PTO Issues

Picked up a 2000 Cub Cadet 3184 with just over 300 hrs 2 years ago & have been fighting it since. There is a fuel issue but that's not the big problem. Starts & runs great till you engage the PTO. It may cut for 10 minutes or maybe for half an hour, never the same twice. I think it would run all day without the PTO but once engaged you never know how long you have before it starts to miss. It keeps getting worse till it dies. I found if you shut off the PTO when it starts missing it will smooth out in a few seconds then you can try AGAIN! End of last season it took 19 times shutting off the PTO in the first 15 or 20 minutes to stay running then I finished the yard & had to shut the mower off. There seems to be NO RHYME OR REASON for why it acts this way. Any ideas what it might be???

Its a possible charging issue. A meter on the battery will verify if it is or isn't.

:welcome:

I'm going to move your thread over to our Cub Cadet section to see if we can find you some more advice

Slip the fuel line off the carb , crank the engine for a few seconds and measure how much fuel is pumped
Get some sort of external fuel tank and something to clamp off the fuel line with.
When it pays up disconnect the fuel line to the carb and crank the engine for a few seconds.
Compare that to the earlier one
Slip the alternative tank on and see if it is better.

I am working on the assumption you have debris in the tank that gets sucked into the outlet and plugs it off.
When the PTO is on the carb butterfly is open further so the fuel demand is higher.
The debris prevents the full flow of fuel so the pump can not keep up so the mower stops.

Second suspect is the fuel pump itself these can clog up or the diaphragm can rupture .