Hi fella's, complete newbie to ride on mowers here, just been gifted a ride on mower, don't know what make, but it has a Briggs and Stratton 13.5hp single cyl petrol engine and a twin cutting deck driven of the bottom of the crankshaft (or not in this case)! By a pulley and drive belt. It's all there and all looks ok but when drive to the cutters is selected, by a seven position lever for different cutting heights, the drive pulley on the crank is not turning for some reason, drive to the wheels works perfectly, I should mention the mower hasn't been used for a couple years, any opinions appreciated, thanks
Ok, finally been up to the workshop and got what details I could find, so, it's badged as a "Twin cut Classic by Castelgarden" made by GGP Italy spa, built 2008 s/n. 195985
The engine is labelled Briggs and Stratton 13.5 Hp I/C s/n 080104ZA27128 build 01/08
Thanks for any help or information
#4
BlazNT
Lets start at the point of not knowing anything about ride on mowers.
1. For the blade to cut grass you have to engage the belt with either a PTO push pull button or a lever. In your case the lever is right hand side of steering wheel.
2. For the blades to cut at a particular height you have to adjust the deck height. In your case the 7 position lever.
Thanks for your quick reply, there is no lever to the right of the steering column but there is a red push/pull button, with this button in the pushed down position the engine runs, if I pull the red button up the engine stops, so I presumed that it was a engine kill button working the wrong way round
#6
BlazNT
Does it look like this?
#7
BlazNT
We could really use a model number. Things are going to get serious. Just kidding but I will not make more stupid mistakes like the PTO lever that is a PTO switch.
Lets start at the point of not knowing anything about ride on mowers.
1. For the blade to cut grass you have to engage the belt with either a PTO push pull button or a lever. In your case the lever is right hand side of steering wheel.
2. For the blades to cut at a particular height you have to adjust the deck height. In your case the 7 position lever.
No defineately not a rebadged Honda .
it is made by Stiga - GGP the largest manufacturer of garder care products in the world.
After Electroluxe sold off Husqvarna and Husqvarna went out on a buying spree dozens of smaller European manufacturers merged / took over/ got taken over etc etc ending in this massive Europen conglomerate Global Garden Products.
As it was Husqvqrna just about abandoned Europe concentrating on becoming a dominant player in the North American market so the panic conglomeration was not really necessary.
Now to the OP's original problem.
It looks like you have a problem with the PTO/ seat switch
If the PTO switch gets ( or dosn't get ) a signal from the seat switch it will kill the engine when you turn on the blades.
This electrical problem could very well be why it was sitting in a shed for years.
I can not find a specific wiring diagram for your mower so this will be general information.
Start the engine, take the hand brake off then get off the seat.
If the seat switch is working properly the mower will stop.
If it does not stop the seat switch is either bad or some ham fisted idiot no brained moron decide to make an attempt to bypass it because they saw some one on You Tube do it.
Now locate the ignition kill wire from the coil.
On that motor it should be a single black wire in a funny round joining plug hiding behind the starter motor.
Disconnect it .
Start the mower and engage the PTO switch.
The clutch should energise and the blades should spin.
If so the PTO switch is OK
if not the PTO switch , the PTO clutch or the wiring between them is broken.
If the mower does not sart you have undone the wrong wire so then remove the engine cover and trace the thin wire from the coil back to the plug.
Safety Note, do not even think of using the mower with the kill wire dissabled as there will be no way to stop it.
From here on it will gt a little more difficult & we need to know how well you know electrickery & what type of test gear you have.
Do not think about replacing parts untill it is confirmed without doubt that it needs to be done.
Most people on this list are from the USA so are used to buying parts for around 1/4 what you pay for them in the UK.
Thanks for the help boys, the seat switch is working as it should so as soon as I can I'll try disconnecting the black "kill wire" from the coil and see what happens, will report back Asap, thanks again.
No defineately not a rebadged Honda .
it is made by Stiga - GGP the largest manufacturer of garder care products in the world.
After Electroluxe sold off Husqvarna and Husqvarna went out on a buying spree dozens of smaller European manufacturers merged / took over/ got taken over etc etc ending in this massive Europen conglomerate Global Garden Products.
As it was Husqvqrna just about abandoned Europe concentrating on becoming a dominant player in the North American market so the panic conglomeration was not really necessary.
Ok, so did as you suggested,still not working, hmm?, ok then out with the pto switch pulled of the connector and gave the orange wire to the clutch 12volts, nice heavy clunk from the clutch operating, so is it the switch? or is no 12v coming back from the pcb to trigger the orange wire?.
I can see the obvious way around the problem but I'm interested now to know where the problem is and how to fix it properly, what's your thoughts lads?, thanks again for all the input and help.
#13
BlazNT
Picture of the back of the switch and I should be able to tell you how to test it. For sure you need to test all wires for 12v with engine running. If you don't have 12v then we need to track that down. If you have 12v then the switch is bad.
