Smoke escaped

[east_tn_emc]

We have two Ferris Procut 20 mowers. One was purchased in 1989 and still going until a few weeks ago.

Father-in-law was cleaning it up after using it for a couple of hours. When he went to restart it, all the smoke contained inside the wiring escaped.

It still runs, but a good bit of the wiring is partially melted and charred.

Glad the whole thing didnt go up-in-smoke.

I guess I have a re-wiring job in my near future. Woopie...

 

[m&p45]

We have two Ferris Procut 20 mowers. One was purchased in 1989 and still going until a few weeks ago.

Father-in-law was cleaning it up after using it for a couple of hours. When he went to restart it, all the smoke contained inside the wiring escaped.

It still runs, but a good bit of the wiring is partially melted and charred.

Glad the whole thing didnt go up-in-smoke.

I guess I have a re-wiring job in my near future. Woopie...

Man I hate when that smoke get out. Sounds like you got a few years out of it though. Good luck on the re-wiring

 

[east_tn_emc]

I finally had a few hours free today to start looking at it. Turns out it was just the wires running down to the clutch. I started studying the wiring diagram in-depth and found something that bothers me. The manual shows NO FUSE between the battery and the electric clutch for the mower deck. I am going to add one. I dont think I would have had this melt-down if there would have been a fuse in the circuit.

 

[east_tn_emc]

After starting to rewire and investigate a little further, it looks like root-cause of the problem was the electric clutch shorting out.

The clutch is reading less than 0.5 ohms and the wires going into the clutch coil are melted.

 

[east_tn_emc]

Just to follow-up...replaced the clutch and rewired the wiring from the deck-switch down to the clutch. Also realized there was no fuse between the battery and the clutch. I installed a 20-amp fuse to keep this from happening again.

 

[okiepc]

Thanks for the follow up, you would think the manufacturer might consider a fuse for things like this. I guess it saves them 25 cents & you can rewire it on your time, crazy. :frown: