D180

[fabricator2009 48]

Just mounted a 60" deck under my d180. Runs fine while at idle. When I engage the pto and try to mow, the engine starts to spit and sputter. As soon as I disengage the pto it runs right fine. Do I have something too tight or is the engine in need of a tune up.

[312Hydro 473]

I'm not up on the D series but with my 312H it would tell me that a safety (switch usually the seat switch) is not making contact. I'm sure a real D owner will chime in and help you out. Here's a post relating to the PTO safety on your D180-

[glgrumpy 35]

My 18 Auto never ran the same each time I snow plowed this winter. You could adjst idle and even mixtures and think it was right. Then next time out, back to rough again. Got to where I just barely tweaked the mix screws or idle and it would clean up. sometimes in, other times out. Now when warmer it is running great on the last settings. Not sure if I had dirty carb or what? Water in fuel?  Maybe these carbs are fussy?  Might try tuning carb when under load.

[pacer 3,160]

Something like this is almost impossible to give a definitive answer --- but my guess would be carb/fuel. If your carb hasnt been cleaned & kit installed in a while then it would be wise to do that. This crap fuel we get nowadays can sure screw up a fuel system.

 

Last fall I was doing some long overdue maintenance on my D-180 and while my carb seemed to be doing OK, since I couldnt remember the last time I had ckd it I decided to give it a look see. I removed it and gave it a good cleaning & blow out the jets, not even replacing anything (it really didnt seem to need anything, was clean). When I got it back running, I thought for a few minutes I had a different tractor!! And since the carb was the only running related thing I had tinkered with - that had to be the reason for the big difference in running.