Losing power when engaging blades?

[SSS 18734]

Hi all,

I have a Gravely 1334FX walk behind with a gear-driven transmission and approximately 400 hours. It has a 13 hp Kawasaki.I started the mower for the first time yesterday in a few months. The engine started and ran strong, but when I engaged the blades, the engine almost died and the mower lost a lot of power. Going through heavy leaves almost stopped the blades completely - it's never done that before.

I changed the oil about a month before I put it away for storage and barely put any hours on it. Haven't changed it yet this spring. I also gave the mower a thorough wash before I put it away and stabilized the ~ half gallon of fuel. I talked to my dad and he said that he filled the tank with old, unstabilized fuel. I don't know why he would do such a thing, but I doubt that is the cause of the problem.

Any ideas?

[SSS 18734]

bumps. Hoping to work in this tomorrow morning and it would be nice to have a few responses.

Cliffs: Put mower in storage, started it the other day, engine runs fine, but loses significant power when blades are engaged.

[lawn_jockey]

Hi all,

I have a Gravely 1334FX walk behind with a gear-driven transmission and approximately 400 hours. It has a 13 hp Kawasaki.I started the mower for the first time yesterday in a few months. The engine started and ran strong, but when I engaged the blades, the engine almost died and the mower lost a lot of power. Going through heavy leaves almost stopped the blades completely - it's never done that before.

I changed the oil about a month before I put it away for storage and barely put any hours on it. Haven't changed it yet this spring. I also gave the mower a thorough wash before I put it away and stabilized the ~ half gallon of fuel. I talked to my dad and he said that he filled the tank with old, unstabilized fuel. I don't know why he would do such a thing, but I doubt that is the cause of the problem.

Any ideas?

Sounds like a bad blade spindle. Over taxing the motor when you engage blades. Also in deep grass ...makes sense to me

[SSS 18734]

That would make sense. However, when I spin the blades by hand, they give no unusual resistance. One of the spindles is brand new and the other spins just like the new one.

I'm going to go replace the fuel and oil and perform all the other basic maintenance and come back here later. In the meantime, anyone else have possible solutions?

[hondarancher4435]

i bought a gravely pro 50 over the winter and just got to cut some grass with it and it bogs really bad in grass i am so pist i guess i will be selling it.

[mowerknower]

Are you only running on 1 cylinder, it could be as simple as a fouled plug.

[lubricity]

Mo you beat me to it. It certainly sounds like running on one cylinder