900 Neutral Safety Switch

C

Clay Buster

Member
Help! About a week ago I read a process whereby you can by-pass/disable the safety switch on the 900 and, now I can't find the post try as I may.</p>


When I've been driving my 900 in 'H' and shutoff the engine I leave it in gear. Then sometimes (not always) when I go to restart the engine it starts right up with the gear selector in the 'H' position. This is very convient when you don't have to fight the selector lever to get it into gear from the neutral selector position. I know it's not suppose to work that way because of the safety issue but, I'm exploring this possibility for when the warranty expires.</p>


Has anyone read this post or tried this approach? Potential engine or trans damage? Most all my driving is on flat land so I'm not seeing any safety issues. Maybe I'm missing something here. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks. Clay
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I had the same thing happen to mine, it would start in high. Only problem is now it won't even start in neutral now. I was wondering how to check the switch to see if it is working. I know the starter is working fine, I took it off and it runs great. It has to be that switch or the ignition switch.
 
Clay Buster said:
Help! About a week ago I read a process whereby you can by-pass/disable the safety switch on the 900 and, now I can't find the post try as I may.</p>


When I've been driving my 900 in 'H' and shutoff the engine I leave it in gear. Then sometimes (not always) when I go to restart the engine it starts right up with the gear selector in the 'H' position. This is very convient when you don't have to fight the selector lever to get it into gear from the neutral selector position. I know it's not suppose to work that way because of the safety issue but, I'm exploring this possibility for when the warranty expires.</p>


Has anyone read this post or tried this approach? Potential engine or trans damage? Most all my driving is on flat land so I'm not seeing any safety issues. Maybe I'm missing something here. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks. Clay
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find the switch and unplug it. then fab a jumper wire and close the two terminals. it will start in any gear.
 
Old Coot said:
I had the same thing happen to mine, it would start in high. Only problem is now it won't even start in neutral now. I was wondering how to check the switch to see if it is working. I know the starter is working fine, I took it off and it runs great. It has to be that switch or the ignition switch.
Click to expand...

sorry i don't know where the switch is on a 900. but you should be able to find it easy enough. look at the parts schematic on Messiks and see it the picture helps you???
 
Well, I was able to check the safety switch from the transmission and it works fine. So since it is working, the starter is working, and the battery is charged, it must be the ignition switch. Now can anyone tell me how to check that out. I don't know
if there is anything else it could be. Of course with my luck there are probably more things.
 
if it just goes CLICK but doesn't start it could be the solenoid on the starter. i had to put new contacts in mine last summer. much much cheaper than a new starter.
 
Does it try to turn over but just not start? If so it could be the stop solenoid. You can manually move the stop solenoid from underneath. Thats what I did when mine quit working. Just slide under the passenger side engine, near back of seat, and look up and you should see it . move the little link ( I think at one time they had a little tiny bit of red paint on 'em) with your finger and it will probably go" tink" as it goes back in place. When running and you turn it off. it would usually make the tink noise a few seconds after the engine is shut off. I replaced mine a couple of times on the two RTV 900s that I had consecutively. (2005 and lastly the 2011.) both had over 4,200 hours. Also try stomping on the pedal really hard when you are about to crank. Sometimes , it will pop it in place. This is the stop solenoid I'm refering to and not the one on the starter so probably isnt it.
If thats not it could be the key switch. I had that problem too but my machine would start by itself ! So had to get that one fixed- easy job :) . Back then several years ago, I think a switch was $ 42 . Maybe some graphite powder would help - if you already had some laying around or could borrow a "puff "of it from a neighbor. bordercollie
edit: picture of solenoid here on page 1. http://www.nettractortalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14088&highlight=stop+solenoid
 
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I forgot to mention to be sure and check the ground where it attaches to the frame, This same problem drove me crazy on the kubota zero turn with diesel engine last month. I mean it. I was about reaaaady to, to.. just ..well never mind.. ;) .. anyways I am always asking the Good Lord for help so then I had a feeling I should get the booster cables and check the ground. I did NOT attach the positive but only the negative booster from the battery post to a shiny bolt on the frame.. She turned over and purred like a kitten when I turned the key !!. The Zero tun got a new battery cable and a new grounding place. Now runs like new money. Maybe something simple like that. collie
 
Thanks I will try that. I have not
tried your idea about the ground yet, but sounds like a good thing to check out. Thanks for the ideas.
 
I checked out the ground strap from the negative side of the battery and it was in good shape. No corrosion but cleaned it anyway. Still won't turn over. Must be the ignition switch.
 
Coot, If you have a booster cable set , just try a test by substituting the ground cable with the negative clamps. In my case, I undone the negative battery cable clamp from the battery post and cleaned the battery's posts (again) .Then ran the booster cable clamps from the cleaned negative battery post to a bright bolt on the frame. That's how I diagnosed my poor ground. All of my checker lights had come on when I turned the key , could hear the glow plugs , etc.. and I had bypassed all of the lawnmower's 4+ safety switches so this was my last hope. The mower's ground wasn't strong enough to turn over the diesel engine but could turn on the checker lights. collie
 
Sorry for all the trouble but thankful for all the help.
I did not know that a battery could take a full charge and show 12.5 volts and still have a bad cell. After all the work, I was checking out the ignition switch and checked the power lead. It showed 10.5 volts. How could that be, I checked the battery after it had charged full charged. Seems if you have a bad cell it can show a full 12.5 volts and it drops after you pull some amps from it. Why the booster didn't help I don't know. But I took the battery in and they gave it a fast charge and then checked it on their equipment. It showed a bad cell. Starts great now. I guess getting old I'm also getting careless and not thinking it out first. Although I thought I had I just didn't know that a battery could have a bad cell and still show a full charge. I do NOW.
 
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