So my john deere ztrak 525e will not start. Battery is charged and cables are not corroded. I bought a new ignition key and installed it correctly. My digital work hours garage came on for like 5 seconds and then it went off. Re plugged the ignition switch and nothing. I got a hot wire and stuck it to the plug ends and got the digital gauge to come back on but when I tried to make it start with another wore I messed up and touched the wrong plug prong and shorted it out I guess. I checked the fuses and my 7.5 amp was broken. I replaced it with a brand new one and my mower still will not even turn on the digital Guage. Any help or advice is greatly appriciated.
The only common electrical problem I come across with EZ series JD's is the fuse box overheating and melting
You can not do any better than by buying a copy of the JD technical manual.
Not cheap but a lot less than sending it to a workshop and the most comprehensive service manual, written in plain english in a mannar that every one could understand
#3
smalltimerpm
Sounds maybe like a loose or broken connection on the main accessorie wire somewhere. That's if your not getting any power at all to switch???
#4
StarTech
As Bert noted the fuse box may be the problem.
Also note the 7.5 amp fuse is the PTO clutch fuse which indicates a partially shorted electric clutch.
The power supply to the fuse box is two wires that each go to a double connector
The usual thing is you get a bad ground which causes to power return wire to overheat which melts the plastic fuse box.
Once this happens the fuses only just barely touch which causes arcing.
Bad bit is JD only sell the fuse box with the wires attached $$$$$$
Good new is the fuse box is commonly used for headlights on a lot of US cars up till the late 90's and apparently is often found in auto stores quite cheap although you will need to be a bit creative doing the crimp on the double contact
#6
StarTech
Sorry Bert in this case the fuse center components are available separately from the wiring harness.
Sanity prevails
I have only done them on the smaller EZ's 225, 335 & 353 so made the assumption that the same applied for all the EZ range
#9
StarTech
Now I only done a Z425 that a melted fuse box and that one is only available with the harness but I did the exactly same fuse box off Amazon with terminals and from Mouser but the Mouser only had individual terminals available and not the strip of terminals.
I originally bought the 4 common wire terminals and cut 2 of them up to make the 2 feeds
However we might be jumping the gun & his fuse box might be fine.
FWIW every time this has happened it was after I got called out for a no start, or no charge situation and found the ground wire loose or falling off the engine
I eventually deformed some nuts with a chisel so they would not back off in use .
#11
StarTech
Yes we might be as you know as well as me that things must troubleshooted down to the cause before we can say what it is exactly. Sometimes it is the simplest thing that can be the problem and other it is something major.
#12
VRR.DYNDNS>BIZ
I seldom have to revert to blind replacement. As advised, buy the manual. Do some diagnostics, symptoms tell us many possible factors, diagnostics traces root cause and until root cause is found or fixed, no solution will happen and blind replacement may aggravate or cause more problems.
