Toro ss4235 cutting out when handles pulled in - video

The lever switches work, they have 1 wire in and 1 wire out, and moving either one will kill the engine, so they are obviously working.

Testing of the keyswitch, and the kill wire and the fuel solenoid are just the next steps I would do to isolate things, because it is well known that you cannot bring
electrical items back.

Trying to visualize and find this actuator on the lookup ain't easy, it is #32 on this pic. And has mechanical arms/levers attached, so you might do a visual inspection and
make sure that nothing has just come loose on the mechanical side. As the mechanical arms may also impact the function of the module, I don't know, so if you could
snap a pic or two, and take those voltage readings, maybe a person familiar with the Toros will chime in....

Oooooppps, here is the pic....

I've been out of town all week so I haven't been able to do anything but when I got home tonight I did 2 quick tests. I tested the key switch with the meter and it appears to be fine. Also I cranked up the mower and when I move in one handle or the other it is disengaging the parking brake. There is a little motor I guess inside the brake actuator and when the handles are pulled in it spins and disengages the brake on both sides via 2 control arms so it seems to be working right. I'm stumped right now.

wrdabney said:

I've been out of town all week so I haven't been able to do anything but when I got home tonight I did 2 quick tests. I tested the key switch with the meter and it appears to be fine. Also I cranked up the mower and when I move in one handle or the other it is disengaging the parking brake. There is a little motor I guess inside the brake actuator and when the handles are pulled in it spins and disengages the brake on both sides via 2 control arms so it seems to be working right. I'm stumped right now.

Click to expand...

So what was your final outcome? Hoe did you resolve this problem? Or is your Toro still cutting out on you?

I am positive that this problem is caused by a battery drain. The machine is not charging the battery during use and continues to draw down on the battery while not in use. It has been this way since it was brand new. And when the battery gets low, the safety switches associated with the handles and other parts of machine start to act up. The machine was in the shop 5 times during the summer it was brand new. The Toro dealer was stumped and it was never resolved.

Using a meter, I discovered that when the voltage drops to 11 volts or less, the safety switches will begin to misbehave. I thought it was the crappy battery that came with the unit when it was new, but I have had the same problem with a sears die hard and with the duracell that is currently installed.

I have property that takes no more than 1.5 hours to cut if I run non-stop. There is only one work-around (not solution) that I have found to work consistently. There is a wing nut on the negative battery terminal, so I disconnect that terminal when the machine is not in use. Then just before I cut grass, I reconnect the terminal and attach a battery charger for ~30 minutes. I have not had any more problems with the safety switches since I started this practice.

PIECE OF CRAP TORO.

You obviously don’t know how a charging system works. All batteries drain while the unit is in operation. If your electrical system looses voltage while you are cutting, then one of two things is bad. Bad battery or bad charging system. You have replaced batteries, but you have never checked to see if the charging system is putting out 14+ volts while the engine is running. You are blaming Toro for something which is not their fault. This is an engine problem, in the electrical system. If you understood how the electrical system on a tractor or Z-turn works, you would have figured this out three batteries ago.

Of course l'm going to blame toro. It's your name that's on the product. Who else would I blame??? If you don't like the negative PR then fix your product. PIECE OF CRAP TORO

Firstly Rivets was a technical teacher, not a TORO employee, don't go blaming him.
If the problem was not resolved and had been properly documented by the dealer then the warranty continues till the problem is solved, that is consumer law and fairly well universal world wide.

Your mower has a parasitic load on it and the usual culprit is a diode in the charging wire or the rectifier.
We can understand your feelings & frustrations however, if you want help resolving your problem then ask for it.
If you just want to vent then go over to face book with all the other wingers.
This forum was set up to help people fix problems they have with their mowers not to vent their spleens.