# poulan 16.5 42 problems



## reefdog (Aug 1, 2011)

My Grand Fathers poulan 16.5 42 has been acting up. After the long winter it started up just fine but soon the battery stopped holding a charge. We jumped it each time it wouldn’t start on its own and eventually it was no longer getting a clean start and it just sputtered, spewed blue smoke and ran slow. So we replaced the spark plug, changed the air filter, and bought a new battery. This worked great for two weeks until he tried to turn it on today and the battery is dead. I came over and charged it got it going but only to find that the blue smoke was back and it was running poorly again. I have disconnected the lights in hopes that they were the cause of the drained battery but please help. What is draining the battery while it sits for a few days to a week in between mows and what is making it run so poorly. 
Thanks


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## Country Boy (Mar 18, 2010)

Blue smoke is generally caused by burning oil. Have you checked the oil lately? If it looks thin or is overfilled, the carburetor could be running over, filling the crankcase with gasoline. If it is, you will need to either put in a fuel shutoff for when he isn't using the tractor, or better yet, rebuild the carb to eliminate the problem.

What brand/model is the engine? If it is a Briggs Intek OHV engine, the head gasket might be shot. I have three of them in the shop at work with blown head gaskets currently.

As for the battery draining, it could be caused by a number of things. The diodes in the charging system might be bad, allowing current to back-feed through the regulator and the armature and drain the battery that way. Or, you could have a bad key switch that isn't turning the power off completely when turned off. Or, it could be a shorted wire somewhere. Or, the battery could be dirty, allowing current to flow across the surface of the battery and drain it that way. If you don't want to mess with trouble shooting, you could install a battery cutoff switch and just flip it off when you are done mowing, but I'd spend some time trying to find the issue myself. Are you at all handy with a multimeter?


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