Electric Clutch

[mwagoner]

I have a 1989 Snapper LT16 Lawn Tractor, 16 hp Briggs & Stratton Twin v motor that uses an electric clutch to engage the mowing deck. If I mow for an hour and flip the switch to turn the deck off (to stop and pick up sticks or whatever) and then back on again it won't engage the deck. If I let it sit for a while, restart, and turn the deck on it will work until I turn it off again.
To make matters worse my battery seems to drain unusually quick (10 hours mowing time), sometimes requiring a charge just to start the mower. Once this charging process begins my mower deck will shut off by itself while mowing.
I think that somehow the recharging system is not working, I have had the charging ring tested and it seems to be okay. Does anyone have any ideas on what could be wrong????
Thanks,

Matt

 

[CamshaftLF]

mwagoner; Had the same problem, first check the charging, sym. There was a diode problem with the charging sym. The diode is around the battery area. Next on the electric clutch, there's four nut's that ajust the clutch, next time it's hot and it doe's that, take wrench or socket and turn the nut's like your tighting them a very little at a time. Till it starts to engage with the switch. Make shore you turn the nuts the same amount each.
I used to sell them tractor's.
If I remenber that was a purple diode, and there was a recall on them in the 80's !!!!

Camshaft in Pa.

 

[mwagoner]

Camshaft,
Thanks for the info I will try that as soon as I can.

Matt

 

[Anonymous Poster]

I know this is a fairly old post but here goes....
Your charging system is fine, what your problem is, is the electric pto clutch is failing. The electro-magnet is shorted internally (the windings) and it is drawing more amperage than your charging system can keep up with.
Hence the pto troubles.

 

[mwagoner]

Thanks for the info.
I still monitor the post to check for new ideas.
I had the problem occur again this past weekend.
Do I need to replace the clutch?
You mentioned it shorting, can I keep it from shorting out?
Any help will be appreciated.
Thanks again.

Matt

 

[Anonymous Poster]

To check it out properly you need to hook an ampmeter into the system, if it's drawing more than 5 amps when you turn the pto clutch on you have found the problem. You may be able to replace the electro-magnet only depending on the clutch design, but in most cases it's usually best to replace the whole assembly.

 

[riptides]

Yes, Once again I have dug deep into the knowledge bowels of TBN and resurrected an old post... forgive..

I think my electric clutch finally went out. Here are the symptoms before it stopped engaging the cutter...
..Battery would need to continually be recharged...
..Stopped engaging belts in mid-mow... heard a pop...
..Now when I engage the clutch, the engine dies...

So I have found the replacement part on the internet...
Yikes, reading the history of electric clutches, on TBN, ain't pretty. But I did get ten years out of this machine.

They are expensive, around 225.00 to my door.

How the heck do you get them off. I cannot turn the bolt without turning the whole engine. Is there a secret lock somewhere I can jam something into? I have tried holding the clutch while turning the bolt under the pulley, but I am not strong enough to hold and turn.

Thanks for any advice.
-Mike Z. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[J_J]

Use an impact wrench. Small effort required.

 

[Mith]

Did one at work on saturday,
take off cover and put a wrench of the flywheel bolt to hold the crankshaft still
It worked for us /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
hope this helps

 

[shortgut]

are you sure it is the clutch ? mine dird the same thing and the alt was not charging as the clutch takes a lot of juice to stay engaged just a thought let me know how it turns out Good luck Tony J

 

[Tim_in_IA]

If an electric clutch is failing could the deck work but stop working under load (ie hitting grass)? I have an Ariens rider that is doing that now. Everything runs good and the belt is tight enough, but when you start to mow the blades slow down for no reason.

 

[1962]

check out your charging system, check for shorts to ground. see the it is charging your battery. is the battery holding a charge? swap it out with another or have the battery checked. if you dont have enough current, the clutch won't hold. start at the electrical system, and if thats ok the clutch needs replaced. sometimes it might be something cheap and simple to fix... and other times expensive..

 

[spleen]

And if you don't happen to own an impact wrench - here's a trick that works very well.

Actually I'm cutting and pasting this from a post I did regarding a John Deere STX38, so some of the details may be different - but you can figure that out:

Remove your spark plug. Take a piece of clothesline and feed it into the cylinder through the sparkplug hole. Once you get enough in there, try removing the clutch bolt again. The rope will block the piston and keep it from making a full cycle, allowing you to remove the bolt.

The bolt is usually very tight so put some effort into it. It's so tight that sometimes people fear that it may be reverse threaded and they're going the wrong way. IT IS NOT REVERSE THREADED!!!! It's just a normal bolt.

The clothes line is soft and won't hurt anything.

Obviously use a good length of rope and leave a good length hanging out so you can pull it out easily when you're done.

A long thin pair of needle nose pliers helps a lot in feeding the line in since the spark plug hole is pretty deep in the head.

And you may find that if it's not going in easily that you have to turn the engine a bit to get the piston low in the cylinder to give you more room.

So it may take a few attempts, but it works well.

And once you get your bolt out - keep an eye on the clutch and parts as you remove it. It's not a one piece unit. The clutch itself can come apart, and there's a two inch (or so) collar that fits on the shaft. It's not complicated, but still, you'll feel better about putting everything back together if you've seen how it all came apart.

Good luck!