Zero Turn Mower Problems

[Williy]

If you have any other pulleys on that deck I would suggest that
you check them also and then see if the spindles are spinning
freely as a frozen bearing on a spindle will sure ruin a belt

willy

 

[Jeff4]

I was checking with a storage oscilloscope. I'll check again later today.

 

[Jeff4]

If you have any other pulleys on that deck I would suggest that
you check them also and then see if the spindles are spinning
freely as a frozen bearing on a spindle will sure ruin a belt

willy

Thanks - all of the other spindles and the belt all look good

 

[Jeff4]

I was checking with a storage oscilloscope. I'll check again later today.

14.2V when I turn on the PTO.

 

[rgr33]

I can hear the pto clutch kick in when engaging the blades on my Exmark

I replaced the clutch last year, it was not difficult, but maybe check the Pto switch before assuming the clutch I’d bad.

 

[WinterDeere]

As a repair center I replaced 13 clutches last year for various reasons from burning the coils out to the friction disc breaking to seized or damaged bearings that look like the idler pulley in the picture or the anti-spin bracket breaking resulting in the wires being pulled out from the clutch

Most shops are using the xtreme ope clutches for replacement if available.

Exhaust leaks can also wipe them out, as I've found. I had a leaky muffler on an inherited Ztrak 757 (25 hp Kawasaki v-twin), and it sadly took me two or three clutch replacements before I found the true cause of the repeated problem, hot exhaust gas essentially cooking the coil packs in the clutch. The only way I caught it was by having to operate the mower after dark once, and then the completely-inaccessible leak behind the muffler became visible, as a hot blue jet pointed directly at the clutch.

On my final replacement, I also abandoned OEM and went with the xtreme OPE, but that caused me to suddenly start snapping the Deere OEM belts. There's a thread somewhere in the bowels of this forum on that, but switching from the OEM belt to a Kevlar-based belt eventually resolved that issue. Just be aware that the xtreme ope clutches can lock up much harder and faster than some of the OEM's.

 

[riptides]

14.2V when I turn on the PTO.

I can hear the pto clutch kick in when engaging the blades on my Exmark

I replaced the clutch last year, it was not difficult, but maybe check the Pto switch before assuming the clutch I’d bad.

Switches and all safety relays too.

 

[Jeff4]

Update:

Switches and relays are good. Idler pulley replaced

PTO clutch shows infinite resistance on an ohm meter and draws no current from my bench supply. Time to order a new clutch....

 

[Jeff4]

My new PTO clutch finally arrived and it turns out that the clutch was not the problem. Inside the connector at the clutch end of wiring harness to the clutch one of the spade lugs had separated so it wasn't making contact. I thought that I had checked everything, but I missed a simple easy fix....live and learn!

 

[Gator6x4]

My new PTO clutch finally arrived and it turns out that the clutch was not the problem. Inside the connector at the clutch end of wiring harness to the clutch one of the spade lugs had separated so it wasn't making contact. I thought that I had checked everything, but I missed a simple easy fix....live and learn!

Look at the bright side——You now have a spare so nothing will ever happen to the clutch again.