How to Fix the Motor of a John Deere Lawn Tractor

I just got lucky, my neighbor just gave me a free John Deere lawn tractor in running condition, it's hydrostatic. 38 inch cut with a Kawasaki motor, some grass catchers and a good quality Kawasaki motor. I think it's 16 horsepower, it actually seems to run perfect but it has a couple problems. He also gave me the 48 inch snow blower front attachment for it in perfect condition he hardly used it, but that's at the farm. Well the first problem with it isn't easy to fix but probably cheap. This little lever here on the side of the motor goes to a thing with weights on it that spin and move out and that's called the governor and it goes to the spring and throttle mechanism. Well, that governor is somehow disconnected inside the motor so when you move the throttle, the motor either revs way too high or way too low, it's really hard to find an RPM where it will work properly at. It just seems to go one way or the other so I actually have to remove the motor, split open the crank case and see what's wrong inside. The other problem is I think the o-rings going out of here; the dipstick goes in because oil comes out around there. And one more problem he said is when motor gets really hot it seems to misfire and cut out, I've already checked and there is no mousiness inside or grass buildup. So maybe when I have the engine oil throttle part, I can see, there's a rare problem where it could actually be the magneto coil heating up and malfunctioning under extreme heat or it could be because the motor is running at such high RPM sometimes that it's over heating. So let's take this pitch apart and see what she's got inside that motor and see what's going on. John Deeres are my favorite tractor that's what I use at my farm. Perfect day for doing this kind of work, just got the electric clutch off, it drives the blades, the little pulley that drives the rear wheels and now I'm draining the oil. I have to drain the oil because the spigot that comes out of the motor for oil drain is caught in the frame. If you don't remove the spigot then you can't get the motor out. So the motor is unbolted and it comes out with the exhaust system attached. Wires are off, just got to lift it now when the oil is done. Easy as that, nothing but a little oil. Now we can flip it over and pull the crank case cover off. Little gas running out of the carburetor but who cares, looks simple enough. Bolts are all out; let's see what's happening inside this beast. Well it's easy to see now when it went wrong. There's the o-ring and the oil dipstick goes through and the oil dipstick tube is all chewed off on the end and there is the governor, it's got a plastic gear and the plastic gear is all broken up for some reason and there's a chunk of it I found inside the crank case. So, looks cheap to fix and there's another part in there. I guess some other broken governor part, doesn't look like that hurt the motor and I guess he is at a counterweight to the governor. So we're off to the John Deere store to get some parts for the tractor and fix it all up. Over yonder, Farmer's heaven. Well as usual the parts are ordered, they will be in, in a couple of days. The governor is out, easy to go there, there's some of the pieces. So a new governor and a new dipstick tube because that was damaged, almost $15 later and we're laughing we're going to have a fixed lawn mower, I mean lawn tractor. Just pressed it on with my fingers, as simple as that. Now it's time for the big test, your motor is assembled, installed, should be where you fire up if the battery is still good, had to dump a bit of gas in the carb to prime it, since the carb was dry and drained, and then I'll have to readjust the governor by loosening that locknut and moving this arm on that shaft, the tiniest bit back and forth. This takes a bit of trial and error, so here we go. [Video Playing] I don't even think, I need to adjust the governor, seems just right. [Video Playing]