had a hole and was full of gas. All was good. When the carb was back together, I blew into the fuel hose when the carb was full of gas and proved that the float valve was working. Hmmm. There is a manual in-line fuel shutoff valve, so what I did was throttle it back so that it would take 30 seconds to to let about an ounce of fuel out. Full blast, the pump actually pumps a lot of fuel. This time, I was able to keep the machine from flooding too bad. And was able to mow the 1 acre of grass I have. Today, however was different. It ran for about 5 minutes, then began to act up. I turned it off, removed the air cleaner and looked into the carb. When I turn the ignition switch on, (not engaging the starter) I can see tons of gas coming out of every carb orifice, flooding into the engine gas everywhere. This is without the engine running. The only thing I can come up with is that the fuel pump for some unknown reason has too much pressure behind it. Another wierd thing is that when I turn a sharp corner, under the flooding condition, the flooding gets noticably worse. Any ideas anyone? Is there a pressure regulator somewhere in the fuel pump line? Thanks.

One thing i need to point out: NEVER USE A CAR BATTERY TO JUMP START A RIDING MOWER BATTERY! sorry for the caps but i have seen this on several differernt topics now. lets compare a battery to a balloon: if you fill the balloon with water from the kitchen sink, it fills up nice and easy, now try filling the ballon from a fire hose. a car battery is 550 cold cranking amps and higher whereas most lawn mower batterys are approx 250 CCA. I do agree with Walt on checking the starter with a jumper cable from positive on the mower battery to the post on the starter. if it spins, the battery and starter are good. when you turn the key to the start position, do you here a click? if so, it is probably a ground issue between the engine and the frame. if not, it is a wiring issue.

Typically the purple wire should more interact with the safety line of the crank circuit. I don't have that Schematic on this PC, but this wire can run through the relay and most always through the PTO switch. A quick check on JD parts shows different PTO switches and switch modules. Assuming this is a standard 345, rather than a GX345 etc. One would think if the entire harness and all switches were changed that you would be good to go. Maybe as simple as the proper PTO switch? You could compare part numbers between the 2 serial breaks of the switches and other components. This post was edited by tomplum on Thu, Nov 13, 14 at 11:44