# GX345 Surging Engine Problems



## apb1959

I have a JD 2005 GX345 garden tractor with a 20hp liquid cooled Kawasaki engine. I am having trouble with the engine surging after it warms up very badly. I have done the following things to rectify the problem with no success.
- Changed the spark plugs and gapped correctly
- Changed the Oil/Filter
- Changed the Air Filter
- Cleaned the vent on the gas cap
- Cleaned the Radiator finns
- Checked the cooling fins on the engine
- Changed the Fuel Filter
Couple of hints: When I run the PTO (blades) it runs like a top. Its when I stop the PTO, when its warm it surges to the point it will not come close to idling. Also, when I lift on the choke about 2/3 it will smooth out and run perfectly. There is also some backfiring while it is surging.

Does anyone have any suggestions what may be wrong. I'm not sure what to try next. Thanks for any help.


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## chrpmaster

Bring the tractor up to operating temps. Then I would try adjusting the carb by turning the low speed mixture screw counterclockwise a little bit to see if that helps. This will make the fuel mixture richer. Since it smooths out when you use the choke it make sense it is running too lean. Be careful doing this. Turning it a little bit can make a big difference. So go slow and take your time. 

Let us know how you're doing getting this fixed.

Andy


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## apb1959

Thanks Andy I appreciate your suggestion. I am going to have it out on Labor Day working on it and I'll try that.

Thanks again and I'll let you know how I come out.


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## apb1959

*GX345 Surging Engine*

Andy,

Sorry for the slow response, unexpected things over the holidays. I tried your suggestions and appreciate them. I couldn't notice that it was helping the surging, if I was doing it correctly. One thing I did notice. While it was surging I raised the hood, took the radiator screen off and slowly poured water from the hose through the radiator. After I increased the water volume enough to cool off the engine it began to run just fine. When I stopped cooling with the water it almost immediately began surging again. Another thing, while it was running fine with the cool water running across outside of the radiator, I tried turning the throttle down slowly, and it seemed to work ok, when I did it from full to half throttle quickly, even with the water cooling it, it began surging again. 

Wish I knew more about engines so I could tell you more. Thanks for the past and any additional suggestions you may have.

Alan


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## chrpmaster

Alan

So you run cold water over the radiator and it stops surging? I seem to recall something about that happening before but don't recall where right now. I will look around and see. If you run cold water over the carb it would cool the air inside the carb and make it more dense. It could also cause an automatic choke to partially engage but I don't know if your engine has one of those.

You turned the low speed screw and nothing happened? Are you sure you were turning the right screw? If you turned the correct screw it should have done something. Do you have diagrams of the carb for your engine? You should be able to find one online or at the dealer. Look closely and you may see more than one screw.

Andy


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## apb1959

*gx345 surging engine*

I'll look online an see if I can find a diagram of the carb. I am only fairly mechanical. Back when they started putting vaccuum lines, and pollution control on truck engines, things quickly got over my head....back in the seventies. I'm ok at maintenance, up keep, etc. , but I'm a far cry from a mechanic/technician. Just being honest.

I'll see if I can find the diagram to see if I think I was turning the correct screw or not. I appreciate your patience and effort to help. The engine only has 51 hours on it and I'm kicking my self for not taking it in when it was under warranty. It has done this a little for several months, it is just a lot worse now.

I'll let you know how I come out. Thanks again, I appreciate it.

Alan


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## chrpmaster

Thats OK Alan. We have all had our head scratching moments that the other members here have patiently worked with us to get a solution. keep us informed on your progress.

Andy


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## apb1959

*gx345 Surging Problem*

Andy,

I have been cleaning up from Hurricane Ike for the past few days..... we were very blessed with no damage though. Can't say the same for a few friends.

I looked on the JD Parts catalog and it looks like I may have been turning the pilot air screw according to the diagram.

I'll look for a better diagram and see what I can come up with. 

I had a couple of people mention to me they thought it may be a stuck thermostat. Does that seem like a possibility to you?

Thanks,
Alan


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## chrpmaster

well if its stuck closed the engine would overheat since the water would never circulate through the radiator. If its stuck open it would take longer for the engine to heat up to operating temps. In the colder temps the engine may never reach proper operating temps which can cause it to run rich (auto choke may not kick off). 

I'm not sure how either of these situations would cause your problem but I have been surprised before. Did they say why they thought it could be a "stuck thermostat"?

Andy


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## apb1959

*gx345 Surging*

Andy,

I would be much more apt to go with your opinion on the thermostat. They just mentioned it because of the engine smoothing out when I put the cool water through the radiator. Its time maintenance wise to change the coolant so I'm just going to replace it while I'm at it. Your comments are more plausible about the thermostat, I just wondered what you thought.

