52 Mini Z PTO Problems

[rock creek]

Last month my PTO just stopped while I was mowing. I found wires melted and/or pulled out from the bottom of the clutch. My dealer indicated that it would require a new clutch which was installed May 27. Yesterday, I was mowing with about 4 hours on the new clutch when the PTO just stopped as I was mowing. I had started mowing and it ran fine for about 45 minutes. I inspected the mower and the wiring seemed fine and the fuse was fine. When I called the dealer he thought I needed a new PTO switch and said he should have one in a few days. Does anyone have an idea what this might be? It seems logical that a switch would just not work when engaged rather than fail after the clutch is engaged and the blades are working. Any advice you can give me would be appreciated.

[mowerconsultant]

Your dealer needs to look at the unit in person, and take a look at the harness that plugs into the clutch, also he needs to look at the relays.
Rarely is it as simple as a pto switch.
If he needs help, he can call us and we will walk him through it, sometimes electrical stuff can be tricky.

[rock creek]

PJ:

I picked up the PTO switch yesterday and installed it. The clutch still would not engage. I then did as you suggest, I carefully examined the wiring going from the clutch to the switch and, upon close examination, I found that the wiring had been installed without proper attention to the routing and with slack in the wire that allowed it to come into contact with one of the blade belts and it wore through the wire severing the red wire. I repaired the wire and made sure it was routed correctly with no slack that would allow it to contact the belt.

The mower runs fine now. I will email the service manager with this so that hopefully they will use more care to protect the wiring for the next customer.

Rock Creek