Repairs Ariens EZR 1542 won't start after electrical short.....

[O2Man]

At this point I think I'm ready to just set it on fire and burn it to the ground, or take it to the local scrap metal place, have it weighed and see what they will pay me just to get it out of my yard and sight. I can't figure this damn thing out and hate to think what a shop would charge me to figure it out and then fix it. If it isn't going to start or run either way, no need for it to sit around and take up space... Ugh

 

[BKBrown]

See inserts in quote.

I did some testing tonight (not sure I did everything right, but I think I did). Here is what I did and what I got:

Using a voltage/ohm meter, I touched the red prong to the positive battery terminal, as well as to the pin on the starter solenoid where the brown wire plugs into (from the key switch), and the black prong to the throttle cable, and I got continuity both times. I don't know if I did that test right, and/or if that means I have continuity to the throttle cable, but the ohm meter did beep steadily when hooked up that way. If you got continuity from positive battery terminal to throttle cable - I would say you have a direct short to that cable -- if that cable touches ground anywhere, I would think it would short out your battery -- disconnect that battery until you find the short !
I would need to see the wiring diagram, but I can't think of ANY reason the throttle cable should have continuity to the positive battery terminal. Unless it is a positive ground system (I doubt that) !

A couple of other things I noticed; When I tested the pins on the starter solenoid (with the black on the ground pin and the red on the brown wire pin), it had continuity all the time, both with the key switch turned off and on. The guy at the Gravely dealer told me that either meant my starter solenoid is bad or not bad, but I don't remember which one he told me.....

One other thing I checked is, I grounded the black wire on the voltage meter, and plugged the red one into the red&yellow wire that goes from the start relay to the fuel solenoid, and it had no continuity with the key on. Should it? I just wasn't sure if that was normal or not....

 

[KennyV]

If you have not fried your DVOM already you soon will... NEVER measure resistance continuity with power applied to the system... Like BKBrown said ... disconnect the battery at anytime you are measuring Ohms...

You can do a lot of trouble shooting, measuring voltages and voltage drops with the battery hooked up... but you will damage your meter if you are measuring continuity with power applied to the circuit... :smile:KennyV

 

[BKBrown]

Kenny is right - don't check continuity with the battery connected - you will fry your meter. I should have made that clear ! Check your PMs.

 

[O2Man]

Update: Have made some progress with the mower, but still not totally out of the woods or 100% normal...here's what I figured out today and what is going on now.

All along, my father-in-law suspected this piece that looks like a trailer plug type thing, #13 on the wiring diagram, a "Molded Diode plug". Well, when I took it into the mechanic at the local Ariens/Gravely dealer and told him where it hooked up to on the mower, etc, he told me that it didn't mean anything or do anything for my mower, that it was basically just a "filler" for where another wiring harness would normally plug in on other models, etc. Well, turns out that after figuring out one of the spots in that piece that apparently is supposed to have continuity or voltage but wasn't getting it, we kind of rigged it to where it would work, and *tada*, it starts and runs...sort of......

However, now it is doing a couple of things that aren't quite right and I'm not sure why. For one, the parking brake switch seems to be reversed now, meaning it will NOT start with the parking brake ENGAGED, but rather it will only start with the parking brake DISENGAGED....then, after starting right up and running AND mowing fine and well with the throttle set about midway (the little latch between slowest and full throttle), if I adjust the throttle down (to kick the idle down before shutting it down), it will sputter, die, AND blow the 30 amp fuse, but if I replace that 30A fuse and leave it running at that same throttle point, I can turn it off via the key and it doesn't effect the fuse at all, I can start it back up with no problem....

Any ideas what might cause what it has going on now? Could it be that molded diode plug just needs replaced altogether to make the proper connections and correct what it is doing, or do I still have wiring issues somewhere somehow??

 

[KennyV]

Did you measure the diode forward & reverse to see if it is bad ?? :smile:KennyV

 

[BKBrown]

Glad you have made progress !
Just in case - a diode only allows current flow in one direction - if it is bad you will get current flowing back thru that wire. It is there for a reason and if it is bad, it needs to be replaced. The bad diode might explain reversed brake switch issue ? (I guess you did find the brake switch) I would probably just replace it if it is questionable.

Did you ever find out what caused the short to your throttle cable ?

 

[O2Man]

Glad you have made progress !
Just in case - a diode only allows current flow in one direction - if it is bad you will get current flowing back thru that wire. It is there for a reason and if it is bad, it needs to be replaced. The bad diode might explain reversed brake switch issue ? (I guess you did find the brake switch) I would probably just replace it if it is questionable.

Did you ever find out what caused the short to your throttle cable ?

I wondered about that...I went ahead and called my Ariens dealer this morning and ordered a new molded diode plug, it is only $15 and we have figured out at this point that it is definitely part of the problem, if not THE whole problem. And if it being bad could cause the current flow to be opposite, that very well could explain the parking brake being reversed. Yes we did find the brake switch, it is actually on the underside of the frame below the engine area. We tested it and the switch itself appears to be fine, so I'm thinking that diode plug has thrown the brake's operation off. Still not sure what is causing it to blow that 30A fuse when I adjust the throttle downward, but I'm wondering if that too might have something to do with the connections to that diode plug being off? I have not found out directly what caused the short to the throttle cable, but the rig did run very well for the time I ran it last night (30-45 minutes) and it had no issues whatsoever with anything getting hot or shorting; only issues were these 2 things I mentioned, the brake seeming to be reversed, and it blowing that fuse when I reduce the throttle.....Hoping the new diode plug will fix both of those issues, then I'll be back in business totally!!

 

[O2Man]

Did you measure the diode forward & reverse to see if it is bad ?? :smile:KennyV

Hey Kenny, I had not tested the diode, mainly because I did not know there was a way to or how to; my father-in-law suspected that piece from the beginning but he was not sure either exactly what it was or if it was supposed to have current, etc. etc. I am guessing though by what the mower is doing now, that it must be bad or off, and it is fairly cheap, so I am just going to get a brand new one and swap it out, see if that will solve at least some if not all of my problems. My plug should be in Wednesday or Thursday (Ariens dealer had to order it), so I will update you guys on what it does after I switch it out!!

 

[O2Man]

I went out and tinkered with it a little more after work tonight, and noticed more issues with the throttle than what I found last night. When I move the throttle up, the idle slows down rather than speeding up, and within seconds, it dies and most of the time blows that 30A fuse. So basically what I experienced last night when moving the throttle downward, it does the same thing when I try to kick the throttle up.

So my question is, is it possible that the diode being bad could also cause this, and a new diode (ordered) will most likely fix all issues I am having? Or have any of you heard of this and is this issue seperate from the diode or something the diode won't fix??