John Deere LX178 PTO Starter or Clutch?

[Defiant]

Hi All,
I'm new here.
I bought a used 1995 John Deere LX178 about 3 years ago and it's been running great mostly. I've replaced all the belts, the blades and greased the bearings on the mower deck. I also replaced the PTO switch to the updated version as I had started having problems with the mower deck engaging sporadically. The switch helped in so much that it was easier to use than the older version, but over the past few months the deck has become more and more fickle as to when it would engage. When I would first start it up and pull the switch, it would always seem to engage, but if I had to stop and start again, it wouldn't always turn back on. Yesterday, the deck was on and as I was mowing the deck stopped. I pushed the switch down, pulled it back up and the deck started again, but then stopped again after a few seconds, this repeated until the time the deck would stay on went to zero.

My question is, does this sound like a PTO Starter or a PTO Clutch, and how can I go about checking to see where the problem is?

Any suggestions you all might have into how I can isolate the issue would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks!

Rich
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[bullbreaker]

First place to start checking is to make sure your battery is fully charged and test good even if it cranks mower.

 

[Defiant]

First place to start checking is to make sure your battery is fully charged and test good even if it cranks mower.

Okay, I'll test it. That's another thing that is relatively new (a year or 2 old), but I'll check it.

Thanks,

Rich
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[bscotmichael]

Having the same problem with my LX178. Did you ever get it figured out? Thanks