FIXED: Mower Will Not Start - Diagnose and Replace Faulty Solenoid Cub Cadet RZT

Hey guys, welcome back. It's the tightwad. I haven't had any face time on camera lately So I figured I'd do a little bit more people have been requesting it. So I got my new tight watch shirt on They've been made for a while. They're actually from the money guy calm it's a podcast about done by two fee-only financial advisors and Go check them out money guy calm look for tightwad nation apparel It supports autism awareness of the owner of the company's daughter has autism So they started this tightwad nation and then they when they bought the t-shirts koozies. They have crew neck And v-neck t-shirts they have tank tops have men's and women's styles Like I said koozies, but go check them out purchase some stuff all the profits from it go to an autism foundation But today we are I'm back and I'm not real happy why I'm back But I bought a cub cadet RTZ 50 inch zero turn motor Last fall at the end of the mowing season, and I've had a few issues with it. Nothing major You know, we tight wads can fix it all ourselves We don't like to take it to the lawnmower repair place to get things done if we can do them ourselves So the issue is when I have everything set up correctly and I turn the key I don't know if you can hear that but all I get is a click Which typically symbolizes an electrical issue. I did replace the battery on this mower right when I got it. I ordered a new one from Cub cadet I had to fill it with my own battery acid, which was a new experience for me as well But I just bought a couple of boxes of the motorcycle acid from an auto parts store and filled it myself No problem charged it up and installed it and everything was going great until this click So today we're gonna look at some issues that could cause this click on your riding mower It doesn't have to be the same mower all mowers have the same type electrical system, but I'll show you specifically What I think the issue is on this one, I've replaced a solenoid on my old MTD mower before so today We're gonna start by checking this solenoid And the solenoid is actually on these units is up under this arm on the side of the mower So the first thing we need to do to get to it is to take off the bolts holding this guard on so there's one here one here and One down here. So those are the first three you need to take off to get started So these bolts are 13 millimeters, I've got my ratchet and I'm gonna Take off those bolts So I can get to the solenoid And see if that's our problem or not. The first thing I'm going to try to do Is to jump the solenoid Try to arc across the post to see if it will crank if it will that lets me know for sure That it's either the solenoid or the connections going to the solenoid it's likely just a solenoid If it will not crank like that, but I probably have a electrical issue elsewhere Which it could be any safety switches It could be one of the battery cables But we'll go through all the issues that can potentially happen on this mower once I get this off After you take off the first three bolts or screws, whatever you want to call them You have to remove the one that's under here I'm gonna try to avoid removing the same one under that front corner up there That would be how you remove this whole panel But I'm going to try to avoid as much as I can take it apart But I have to remove this one so I can lift this panel up. So let's get under there and we'll get that removed If we look under the mower It is under that second Hole right here on the side. So not this one, but this one the closest to the tire And there's an eight millimeter bolt in there that you have to pull out and then the whole side Of this will lift up you can look under here and see that my solenoid is sitting right there I have a multimeter, but it's hard to work with sometimes when I just want to see if voltage is actually Occurring in a certain area. So now I've bought this test light where it has a Negative lead here. I've attached it to the ground on my mower and Whenever I touch it to anything that has voltage It lights up so that shows 12 plus volts on The battery so we know the test lights working. So now we want to test to see where our Continuity stops with our system. So your power comes from your battery On your positive terminal and runs down to your solenoid When I touch to my solenoid, you can see I still have 12 volts. So that means my Cable is good. My fuse that's right here is good. And my solenoid is getting power The next place that power needs to occur is this little piece right here This needs to get power whenever the key is turned on the ignition of the mower So that what it does is it sends 12 volts here? It charges the solenoid which connects between these two posts if I touch this post right now On the opposite side of the solenoid I get nothing Because it's not charged and there's no connection between these two posts Once those two things energize and the the posts connect it goes through Goes to the starter and then the starter is what starts your mower If you read 12 volts when at this spade right here when you turn the key Then you know that everything is happening to power the solenoid properly, but the solenoid itself is probably damaged So now we need to try to jump across the post and see if the thing turns over This is a dangerous process that I'm about to do. So do it at your own risk I'm not recommending that you do it, but I'm saying you can do this to test your solenoid I have a chisel that I've insulated the handle on nice big flat surface And I'm gonna touch it to each of the posts at the same time and see if it will make the motor turn over And go ahead and stick it on here sparks will fly make sure there's no fuel cans open fuel cans anywhere nearby So you just stick it on one post touch it to the other And if you notice it did turn over the motor so likely my solenoid is dead Before removing any electrical components on your mower. It's always best to remove the positive battery terminal So just take your bolt off move it away go ahead and put this cap back over it move it away from the battery terminal So there's no way you can get any charge going through the mower and shock yourself In order to make removing your solenoid easier. I loosened the Screw that goes into the front end of this shield So that I can actually lift it up and pull it away from the mower you see it gives me a lot more room to work with and on my mower the top Screws on the ground plate were 10 millimeters and the post the nuts on the post were 11 millimeters So remove your solenoid and from remove all the nuts from the solenoid and then remove this Wire from the spade we have the new solenoid installed. I reconnected both battery terminals Reconnected the seat switch on my mower put the handles in the down position Engage the parking brake Be sure the PTO is off so push down on this particular model and turn the key and you see The peak the oil light comes on but as soon as I turn the key So replacing the solenoid on this mower has fixed our electrical issues and the mower now cranks I appreciate you watching the video if you found it helpful Give me a thumbs up and subscribe to my channel If you want to see some related videos in the top left you can click to see a video showing some other electrical issues That could happen with this particular mower, but it really applies to all mowers electronic systems If you want to see a review I did for the cub cadet RTZ mulching attachment click the video in the top right I've added this attachment to my mower and I think it's great so far, but you can actually see the product in action