Its just hard to believe this thing has been as much trouble as it has to just have 51 hrs on it and be 30 months old. I've had 700-800 dollar riding mowers that didn't give me a lick of trouble for several years. Between keeping up with the maintenance and this surging prob, I'm not thinking I made a very good decision purchasing this garden tractor. I'll have to see how it goes. I do appreciate your input on this and effort to help though.

Take care and thanks again.

Alan


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## basket case

apb 1959, 

Did you ever get your 2005 345 running correctly?

I have a 1999 JD 345 with the FD611V 20 hp. water cooled engine that started running poorly this past summer. It started surging at low speed... such as when idling rpm's. I installed a carb. kit this past summer, but that didn't help. It also runs poorly at medium and higher speed. I could take it to the John Deere dealer nearby, but they want $70.00 hour for labor, and they stand and look at the tractor for 30 minutes trying to figure(guess) what to do. Three years ago the dealer charged me $210.00 for labor to replace a $.68 spring on the mower deck gauge control... yes!, $.68 cents. That sure destroyed the old American dream.

I've started repairs this week on it. I'm replacing the thermostat, fuel pump, as it seems to be leaking around the two-haves, plus new fuel lines. 

I hope to get some results doing all this, but, who knows what will it do when I start it up again.

Follow-UP: I removed the thermostat and put in a pot, and done like the repair manual says. It started opening at about 180 degrees, and fully open at 210 degrees. So I think the thermostat may be Ok.


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## apb1959

*Surging Engine*

This won't be what you probably want to hear but I ending up having to take it into a JD dealer and get it fixed. I tryed everything I could think of and just had not luck. What they did to repair it was simply put a new carburator on it. It runs great now. I purchased it from a JD dealer used with only 17 hrs on it, and it was two years old. He said the gas had gone bad enough to mess up the inside of the carb. When it does, it is so hard it can't be cleaned off of the inside of the carb.

Anyway, whether that was all necessary I'll never know but it did fix it. I can't emphasize enough, PUT STABIL IN YOUR GAS.

Hope that helps, and good luck.

Merry Christmas to you.

Buck


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## SandyBoy

*More on the JD GX345*

Sorry to hear of other owners having problems with JD GX345 tractors, and just as sorry to relate my experience with JD – I just felt that owners/potential owners should know. We have a 2003 GX345 (with about 150-hours on the meter) and it has been, by far, the worst piece of lawn equipment I've ever had the displeasure of owning or using (BTW - the 'G' prefix is supposed to designate a "garden" tractor – it was never up to that task). Our ‘345 was purchased new from the local (free-standing) JD Dealer halfway through the 2003 mowing season, to replace a stolen Honda HT3813 that was great, once we found out that Honda no longer manufactured lawn tractors. Our '345 was only used two or three times the remainder of that first (2003) season, yet has been problem-prone virtually since we first brought it home that season. Since new, repairs on it have cost us around $400 to $500 per year, on average (that does NOT include routine maintenance, only repairs of various failures and problems) – and this was NOT a cheap, low-end, or “budget” tractor.

Some repairs include: (1) having to replace (without warranty) a broken PLASTIC latch for the bagger top at the start of the second (2004) mowing season (~$120 for parts – due to the design of the latch & top, labor would have been about $100 more, so I did the repair myself – with only ~10-hrs on the meter); (2) having to replace the bagger latch again during the third (2005) mowing season (~$25 – due to a better JD dealer replacing it with a metal latch that was available from JD all along); (3) replacing mower deck (48C) spindle bearing(s) near the end of the third (2005) or start of the fourth (2006) mowing season (~$250); (4) having to get the entire fuel system drained, flushed, and completely cleaned (on shop ticket #1) – then having to replace (on shop ticket #2) virtually EVERY fuel system component (tank, lines, filter, and carburetor) when the previous cleaning did not resolve the problem . . . a slimy/tarry black contaminant found clogging EVERYTHING in the fuel system and preventing the engine from running at all [halfway through the third (2005) season, it began stalling during mowing, refusing to restart until sitting for 15..30-minutes . . . at the start of the fourth (2006) season, it refused to run at all – NOTE: I recently found information on another Web site referring to what sounds like the same problem, describing it as an algae that formed in empty fuel tanks when improperly stored outside at the JD factory] (~$1,500 – for both shop tickets, and it was in the shop a total of 4..6-weeks); (5) a bearing under the engine began making a lot of noise at the beginning of the last (2010) mowing season ($0, not repaired so far – I expect it to cost about $200 or more, but I'll run it as long as I can or until it fails). There were additional repair costs, but these remain vivid in my mind.

