Club Cadet Lawnmower

Hello,
Need a hand with the worst lawn mower I have ever had the pleasure of working on. The Club Cadet.

I am sure this one is only about 3 years old. They look great. They just run lke crap.

I have had three of these in my garage in the last year. It is the same thing every time. The mower starts, with full choke, then dies. It will not start or run with no choke.

I have taken off the carb and cleaned it inside out. As a MATTER OF FACT, I have never seen a cleaner looking carb in all my life. I have taken out the jets and used a small piece of wire and cleaned every single hole. Twice as a matter of fact.

I figured since the set up of these carbs on the long bolts with all the pieces, there has to be an air leak along the way.

Since this is the third one I have come across, I thought I would try some gasket cement between all of the pieces to see I made a good seal.

Same thing again. All it wants to do is start wih full choke and die.

Surely someone has worked with these and knows what the problems is. If I have worked on three and it is all the same, there must be a known fix for this.

Does anyone have a clue?

I really dont know what to try next!

Thanks for looking

Craig

 

Cub Cadet has a lot of mowers, post the engine info, mfg, model, type, code etc so someone will know what you are referring to. Have a good one. Geo

 

Geo,
It is a 173cc model number 959468-11a18mc056, serial number 1d057kp0485.

 

granatnl, I, too, have seen many of these engines in my shop - they're an MTD produced engine. MTD should never have gotten into the engine building business, they should have stuck with equipment building only! In the past summer season here at my shop I'll guess we have replaced a dozen or so of these engine's carburetors. We use a very effective cleaning agent and a very effective tank to soak them in and, still, many jobs just would not come around. The MTD part number for the carburetor for your job is 951-10310; I'm sure this will be your only cure for its ills.

 

Hi Puey,
I appreciate the feedback. When it was dropped off to me, the machine only ran with full choke. Once I took the carb off to clean it etc, it only starts bu then dies.
I find this really strange that everyone I have looked at is doing the exact same thing.

 

My $0.02;
Since I have no idea what this carb is or looks like, I will guess it is a bowl type. They work like the chimney on a fireplace, as the air passes through the venturi, over the nozzle, it lowers the pressure in the bowl creating suction for fuel to pass up the nozzle into the carb, for that not to happen there must be a clogged vent or the nozzle is distorted or has moved up or down so as not to create the proper suction. With all that said, it could be the "O" rings on the nozzle have dissolved, being poor quality "O" rings introduced to our ethanol gas. Have a good one. Geo

 

Geo, good thought, however, this carburetor does not have a replaceable emulsion tube (nozzle)with o-rings, like the Tecumseh carbs do, that you're referring to.

 

Hey brother,

Back in better times, when my annual income was $125K USD, before being laid off, I purchased a "HIGH END" lawn mower, made by International Harvester, in Canada, called a "CUB CADET".

I got one season out of it, and start of the second season, it wouldn't, and never did (start). I dropped close to 7 bills for this piece of garbage, that only lasted a year.

So, my only advice I can lend, is take it to California, where the AQMD has an event each weekend (in various cities). Clean all the spider webs out of it, pour some fresh gasoline in the tank (then drain it out), take it to one of these exchange events (pray that they don't try and start it, until you're gone), and trade it in for an all electric, rechargeable lawn mower.

The down side, is Black & Decker is all they have. So, use that yellow piece of sh*t as the trade in, and keep the other gasoline mower that you probably already replaced the Cub Cadet with, because Black & Decker does not make a reliable product, either.

What amazes me, is how many times, I stopped my wife from throwing away that Cub Cadet mower, without even knowing why? I guess, money (or the lack of it) changes everything.

If you speak with any Cub Cadet representatives, please pass this message along, to add to the list of other Americans that they bent over. It is not a mistake, that Lowes, and any other retailer, no longer carries their products.

Best of luck, buddy. I'm sorry to see you didn't find out sooner.

 

Good one Forcequit. Must say, I had a good laugh over that one! The best part is, I don't own it. I am fixing it for some other sucker who bought it off a good friend of his for 100 bucks.
I own a 6 horse Tecumseh. It runs real well becasue I know how to otake care of it. If I had to buy again, I might go with a Briggs. There are soem Briggs I just like they way they run. I find the briggs do not slow down in heavier grass. Of course, depmds on which one.
Anyway, I have ordered thr new carb for the guy. It sohlud be here by next week. Ill let you allknow how it goes.
Thanks for the reply.

 

No small engine equipment guy...but I have to kick this in....good story. Sorry it's OT, I should know better...but...

Back in about '72-'73 my Dad finally decided the 30 y/o snapper with the single tiller stick steering (like an old plane) was finally done (multiple welds on the tiller handle, small cut, small engine) and bought a Murray(?) rear engine rider from a private party.

Problem was we had about an acre of rough farm lawn and it came from a flat suburban owner. 3rd time in 2 days that it bogged and smoked the deck drive belt, he said drive it over in front of the barn...I said "You mean the garage?" he said "No...the horse barn near the driveway". Next thing I know he's walking out of the barn with a gas can, sledgehammer, and a pick. Beats the heck out of it, busts the tank, fenders, seat, steering......dowses it in gas, stands back and burns it to a smoking hulk.

Went out the next business day and bought a Cub Cadet tractor (THE brand for heavy duty mowers back then)....something like a 20hp Kohler twin, 48" cut, hydro trans.....most everything they had for a lawn tractor except a PTO. I even remember it cost almost $2300 (not much less than the stripped '65 El Camino they had bought 10 yrs before). My Dad died in '94 and my sister was still using that tractor in 2005 last I knew.

I hate hearing how much quality has dropped even though I assume this thread is about a push mower. When they start putting the brand name on anything just to sell it...it's a sure sign.

 

Yep, those old cub cadets were pretty much bullet proof and HEAVY. Those days are long gone. MTD bought the cub cadet name and stuck the name on a lot of not-so-good stuff (being polite about it). Same with troy built and bolens... both USED to be really good stuff. Now just MTDs.

 

Hi everyone.

The new carb fix this thing right up. What a piece of crap.

The carb i took off was clean as a whistle. I dont get it. Cost the guy 100 to fix a 100 mower. In 2 years, it will be gone again! Terrible. Stay away from these!

Thanks again!

Craig