mtd cub cadet 2155 pto and ignition troubles

[mowngo]

Hey, I'm new and hope you can help me with a cub cadet 2155, it's my mothers and I cut her grass with it. It has less than 400 hours on it. Two problems;

1. When it gets hot the engine shuts off and won't start again until it cools off. I've heard of others having this same problem. I'm thinking ignition but have not taken anything apart, except to pull the spark plug and check for spark. Nada. No spark when hot. In hot weather I get less than a half acre cut when it shuts off.


2. Today the PTO quit working. A couple times in the past it didn't engage when I pulled the switch out, but usually I'd push the switch back in & pull it out a few times, and it would engage. This time it seems to be for good.

I take pretty good care of the machine. Clean it after each use, park it in the shed, top off with clean oil, etc... It's not neglected. We had an old IH cadet 109 or 106.... I forget, for thirtyone years. Nursed it along and sold it a few years ago & got the 2155. I don't even have a service manual for this one...

The headlights quit working and I checked the relay, took it apart and there was water inside. Rusty too. Must've gotten in there when I'd wash it. Not after every use, but whenever it needed it.

I have tools, but not wild about taking things apart randomly. Any advice is much appreciated. I'll be out of town for several days, but I'll be back here next week for sure.

Thanks in advance.

Steve

 

[hhv]

Try this site for an owners manual. http://manuals.mtdproducts.com/mtd/public/list.jsp
Scroll down when you get there to where you can download a PDF version. You will need the model and serial number.

I can't help with the ignition problem. However, the manual for my 2180 does not recommend using water to clean the tractor. I guess there are to many opportunities to damage components, especially electrical. Good luck.

 

[Mojoman]

I had the same problem with my 2166, and after a couple of trips into the dealer, they finally had found that the wires running to the pto clutch itself (I think, it's the 2 wires at the front of the engine hooked to the pto), were grounding out. I had noticed that they looked a little melted when it first started to act up, but they didn't think it was the problem. Check that when you can, maybe replace the harness from the pto to the next snap connector. Hopefully that's the problem, it would be an easy fix /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[JTKub]

I second what mojo says. Check the PTO, headlamp and whatever wiring is up front of the engine. Any wiring up that area is in a really tough spot since it's so close to the exhaust. A short in the (2 wire) PTO harness will cause the ignition to cut out.
G/luck
Joel

 

[Rhoderman]

... also, check all the safety interlock switches in line with the PTO. One of them might be giving up. You can temporarily bypass the interlock switches to see if that's what's causing your trouble.

For the ignition, it might be the coil getting too hot. The only way to tell for sure is to throw a new coil at it, or test your old one in an oven and use an ohmmeter to check it while it's hot. On the coil, there will be a kill wire. If that wire is grounded, it will kill the engine. If you can disconnect that wire only, you might be able to determine if it's something causing the engine to kill, or just a bad coil. On my old Ford YT16 I had, it was the coil getting too hot. It would run great until you shut it down hot, then it wouldn't spark until it had cooled down. Clean any air screens and filters to allow as much air across the engine as possible.

If you have compressed air, use that instead of water to clean it. Water has a tendency to get into places and cause rust where you really don't want it. A little dirt hanging around is a lot more desirable than rust or corrosion in my opinion. Water in a bearing will ruin your day.

Good Luck!

 

[Mojoman]

yep, that's one of the other possibilities they mentioned before they found the real culprit... the magneto, especially since they tend to go bad after a while on the cubs from what a dealer told me.

 

[mowngo]

Thanks for all the feedback. I checked for shorts very methodically and looked close for any possible troubles along the way. It turns out the wiring for the PTO runs through the headlamp relay. That relay being bad was the prime problem. I used a jumper to bypass the headlamp relay, (for the PTO side), and it worked fine.

On another note; I took out the electronics package at the flywheel, on the carb side of the cowling, and cleaned thick, heavy gunk off of it. That allowed it to stay cooler. I just finished cutting my yard and my neighbors yard, approximately twice as much lawn as I used to be able to cut before it would shut down due to overheating.

That headlamp relay messing with the PTO was not expected.

 

[thegrgyle]

I had the same problem as you did, and thanks to your post on this site, I was able to get the schematics and finally trace the problem with my tractor. I figured I would post it on here, so if someone else comes across the same problem, that they might learn from my mistake.

What it turned out to be was the harness that attached to the pto switch. One of the female parts inside the harness was busted, and therefore not making a good contact to complete a circuit for the tractor to start.

Unfortunately, in order to replace the harness, you had to buy the whole wireing bundle, which was like $90. I ended up just cutting the broken connecter out of the harness, cutting off the bad connector, crimping on a good connecter, and plugging it in. Has worked great.

I guess if I can tell someone is that make sure to check EVERY connection. I actually ended up doing some part swapping, and it wasn't until I basically had exhausted every avenue that I found my problem.

Hope this helps someone else in the future from spending some money on parts they didn't have to replace.

 

[kenny2112]

the problem I have is the wire to the pto (cub cadet zero turn) gets real hot, the pto works, but why would it get so hot. I replaced the wire with the same guage wire still the same problem. new ing switch and replaced pto switch. any insight would be helpful. thank you

 

[Gator6x4]

the problem I have is the wire to the pto (cub cadet zero turn) gets real hot, the pto works, but why would it get so hot. I replaced the wire with the same guage wire still the same problem. new ing switch and replaced pto switch. any insight would be helpful. thank you

Trace the wire backward from the PTO to the 12 volt power source. Look for a relay to take the heat being generate in the wiring to the PTO. Also the PTO may be dragging creating friction and increasing the AMP load. If no relay in the system consider purchasing a three prong relay at a auto parts store and adding it to the circuit. Wire one wire to the 12 volt source to the relay and one wire to a good ground then to the relay and the last prong to the PTO.