Some other problems include: (1) poorly-designed power steering that makes it very difficult to drive the tractor in a straight line on hard pavement and causes it to wander all over the place (my wife used to love driving our Honda about a mile between two houses – she REFUSES to drive the ‘345); (2) a “backfiring” engine (raw gas actually ignites in the exhaust) that sounds like a shotgun blast when shutting down after mowing; (3) too many plastic parts used for high-wear/high-stress bagger and tractor body parts (esp. the engine hood) that break too often and are way too costly to replace; (4) mower deck drive belts that jump off of pulleys too often and are too difficult to put back without help and with the deck under the tractor; and (5) an unreliable “bags full” indicator on the clipping bagger feed chute.

Absolutely every gallon of gas run through this tractor has been treated with fuel conditioner. For the first five or six years we've had the '345, I took extremely good care of it (it drove my wife crazy), but I have grown so tired of the continual, chronic (and expensive) problems, failures, and unreliability (i.e. poor quality) of this tractor, that my desire to care for and maintain it properly has given way to a desire that it simply disappear. I grew up in Illinois (“John Deere country”) where JD had a well-established reputation for high quality farm and lawn equipment. I have never been this disappointed and disgusted with any product, manufacturer, and dealer network (lawn equipment or otherwise), and now have a corollary to offer for their slogan “Nothing Runs Like a Deere” . . . THANK GOD! As several others have expressed on another Web site (at least one of whom was basing their statement on experience with a GX345), I can honestly say that I will NEVER buy another JD product (my wife really wanted a JD, but now feels exactly the same way - and she HATES this tractor). All we can do now is wish we had found this (and the other noted) Web site before we bought the '345 (I did research in '03 but found nothing negative then), and kick myself for not taking a much closer look at competitive tractors (esp. Kubota) in 2003.


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## dangeroustoys56

Sandy Boy : As ive said before - JD is the Mercedes Benz of tractors - both cost and replacement parts wise. Ive bot dirt cheep tractors that mow and run beautiful ( after a lil work). I use regular low grade gas in my stuff, sometimes dump a lil lucas gas treatment in it or marvel's mystery oil - i dont have any running issues.

My 'bottom dollar' White ( MTD) has been running and mowing now for 19 years , only recently needing new drive belts, blades and a mandrel - bot it brand new in '92 and has never had any serious issues and has always started right up.

My 86 GTII craftsman is the beast of the fleet - eventually id like to get a front plow and sleeve hitch for it , hauled a trailer full of stone with no problem, pulls my yard roller( filled with water) and 8x10 trailer with ease .

I suppose if i ever came across a JD dirt cheep - id buy it ..... and make a modifed tractor out of it, even it it ran and mowed - just to bother purists. Im doing that with a rusty old '69 wheelhorse i have also.


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## creekhed1

10X out of 10 when I had surging issues it was fuel delivery related!

CLEAN YOUR JETS and while you're at it dump some seafoam in the carb and fuel tank!


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## oldsouth

There is a overboard vent tube from the the top of the carb that can get clogged and will cause some performance issues. Also, the power control modules on these engines tend to go out easily. It's a five wire black round electric module that will have the hot wire connected at the stater and grounded to the frame. One of the wires goes to the shutoff solenoid at the bottom of the carb that holds the sediment bowl on. The other two control the firing.
Good luck! My GX345 has been a POS from day one! The John Deere mechanics here don't know how to fix it. The answer the one person had about using the Sea Foam is a very good one but, here in the South the Muddobbers clog everything up. I had the same problem and two individuals who knew these mowers both told me it was the control module and it seemed to work but, they don't last long. I guess the engine heat affects them. Only cost around $17 for a new one and easy to replace. My wife has done it before when I was not here.


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## Electric Deacon

apb1959 said:


> *Surging Engine*
> 
> This won't be what you probably want to hear but I ending up having to take it into a JD dealer and get it fixed. I tryed everything I could think of and just had not luck. What they did to repair it was simply put a new carburator on it. It runs great now. I purchased it from a JD dealer used with only 17 hrs on it, and it was two years old. He said the gas had gone bad enough to mess up the inside of the carb. When it does, it is so hard it can't be cleaned off of the inside of the carb.
> 
> Anyway, whether that was all necessary I'll never know but it did fix it. I can't emphasize enough, PUT STABIL IN YOUR GAS.
> 
> Hope that helps, and good luck.
> 
> Merry Christmas to you.
> 
> Buck


I was told by an old man (a wise one too!!) that if I cleaned out the two jets in the carb, it might solve my problem.....it did.
Took two bolts off plate on front of carb, took a can of carb cleaner, sprayed into each orifice(jet), then blew thru them with the air compressor and put it (the plate) back on. Cranked it up and it ran fine....smooth, no. surging. Who knows, maybe it was a "one off" problem but it worked!!!....and yeah, I DESPISE having to take it to a dealer....I often find that many of them are parts changers and not devoted mechanics. My opinion...nothing else.


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