bringing an 06 troybilt rtz back to life...

Hello all,

I was recently given a 2006 troybilt 50" zero turn. This mower had a pto switch issue and the previous owner decided to park it and buy a new mower. The mower was put in a barn and has sat for a couple of years. I loaded it on the trailer today and brought it home. I wish I could say that it loaded easy, but we had to use his current zero turn to push it onto the trailer. I feel that's a bad sign, but it was given to me so...

Anyway, I'm making a list of what to do to bring it back to life. I'm fairly mechanically inclined, though I don't have any lawn mower / zero turn experience. What I have so far is:

Drain / replace fluids (oil, gas)
New spark plug
Clean or replace air filter
New battery
Check / replace belts and tires (rear tires will not hold air and look dry rotted)

What else am I missing? My other concern is that the left rear wheel (if sitting on the mower) will not free spin. The other seems to turn fine. I downloaded the manual when I got home and read that there are two rods you engage to move the mower by hand ("transmission bypass rods" is what they're called). These were not in "move by hand" mode when we loaded the mower, but seem to have no effect either "in" or "out".

Is the transmission messed up from having been sitting so long? The previous owner said it ran fine when he parked it, it was just an issue with the pto (which I'm guessing is the switch). Any advice on how to proceed would be great.

Thanks!

Troy-Bilt Operator's Manuals & Illustrated Parts Diagrams


Professional Shop Manuals


file:///C:/Users/Alex/Downloads/2000-MTD-Technical-Handbook-Service-Manual.pdf
"K&T Parts House Lawn Mower Parts and Chain Saw & Trimmer Parts"

mechanic mark said:

Troy-Bilt Operator's Manuals & Illustrated Parts Diagrams

Click to expand...

Thanks, Mark. I downloaded the manual from Troy-bilt's site when I got home, but it doesn't really focus on troubleshooting. My biggest concern right now is that there is something wrong with the transmission since one wheel is locked up and the other isn't. Even though the mower was free, I don't want to invest a ton of money into this project only to find "this leads to that" and Im always traveling further down a rabbit hole.

Im hoping that someone will chime in that has experience with these mowers and can tell me how to test or what to look for in the wheel area (or transmission). The transmission is sealed and cannot be checked.

Ok, I wanted to update.

When I went to unload the mower from the trailer, I must have freed up a seized part, because the wheels turned freely. After doing an inspection, I was able to jump the battery off and it started! The PTO did not engage though. No big deal, I expected that. So I ordered all the parts I needed to do a tune up and a new PTO switch. Went through and tuned everything up, put the new switch in, and started it up. The PTO did start that time! Great! The PTO engaged and disengaged when I would back up (like its supposed to).

I finished up for the night and came back a few days later when my new blades arrived. Put those on and took it out to test how it would do. No PTO engagement. While fiddling around, suddenly the PTO started working. I did a test cut and it worked fine until I had to shut the machine off to put more gas in. The PTO hasn't worked since. I did multimeter the ignition and PTO switch. I am getting 12v at both places. I did check at the PTO clutch. I am getting 4v at the clutch with the PTO switch turned on. Is this the normal amount of voltage? I figure it is, since I doubt it would need the full 12v to activate the PTO.

My guess is that the clutch is bad. Does that sound about right? I just wanted to get opinions before I dropped the money on a clutch.

97runner said:

Ok, I wanted to update. When I went to unload the mower from the trailer, I must have freed up a seized part, because the wheels turned freely. After doing an inspection, I was able to jump the battery off and it started! The PTO did not engage though. No big deal, I expected that. So I ordered all the parts I needed to do a tune up and a new PTO switch. Went through and tuned everything up, put the new switch in, and started it up. The PTO did start that time! Great! The PTO engaged and disengaged when I would back up (like its supposed to). I finished up for the night and came back a few days later when my new blades arrived. Put those on and took it out to test how it would do. No PTO engagement. While fiddling around, suddenly the PTO started working. I did a test cut and it worked fine until I had to shut the machine off to put more gas in. The PTO hasn't worked since. I did multimeter the ignition and PTO switch. I am getting 12v at both places. I did check at the PTO clutch. I am getting 4v at the clutch with the PTO switch turned on. Is this the normal amount of voltage? I figure it is, since I doubt it would need the full 12v to activate the PTO. My guess is that the clutch is bad. Does that sound about right? I just wanted to get opinions before I dropped the money on a clutch.

