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First post on this forum so Hello to everyone.

I'm new to John Deere and Kawasaki but I have wanted one with a Kawasaki for a while.
I bought a used 2008 X300 a couple of weeks ago for $80 that had been sitting in the elements for the past year/not running. It was abandoned when the owner couldn't get the PTO to engage other than direct jumper to the battery without the engine running. He suspected the ECU but wasn't sure.

I finally got the engine running and tuned yesterday after spending hours reading the Tech manual and performing the component test several times trying to figure out all the issues.
But I just can't get more than 5-6 VDC feeding the blue PTO wire coming from the ECU. If I run the engine and jumper the blue wire in the back of the fuse directly to the battery the clutch will engage but I believe it's grounding the ignition coils in the process due to the engine killing/with or without the deck belt attached.

I have checked all components including the clutch and everything is as it's suppose to be according to the Tech manual including Key Switch, starter relay, brake switch, reverse switch(checked that by measuring voltage on pink wire at ECU pressing the reverse pedal), PTO switch and clutch. All except that the clutch pulls about 3.6 ohms instead of 3.3 ohms. Because the engine dies as soon as the clutch is engaged I don't have time to measure the current draw to the clutch.

Everything I've been reading points to the ECU but I'm afraid to buy a new one without knowing what killed the one in there now. Could the clutch drawing a few more ohms have killed the ECU, or maybe a bad battery jump at some point in the mowers life?

Any and all comments are welcome and desired. So if you know what could be causing the low voltage to the clutch please chime in.

Thanks in advance;
Randy

UPDATE;;;

So this afternoon I disconnected the grounding wire to the ignition coils and jumped the PTO clutch to the battery.
I was surprised to discover that even though the ignition grounded when I jumped the carb solenoid stayed open alowing the engine to stay running with the deck spinning.

So now I know the clutch is good and the probable fix would be to change the ECU. But for now instead of spending $60 bucks on a new ECU that will force me to pull up on the PTO button to back up OR I rig up the clutch to jump on battery by using the E (empty) terminal of the PTO switch which has continuity with the D terminal passing 12 VDC to the clutch both forward and reverse.

Anyone see a potential problem with that scenario?

I don't have a clue as to how to help with your problem, but I find it interesting and hope you continue to post. I'd like to hear your final solution. Good luck.

Mowing with the mowers where you must kill the deck to back up is a pain, however all of them I have seen that way is the residential mowers and for safety in my opinion it would be the best to leave it like factory.
When you start re-routing wiring the small problem is other areas could become overloaded, do I think the jump would cause this No I don't, but again my opinion it is best to leave it OEM.

Hey BillyP...thanks for your interest. I will follow through with the end result when I get there.

Thank you Nwatson for your input on the issue I'm dealing with. Your advice is welcome with regard to wiring mods. However I disagree with you regarding the RIO on the modern residential mowers.

Although I use residential machines when I mow mine and other people's yards, I don't have any clients with either children or pets to be concerned about so that's not really an issue here. I guess when I asked "Anyone see a potential problem with that scenario?" I left myself wide open.

I also think some people may need a deterrent to cutting in reverse I personally only do it to make course correction since I'm not on a ZTR. Do ZTR's kill when making a 180 or 360 by the way?

If you pull into an area that you have no other way of getting back out into the yard does a ZTR kill on you then. I don't know; I'm just asking. Seems kinda counter-productive to me.

In conclusion; I'm not offended by your opinion Watson, just by the idea of the RIO in principal.

rangid said:

In conclusion; I'm not offended by your opinion Watson, just by the idea of the RIO in principal.

Click to expand...

and that is why I will only own a Commercial JD Ztrak, I mow 6.5 to 10 acres per week and I do not have time for that foolishness.

Thank you...that's what I thought.
Appreciate your honesty.

rangid said:

Thank you...that's what I thought.
Appreciate your honesty.

Click to expand...

Did you jump it out?

I finally cut grass with the mower yesterday afternoon but only using the direct jumper from the battery to the blue wire in back of the 7.5 amp fuse. I really love this mowers ride and cut.

I briefly tried using the two poles on the PTO switch for the jump, but there wasn't any voltage going to the purple wire (terminal D). Probably the ECU blocking due to whatever.

I will have all day Saturday to play with the machine including cleanup, chassis lube and deck touchup.

I wanted to post page 353 of the tech manual but not sure yet how to post a single page yet. I could use direction on this anyone.

Thanks

Two small things that I am sure you have checked but I didn't see them on your list.

1. I had a cheap Cub Cadet and had a similar issue and it turned out to be the battery. Now my battery was so bad that I had to jump the mower off but even after it was running the engine would die when you engaged the blades. I replaced the battery and it didnt do it any more.

2. Seat switch? Again you have probably checked that but you didn't mention it in your first post.

I know these seem simple but every time I work on anything I (not saying that you do but I do) tend to overlook the simplest things.

I think I read that post and gave it some thought; and considered changing the battery.

May have forgotten to mention the seat switch but it is good.
I guess it's possible that the ECU has to have a fully charged battery to put 12 volts through the blue (clutch) wire but the battery is fully charged and there's no problem with running the deck when jumped.

But since I could use a battery on my Snapper RER anyway and the one on the X300 will be plenty for the 16hp Vangard, I will buy a battery for the x300 and recycle the old one to the Snapper.
Not sure when I'm going to do this though; maybe over the weekend.

Thanks for reminding me of that post because I had already put it out of my mind.

Randy

I came to the conclusion that the ECU was only feeding 6 volts to the pto with a fully charged battery and all safety switches working as they should so it must be the bad part.

My solution was to jump the gray wire from the pto to the blue wire at the fuse block enabling me to use the pto switch to run the deck instead of adding a toggle somewhere for a direct jump to the battery.

I cut the blue wire and the gray wire adding connectors in case I ever want to buy a new ECU. Just reconnect the blue back to blue and the gray back to gray.

By cutting the gray wire from the pto switch and jumping directly to the blue wire I also installed an inline 5 amp fuse to keep the circuit protected.
The gray wire gets 12 volts from the yellow wire when the pto switch is put on.

The key here is that you also have to disconnect the grounding wire to the coils in the area where the white wire feeding 12 volts to the carb solenoid.
When you turn the key to off it no longer grounds the coils, but it kills voltage to the carb which kills the engine after about one second. You can also kill the engine by chocking it if you need a second method.

I also don't have to worry about pulling up on the pto switch to cut in reverse. So it's a win-win for me.

Thanks for everyone's interest.

Randy

Final update on this issue;

I didn't like that I lost my hour counter and the fact that it took 2 or 3 seconds for the motor to cut off when I turn the key to shut down after.

So I've been watching ebay for a new Interlock module at a good price and eventually last week one popped up for less than $40 free shipping New in box.

I just came in today so I put the wiring back the way it belongs including the coil grounding wire; installed the new module and presto chango...works like it's suppose to.

I will try using it the mower with the RIO factory setting to kill mower when reversing if the PTO handle isn't pulled up and see if I can get used to it.

If not I will bypass the reverse mode. But it's nice to have the electrics the way was intended from the factory.

That's all folks;