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Hey everybody! It's great to see such an active forum with other Lazer Z owners! I have had mine for about 10 years now, it's a water cooled 60" Zero Degree mower and I've never had any problems until now. I was mowing and it just stopped. So I disengaged the blades and tried to start it back up and my key turned, letting me know all my safety stuff was working, but the voltage gauge didn't even move and the mower did nothing. So I started looking and I found what I think is the inline fuse for the ignition because there was a 20A blade fuse and a 30A blade fuse. The 20 was blown so I replaced it. Now, when I turn the key my voltage meter works like it always has but when I try to start it, it just makes a loud thump like something is keeping the engine from turning over. I took the starter off just to confirm it was OK and sure enough the guy at the starter shop put it in a vice and gave it some juice and said yeap, starter rings look good and the solenoid is good. I've just put the starter back in and no dice, all I get is the same loud thump. Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks a lot I really appreciate any help any of you care to offer.

Fuses don't just "blow" because they crave attention or "give up". So the fuse is NOT the problem, but rather a symptom of the problem. Look at a schematic for the mower and see what that fuse controls. Probably several things connected to that fuse. If there are no obviously burned up items in that list, then you can disconnect all of them and then re-connect one at a time AND testing each item before connecting the next item.

Hope this helps.

Born2Mow said:

Fuses don't just "blow" because they crave attention or "give up". So the fuse is NOT the problem, but rather a symptom of the problem. Look at a schematic for the mower and see what that fuse controls. Probably several things connected to that fuse. If there are no obviously burned up items in that list, then you can disconnect all of them and then re-connect one at a time AND testing each item before connecting the next item.

Hope this helps.

Click to expand...

Yeah, that is exactly what I have been telling my dad this entire time. It's his lawnmower I'm trying to fix. So just to make sure I'm following you, when you say test you mean put a voltmeter on it and see if it's getting 12V yeah?

BEcause ZTR's wiring is a lot more exposed to the elements than a tractor style mower , they tend to suffer more corrosion problems, and in particular the fuse holders and relay bases.
Start with removing the battery leads and cleaning both ends and where they connect to the mower .
And don't exclude the chances of two different problems
So try to turn the engine over by hand .
If you can't turn it at all then take the plugs out & try again
Still no joy , check the dipstick .
If it turns a little one way and then back the same amount pull the flywheel off & look for a loose magnet or a bit of magnetic gravel .

sfexmark said:

So just to make sure I'm following you, when you say test you mean put a voltmeter on it and see if it's getting 12V yeah?

Click to expand...

No, that would not completely test the device or the wiring going to the device. A test lamp only tells you voltage is present, and nothing about the available current. For instance, 10V at 1/50A will allow a test lamp to "work", but not much else. Certainly not a PTO.

Lets say the PTO, ignition and head lamps (and only those 3 items) are on that particular fuse. Unplug the PTO and head lamps and see if the engine starts and runs OK. If that's OK, then it's OK to leave that connected and re-connect the lights. Test the lights with and without the engine running. If they seem OK, then leave them connected. Then move on to the last item. You must use a very systematic procedure to test.

If you don't employ a system, then you end up jumping around and wasting lots of time and energy. Might even waste time on a device that's not even part of that fuse's circuit.

Thanks for the help guys!

So before I saw Born2Mow's reply, I looked around some more and the more I did, the more suspect I was of the electric clutch. I took the belt off the pulley and removed the stabilizer bar from the clutch (so the entire assembly could rotate) and sure enough, when I hit start my engine fired up. So it appears safe to assume the electric clutch is locked up yeah?

Also, what does PTO stand for here?

Does anyone know how to remove this clutch? I can get another picture from a different angle since I just took this one to lookup the part...