Cub rzt50-pto

[dlsparrow]

I have a nine year old rzt50 that was bought new and have been mostly satisfied with the performance. However, two mowings ago and yesterday, I had trouble engaging the PTO after mowing the majority of my 3/4 acre lot. Once the mower cooled down, I was able to engage the blades. Two years ago I had to replace the clutch so I have ruled out replacing the clutch again. The dealer told me that when it starts to blow fuses, that is a sign the clutch is on it's last leg. That is not the case with my current problem. I also disconnected the annoying safety feature the disengages the clutch every time I would I reversed direction which seems like a lot of wear and tear on the clutch. The dealer would not disconnect the switch but explain how I could easily unplug the feature.
I feel this problem is a switch that is going bad.....either the pull knob/switch or some other electrical switch on the mower. Has anyone else experienced this or have an idea of what could be going on????

 

[mguitas]

:welcome:to the tractorbynet.

 

[deerseeker001]

Welcome from Wisconsin

 

[The kid]

Secure a service manual and check your charging circuit. Blowing fuses would indicate a bad regulator/rectifier or stator. Low voltage would indicate your batter not charging properly and the electromagic dropping out due to that. Good luck and welcome to TractorByNet.

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[Briana03]

Welcome to TractorByNet!

We moved your thread to the Cub Cadet L&G forum.

 

[dlsparrow]

thanks...I will give that a shot but so far, I have not found a blown fuse....unlike two years ago when it was constantly blowing fuses and the clutch finally quit working.

 

[The kid]

thanks...I will give that a shot but so far, I have not found a blown fuse....unlike two years ago when it was constantly blowing fuses and the clutch finally quit working.

The clutch is nothing more than an electromagnet that operates at a certain voltage. Lower the operating voltage and the amp drain greatly increases and could blow a fuse. The problem I found was the magneto which has magnets that spins around the stator (alternator). One or more of the magnets let go due to poor adhesive and destroyed the stator. It cleared itself and the engine continued to run. But after that point it no longer charged the battery. I had to order a new magneto (flywheel) and bought a used stator and new rectifier off ebay and all is well. No more clutch drop out. What was happening in my case. i'd charge the battery and about half way thru five acres the clutch would no longer engage. Thinking it was getting hot, I let it sit. Hour later cranked it up and the clutch engaged. So I figured it was a heat problem. (Simply the battery resting back to normal voltage) Then one day I decided to measure the voltage and found it wasn't charging. The rest is history.

The stator puts out around 18VAC (two wires) to a bridge rectifier (outside two terminals) and 13-14VDC out the center terminal to keep the battery charged. Using a multimeter, disconnect the three wires on the rectifier and measure resistance from center to outside, reverse the leads and do again. Do this for both outside to center terminals. They should be close in resistance. If not, you have a bad rectifier and your charging circuit is not working correctly.

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[RandyT]

Does the clutch have the three bolts, and nuts at each corner. If so there is a slot next to each bolt, try putting a feeler gauge in there between the plates, and then adjust the bolts to give you like .012-.016 clearance all the way around. If they get very far out of adjustment sometimes they will not reingage while warm.

 

[dlsparrow]

Thanks a bunch!!! That sounds like exactly what is happening. I did mow today and once I finished, thought I would give it a test....wouldn't you know that it engaged just as it should. However, after reading your reply, I can now test is and see if it is charging as it should...thanks again, this is very helpful.