# John Deere 318 won't start



## Tony Smith (Jun 21, 2017)

Hello everyone!

I was mowing today turned the pto off to cross my driveway. When I went to turn the pto back on the engine bogged heavily so I turned the pto off and tried again, once again it bogged I turned the pto off again but the engine shut off. It seemed fairly hot and was smoking so I let it sit for a few minutes before trying to start it again. It took a minute to start but it did and seemed to be running fine for 30 secs or so then it shut off again. I let it cool down for like 30 mins then when I tried to start it again it won't do anything... not even turn over or click or anything? Any ideas before I tear into it?


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## willys55 (Oct 13, 2016)

I believe this is a gas powered model, you didnt say in your post......check the battery state of charge, perhaps your charging system has failed and you were running on battery the whole time till the poor thing was dead


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## BigT (Sep 15, 2014)

Hi Tony, welcome to the forum.

Maybe the starter is stuck in the ring gear.

Also, have you checked if the blades may be jammed with debris, causing the PTO to bog down the engine? Or maybe a belt is off pulley and stuck?


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## Tony Smith (Jun 21, 2017)

Thank you for your fast responses! I had a chance after work today to dig into her a little bit. The wires to the ignition were shorting out. Everything seems to be running as it should. It does seem to run hot though.


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## willys55 (Oct 13, 2016)

glad to hear you got it up and running


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## Hoodoo Valley (Nov 14, 2006)

If it's running hot, have you tried to blow out the debris from the cooling fins? When I had my John Deere 316, I'd blow out everything after each mowing and since mine never had an oil filter, I changed the oil after each mowing since it was such an easy task.


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## jhngardner367 (Apr 5, 2011)

I think you should check the timing on the engine.
It doesn't take much to change it,and the Onan engines will overheat,if it's out of time.


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