Toro 2014 Commercial 2000 PTO Safety Switch Issue

[NickTF]

I took my 2014 Toro 2000 machine in to have it serviced and it will be a few days before they get to it so I figured I'd see what folks thought the issue is prior to that time. In short, I believe I have a bad safety switch associated with the PTO engagement. The PTO engages and disengages fine and I have no issues there. The issue is the mower inconsistently acts like the PTO isn't disengaged when I have infact disengaged it. The behavior includes:
-I can't get off the seat with the parking brake engaged and the hydro levers in full out position with the pto disengaged or the mower will stall as if the pto is still engaged (i.e. the safety switch is kicked)
-once this happens the mower will not start again considering it believes the PTO is engaged.
-I have made sure the parking brake and the two hydro levers are contacting the safety switches, this is not the issue
-I have fooled around with a few of the harness plugs between the rear seat and front of the engine by pulling them apart partially and plugging them back in and it appears to fix the problem temporarily until it sporadically shows back up after mowing.

I'm assuming it is most likely a loose harness cable or a sticking relay of sorts. I don't believe it is anything with the PTO given the mower appears to work as required until I turn it off. Machine has about 120 hours on it.

Any thoughts? I would presume the dealer will find this problem easily and warranty it. If not I would like to be prepared for things to investigate.

Thanks.

 

[John R]

I would say if your dealer is any good at all, they should be able find the problem, and fix it.

 

[BlazNT]

The safety switches you speak of are simple monetary switches. Unplugging a harness would not change their behavior. They are either on or off. Even if broken they are still either on or off but not changing from on to off. Depending on how your PTO switch works it could be the problem. But without the mower for testing all we can really do is guess.

 

[Ric]

I took my 2014 Toro 2000 machine in to have it serviced and it will be a few days before they get to it so I figured I'd see what folks thought the issue is prior to that time. In short, I believe I have a bad safety switch associated with the PTO engagement. The PTO engages and disengages fine and I have no issues there. The issue is the mower inconsistently acts like the PTO isn't disengaged when I have infact disengaged it. The behavior includes:
-I can't get off the seat with the parking brake engaged and the hydro levers in full out position with the pto disengaged or the mower will stall as if the pto is still engaged (i.e. the safety switch is kicked)
-once this happens the mower will not start again considering it believes the PTO is engaged.
-I have made sure the parking brake and the two hydro levers are contacting the safety switches, this is not the issue
-I have fooled around with a few of the harness plugs between the rear seat and front of the engine by pulling them apart partially and plugging them back in and it appears to fix the problem temporarily until it sporadically shows back up after mowing.

I'm assuming it is most likely a loose harness cable or a sticking relay of sorts. I don't believe it is anything with the PTO given the mower appears to work as required until I turn it off. Machine has about 120 hours on it.

Any thoughts? I would presume the dealer will find this problem easily and warranty it. If not I would like to be prepared for things to investigate.

Thanks.

I would guess by your description the first thing I'd look at and replace would be the PTO switch itself. I had a mower that was doing what you described and I thought the same thing, the problem is a safety switch but it wasn't the case.

 

[NickTF]

I would guess by your description the first thing I'd look at and replace would be the PTO switch itself. I had a mower that was doing what you described and I thought the same thing, the problem is a safety switch but it wasn't the case.

Good deal. I would assume that the PTO safety function isn't similar to the hydro lever or brake safety switches (a button that has to be depressed) but the PTO safety function is part of the switch itself (hence why the switch may need to be replaced)??? Hopefully I should hear something today, they were a bit backed up.

 

[NickTF]

Dealer stuck a new PTO switch in under warranty. From what I gathered from them the PTO switch is also essentially the safety switch for making sure the mower doesn't start with the PTO engaged and shutting the mower off when coming off the seat with the PTO engaged.