How to Repair a Cub Cadet Deck Mower

Your Cub Cadet mower may need more gas before cutting your lawn.

Cub Cadet deck mowers are manufactured by MTD, feature Briggs & Stratton engines and can range from push mowers to larger, riding tractor mowers. A Cub Cadet deck mower can fail due to a number of common malfunctions that include a lack of fuel, a faulty spark plug, and an inappropriately adjusted magnetic coil and flywheel. These issues will all keep the lawn mower from starting, but you can troubleshoot and repair your Cub Cadet mower without the use of special tools and without a pre-existing knowledge of how to fix mowers.

Things You'll Need

• Gas
• Spark plug
• Wrench

Instructions

1. Ensure there is gas in your Cub Cadet mower's gas tank. Refill it if there is not.

2. Add a splash of fresh fuel to the old gas in your tank if you suspect you have left gas in your machine since the last season. Turn on your Cub Cadet mower but leave it idle and allow all the gas to burn off. Refill the tank entirely with fresh fuel before attempting to cut with the Cub Cadet.

3. Open the hood of the Cub Cadet mower if fuel is not the problem. Ensure the black plug wire at the front of the Cub Cadet's machine assembly is connected to the spark plug. Reinsert the plug wire if necessary.

4. Replace the spark plug, as it may be old and faulty. Disconnect the plug wire from the spark plug and remove the plug. Connect the plug wire to your new spark plug and attempt to run the Cub Cadet mower.

5. Trace the spark plug's wire further to the back of the Cub Cadet mower, where you will see the distinctly circular flywheel. Directly in front of the flywheel is the magnetic coil, and the incremental space between the two is the engine's air gap. Measure the air gap. It must be between 0.010 and 0.015 of an inch in width.

6. Loosen the Cub Cadet mower's magnetic coil to reposition it if the air gap is too small or large. Use a wrench, then slightly jostle the coil to adjust the air gap's size.

7. Retighten the bolts on the magnetic coil using the wrench.