My Craftsman Yard Tractor has been a good heavy duty tractor to mow my hilly 1.5 acre back lot (field). I bought the YT4000 after having a entry level Sears lawn tractor that I wore out the trans-axle trying to mow the steep hill.
The YT4000 has a powerful 24 HP Briggs and Stratton Engine that has run well.
Over the last year the engine would not start on cold without a spray of starting fluid. I spray the starting fluid into the air intake and it would start and run fine and even restart with no problem while it was warm. I decided to change the fuel filter and this did not help the situation. While mowing to pick up leaves the engine just died.
Knowing the next fuel item inline was the fuel pump (above - right of locking pliers)
I removed the hose that was pinched and turned over the engine and the pump worked fine.
I found this silver metal device with wires at the end of it and found out from the Tractor Manual that it was Fuel Solenoid p/n 798779. I looked online and found that they fail and that they are used to shut off the fuel to the carburetor when the power is shut off. What I read inferred that it was to prevent backfiring when shutting off the engine.
Above I needed to remove this heat shield with the two 1/2" hex bolt heads to get the same 1/2" wrench in to remove the Fuel Solenoid, leaving the locking pliers in place to prevent fuel spillage,
After removing the fuel solenoid and bench testing it with 12 Volts and finding it was defective, The plunger is supposed to retract with voltage to the connector.
I decided to order one online at the surprising cost of $116.00 on Amazon, but delivery was a week away. In the mean time the YouTube video I watched indicated I could take the Fuel Solenoid out and cut the plunger off the end of and you could run the engine, In fact the claim was that I would not notice the difference in engine operation.
I didn't want to wait a week for the new Fuel Solenoid to arrive or to cut the plunger off the defective one, but I decided to go to Home Depot and match the threads and buy a bolt to put in the spot. The bolt is a 8MM-1.0 x 16MM. The problem was that the threads were too long so to shorten them to the right size I bought a corresponding Hex Nut M8-1.0MM.
I added the nut to the bolt and then reused the washer from the Fuel Solenoid and inserted and lightly tightened.
My Yard Tractor started right up and ran for 3 hours with no problem. When I shut off the engine I lowered the RPMs and turned the key and no backfiring.
In reality, it appears that I didn't need to order a new Fuel Solenoid and could have just left the bolt in or just cut off the plunger on the Fuel Solenoid and never would have seen a problem.
I hope this post helps others with this problem and it gives you some ideas how to address solving the problem.
Brent
macaloney@net1plus.com
