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I have an rzt50 with a 26hp B/S motor I am having trouble with. I installed a new pto switch and a new pto clutch, but the mower will not engage the blades. Can anyone give me a suggestion as to why its not working. I can drive it around it runs great but the blades won't kick in. Any help is appreciated.

Seat switch is faulty
With the engine off and you in the seat the clutch should engage & dissengage as you push & pull the switch with a resounding klunk .
If not check the plug , with some one sitting in the seat . Check both side of the switch as some switch the + side and others switch the - side
The clutch has it's own fuse so dont forget to check that it has not blown.
Clutch fuse is usually 10 A or under
Mower fuse is usually 20 A
And to make life difficult they are rarely placed together .

Also can be that both reverse switches are burned out.

StarTech said:

Also can be that both reverse switches are burned out.

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Reverse switches on a ZTR ?

Yes Cub Cadet RZT (residental zero turn) uses reverse switches to disable the PTO clutch in full reverse. They are wired in parallel so you can turn in a backwards mode with the PTO is active but not in full reverse. As you come back out of full reverse the PTO re-engages automatically.

See page 4 for air gap adjustment PTO clutch. Also see pages 20-22 in RZT 2004-2005-Manual concerning PTO switch. Seat switch is on page 20. Wiring schematics are on pages 25 & 26. Make sure ground wire from PTO clutch to frame is tight.
Be sure to Burnish your new clutch, scroll down page to click on questions for proper procedure. Let us know how it goes DougA, thanks, Mark

StarTech said:

Yes Cub Cadet RZT (residental zero turn) uses reverse switches to disable the PTO clutch in full reverse. They are wired in parallel so you can turn in a backwards mode with the PTO is active but not in full reverse. As you come back out of full reverse the PTO re-engages automatically.
View attachment 54371

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Learn some thing new every day
Thank you

I am not sure if it is mandated on residential zero turns but quite a few of the residential box store mowers i have worked on have that feature. None of the commercial ones do. Maybe it is like the tractor mowers that kill the engine if you reverse with the blades engaged.

I really try to avoid working on big box ZTR.s
had nothing but trouble with a couple of craftsmans
Got a customer with the biggest piece of trash Husqvarna with a manual PTO that eats 2 belts a season.
I do hae a few JD EZ series and they tend to restore ones faith and a few of the steering wheel Cubs
After that all commercials .

Hammermechanicman said:

I am not sure if it is mandated on residential zero turns but quite a few of the residential box store mowers i have worked on have that feature. None of the commercial ones do. Maybe it is like the tractor mowers that kill the engine if you reverse with the blades engaged.

Click to expand...

Similar but the Cub Cadet RTZ system disengages the PTO clutch only. On some riding mowers the reverse system kills PTO only also but the operator must cycle the PTO switch to re-engage the PTO once going forward again.

With RTZ system if back over an object as soon you pull the lap bar out reverse you go ahead just make mince meat out whatever you ran over.

Kinda wondering which Husqvarna ZTR that has a manual PTO as I haven't seen one here.

Down here they are the RZ series from the RZ3016 through to the RZ4219 BF / 966582201 .
After that they get electric PTO's

That explains it as haven't seen any 42" Husqvarna ZTRs, just Toro and Hustlers. I even seen a little 34" Ariens but all had electric PTOs.

The single blade ( Ex-Dixon ) design is not too bad but the twin blade deck is too shallow front back so the tension arm is too far forward causing the belt to run against itself .
Then there is not enough stabilization of the deck fore / aft so you get violent belt snatching and the belt run is too long for a 1/2" belt without some idlers for support.
Since you lot reduced the blade tip speed & killed off the 2 blade decks between 42" & 50" the 42" deck is THE deck down here.
Three blade decks add about $ 500 to the price of the mower and 48" is the widest deck that fits inside a standard trailer so 1/2 a G for an extra 6" cut aint going to sell
Wide body trailers cost a small fortune to buy , register & in particular to insure so only local makers do a 44"or 46" 2 blade deck but they are near double the price of imported mowers so I only see a small number of them owned by my most intelligent customers who mostly do their own maintenance.