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.

I have a 750 with similar problems. There are 3 safety switches and a solenoid within the starter. The safety switches are in the seat, the shifter and pto. It’s helpful to have a manual to show you where they are. Any of these can fail and can be easily tested. But even if they test normal, you may still get a funny reading at the control wire at the starter. Try bypassing the safety switches to test the starter and solenoid. Run a long wire from the positive battery terminal to the control spade on the starter but put a momentary switch in the wire so you can control it from the seat. Keep your hands away from moving parts. If this works, you have an issue with the control circuit. i can start mine this way. All my safety switches are working so I either have a bad connection or a ignition switch problem. I just can’t figure it out. Yet.

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!

Vapor lock will not occur WHILE an engine is running.Vapor lock occurs when an engine is shut down in a very hot condition and heat from the engine cause a portion of the gasoline in fuel line and fuel pump to vaporize. The heated vapor exerts more pressure than the fuel pump can deal with and so the pump can't work, until things cool off and the gasoline vapors return to liquid. You can test the fuel cap idea by removing the cap when the engine begins to falter. If it straightens out the running, the cap vent is the trouble. If not, then it may be ignition related.