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You need 12 volt to work the clutch.
I would trace the wire from the clutch to the switch. And the ground.

The clutch draws a lot of amps

Carscw said:

You need 12 volt to work the clutch.
I would trace the wire from the clutch to the switch. And the ground.

Click to expand...

There are several wires that go from the PTO switch to a wire loom. The loom goes down to the engine, but "splits" off two wires that run to the PTO clutch. As I said, I unhooked the clutch and put my multimeter (set to DC) and with the pto switch on, received a measurement of 4v at that connection.

Where would I look for a ground? This may seem odd, but the battery terminal connections are fairly corroded from use/sitting in a barn. I didn't have anything around to clean those with (such as a wire brush, chemicals, etc). Could that be the issue? But, where are some common ground areas to look for corrosion, etc.? As I (think I) mentioned in a previous post, the previous owner had an issue with the PTO not engaging, which is why he parked the mower and bought a new one. It has been sitting in a barn for 2-3 years.

All the safety features work as they should, so I don't think its the safety switch (was mentioned by a friend it could be this). As you said, it could be a ground. Where would I look for that?

I should also mention that I did switch the meter over to Ohms and put the leads onto the connector of the clutch itself. I did not receive a reading (my display shows 0.L when its "open").

97runner said:

There are several wires that go from the PTO switch to a wire loom. The loom goes down to the engine, but "splits" off two wires that run to the PTO clutch. As I said, I unhooked the clutch and put my multimeter (set to DC) and with the pto switch on, received a measurement of 4v at that connection. Where would I look for a ground? This may seem odd, but the battery terminal connections are fairly corroded from use/sitting in a barn. I didn't have anything around to clean those with (such as a wire brush, chemicals, etc). Could that be the issue? But, where are some common ground areas to look for corrosion, etc.? As I (think I) mentioned in a previous post, the previous owner had an issue with the PTO not engaging, which is why he parked the mower and bought a new one. It has been sitting in a barn for 2-3 years. All the safety features work as they should, so I don't think its the safety switch (was mentioned by a friend it could be this). As you said, it could be a ground. Where would I look for that?

Click to expand...

First thing remove and clean the battery terminals. Scrape them with a knife or screwdriver.

Take the plug off the pto switch and clean the pins in it. So we will know it is making a good connection.

Carscw said:

First thing remove and clean the battery terminals. Scrape them with a knife or screwdriver.

Take the plug off the pto switch and clean the pins in it. So we will know it is making a good connection.

Click to expand...

I was able to clean the pins off (I had electrical cleaner). The pins were not actually not corroded and looked very clean to start with. The battery terminals, on the other hand, need a cleaning. But as I said, I didn't have anything to scrub it with (cleaner alone didn't do much).

But that still doesn't answer the 0.L reading on the meter when I connected it to the PTO clutch directly. Doesn't that mean its bad? I read somewhere that an electric clutch should get a small reading if its good (between 204ohms). If you get 0.L, theres a short in the clutch. Is this incorrect?

97runner said:

I was able to clean the pins off (I had electrical cleaner). The pins were not actually not corroded and looked very clean to start with. The battery terminals, on the other hand, need a cleaning. But as I said, I didn't have anything to scrub it with (cleaner alone didn't do much).

But that still doesn't answer the 0.L reading on the meter when I connected it to the PTO clutch directly. Doesn't that mean its bad? I read somewhere that an electric clutch should get a small reading if its good (between 204ohms). If you get 0.L, theres a short in the clutch. Is this incorrect?

Click to expand...

Fixing Electric Clutches