Here's a weird puzzle/mystery for you people. My brother-in-law brought his Bobcat ZT219 zero turn mower to me to try and fix. He was mowing with it, turned it off to go in the house and when he came back out he couldn't get it to start. No matter what he did he couldn't a spark to the plugs. He changed the plugs and coils and still no go. I tested the kill/ground tab on the coils. With the key off it showed the coils being grounded out as they shoud be. When I turned the key on to the run or start position it was still showing ground. Easy fix I thought. I located a bad relay, replaced it and got it started. I then took it to the yard to test it. It idled low and high RPM just fine but when I went to take off it sputtered and died. If i tried to engage the PTO it sputtered and died. I tested when i engaged the PTO and it was grounding out the coil but how could moving forward without the PTO enaged send a kill signal to the coil?
Here's the weirdest part: with the coil ground wire unplugged it runs perfect. I just mowed two rounds of grass and zero issues. With the coil ground wire unplugged turning the key switch to off shouldn't shut the engine off because it's not grounding out the coil but the engine shut off like it should. There's obviously something here I'm missing/unaware of. Are there now different ways to kill the spark on some mowers other than grounding out the coil?

 

Might have just figured it out. The fuel solenoid also cuts the fuel off when the key switch is turned off. I’m thinking the new coils he bought may be junk. I think they might be partially grounding out when plugged in causing not enough spark when under load.

 

I may be missing something too, but turning off the key switch should interrupt power to the coils instead of grounding them out. The fuel cut off solenoid should default to the closed position when no power is applied. No? So it's a magneto ignition system, and in that case it would ground the coil.

 

Yes it’s a magneto system. I ran a ground from coil to frame and then to battery and it did nothing. I just tested both coils according to Kawasaki manual and they test bad. I’m waiting to receive the old ones so I can try them.

 

Does that thing have an interlock that shuts the engine down when in reverse and the PTO engaged? I do not know how zero turn interlocks work or if they even have them. Just a thought.

 

Well I put the old coils back on. It starts much better and it kills the engine when grounding them as it should. Now it kills the engine when levers arms are moved inward, or brake disengaged or PTO activated. I’m getting a big printout of the wiring diagram to study how all this works. There’s also a delay module on this thing

 

Our soccer club has a Kubota zero turn I use to mow our 4 field complex with. Last year I was mowing and stopped to pick up a branch near some pine trees. I got back on and it wouldn't start. I couldn't figure out what was wrong. I had fuel, brake was on, mower disengaged, sticks were out like they should be..... I had to call the dealer. They came out with the roll back and took it back to the shop. They call me the next day to tell me the problem.... A bad battery. It had shown no signs of the battery being bad. It started easily that day. I had shut it off several times earlier and it started easily each time. So we had to pay for a service call and a roll back charge for something I could have fixed myself.

I know this probably doesn't help you but you never know.

 

The battery is starting it fine every time now so I think it’s ok. I’ll keep that in mind though thank you
The brake switch and both traction control switches just tested fine. Every time I unplug a hardshell connector they have a lot of crud in them. Maybe bad connection due to this?
Im going to study the wiring diagram some more and proceed.

 

Everything I know how to test has tested fine. Haven’t found a way to test the seat delay module. I finally found someone else’s similar issue online and they had success after replacing this module so I just ordered one.

 

Often times when I look online for a fix to an issue I have, I find a long thread about all the scenarios it could be but never see a resolution by the OP so I didn’t want to do that with this thread as well.
The issue was resolved by replacing the delay module. Hopefully a google search by someone in the future with a similar issue will be helped by this.

 

Thanks for posting your resolution.

 

Yes sir