Spark plug wire on Garden Tractor broke, I fixed it but should I replace?

[cbrenthus]

Went to change the plugs on my Cub Cadet Garden Tractor (riding mower) yesterday with the Kawasaki V-Twin. When I pulled the wires off the plugs, one of the wires broke - the metal connector inside the wire came off and stayed on the spark plug!

Since I had already mowed a little of my lawn (warming up the engine for oil change) I really wanted to continue mowing, so I was able to shove the metal connect back into the wire, and put the wire on the new plug.

Tractor ran fine, actually noticeably better (replaced the air filter as well which was very dirty). I think the air filter made the biggest difference, last year I could really feel it struggling when engaging the PTO or mowing very tall grass, now it no longer struggles (I'm going to change the air filter more often). Ran it for 45 minutes or so mowing and then towing some pallets down to my neighbors house.

Anyone have this happen and what did you do? I'm thinking since it is running fine, I probably won't mess with it, but I might get another wire to have on hand just in case, and will probably swap it out the next time I change the plugs.

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[PWillette]

The plug wire is obviously compromised, just a matter of time before you have more issues...best to replace it IMO.

 

[cbrenthus]

I'm going to go ahead and replace both coil/wires - they're only $13 each, and I'll keep the one that didn't break as a spare. Writing it all down helped me think about it, and what I'm really thinking is that I often have a time constraint when mowing and I don't want it to break when I'm trying to get the lawn done say, during lunch or something or before it rains.

The whole reason I got into the riding mowers in the first place was to save time. In FL, I really wanted one for years but couldn't justify the cost with only ~5000 square feet of grass. Took me 30-45 minutes to mow with a standard walk behind. However, when our second daughter was on the way, I was able to justify a small tractor because I wanted to be able to mow quickly between naps. I think I got a 42" and sure enough my mow time was less than 20 minutes with it!


Bonus funny story to anyone reading: When my wife and I bought our first house in FL, she wanted to help with the lawn as well. So I showed her how to use the mower one day and she did. A few weeks later, she wanted to mow again and went out and did so. She came back in, covered with sweat and thoroughly exhausted! She said to me "I don't remember that mower being that hard to push!" She forgot the wheels were powered and pushed that thing all over the lawn!

 

[Brian_B]

Best thing you can do for it - get a fuel cutoff valve (if it doesn't already have one). Use that to shut it off rather than just turning the key off. It will probably continue to run for a few minutes but will eventually sputter out. That will drain the carb every time and help keep it from getting gunked up - that's the biggest killer on these smaller engines.

And occasionally changing the oil and air filters helps too.

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