Lawn mower deck cable. Kubota Mower Blades Won’t Engage or Turn On

Kubota Mower Blades Won’t Engage or Turn On

Kubota lawn mower blades won’t engage or turn due to a worn or stretched mower deck belt; a belt that has come off the pulleys; a bad PTO switch; a faulty clutch; a weak battery; a bad safety switch or a bad fuse.

Never reach under the mower deck until you have followed all safety precautions listed in the Kubota operator’s manual. This includes removing the ignition key, removing the spark plug boots, and waiting for all parts to stop moving.

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Follow all safety instructions provided in your equipment operator’s manual before diagnosing, repairing, or operating. Consult a professional if you don’t have the skills, or knowledge or are not in the condition to perform the repair safely.

Kubota Mower Blades Won’t Turn On or Engage

Worn Deck Belt on a Kubota Mower

The deck belt, also referred to as the blade belt, is responsible for moving around the pulleys to turn the mower blades. Over time, the deck belt will wear and may begin slipping on the pulleys instead of gripping them.

A worn or bad Kubota deck belt is one that has cracks, wear, fraying, or a shiny glazed appearance. A worn deck belt may also sit deep in the pulley grooves.

Replace a worn belt. Even if the belt isn’t the main reason why your blades won’t engage, you must replace it when it begins to show signs of wearing.

The belt gripping the pulleys affects blade speed. A fast blade speed is required to create suction under the deck to lift the grass and give a nice even cut.

Belt Came Off the Pulleys on a Kubota Mower Deck

If the belt has fallen off the pulleys, it will no longer turn them to move the mower blades. In addition to a worn belt, look for a stretched belt, bad pulley, worn tensioner arm, or missing spring.

You can find a list of items that will cause the Kubota belt to keep falling off the mower deck here.

Worn Idler Tensioner Arm Spring on a Kubota Mower

You will find a tensioner arm and spring used to hold the idler pulleys inline. On most mower decks, the pulley will be on one side of the bracket and the spring will be on the other side.

The hole in the bracket where the spring is attached can become worn or the spring itself can become worn. This can cause the belt to become loose and vibrate off the pulleys.

Worn Bearing in a Kubota Pulley

You will find a bearing in each pulley. The bearing can wear so the pulley no longer sits parallel to the mower deck. The worn bearing will allow movement in the pulley so it wobbles.

One side of the pulley may be sitting higher off the deck than the other side. The extra movement in the Kubota pulley can cause the deck belt to roll off of the pulley.

Replace a pulley where the bearing is found to be bad.

Faulty PTO Switch on a Kubota Mower

The PTO switch is a knob installed on the mower that allows voltage from the battery to power the clutch. When the switch fails, the blades won’t turn on.

Check for continuity in the switch. Replace a switch with a break in continuity.

Bad Clutch on a Kubota Mower

The PTO (Power Take Off) clutch transfers power from the engine to the blades by engaging the drive belt. A clutch that is worn or faulty must be replaced when it fails to power the blades.

For more details on clutches, check out A Look into How Lawn Mower Clutches Work.

Worn Clutch Cable on a Kubota with a Manual Clutch

You will find a clutch lever and cable on a Kubota mower with a manual engagement clutch.

Check the condition of the clutch lever, cable, spring, bushings, and linkages to make sure the clutch is being engaged and the parts are not worn

Weak Battery on a Kubota Mower

An electric clutch uses power from the battery. When the battery is weak, it is unable to provide sufficient power to the clutch solenoid to engage the mower blades.

Check the voltage of the battery using a multimeter. A fully charged 12-volt battery should give you a reading of about 12.7 volts.

Charge the battery when you get a reading less than this. If your battery continues to die you can find common things that are causing this in 5 Things That Are Draining the Life of Your Lawn Mower Battery.

Charge a Kubota Battery: Use a battery charger to charge a battery. Before you continue, wear protective gear to protect your skin from electrical shock and protect your eyes. Follow these steps to charge your riding mower or zero-turn battery with a charger:

• Access the battery and terminals. You may need to use a screwdriver to uncover the battery. You will find the battery under the hood or under the seat. Do not remove the battery from the casing.
• Connect the battery charger cables beginning with the positive cable first. This is the red cable or the one with the plus sign. Place the cable on the positive battery terminal.
• Attach the negative cable to the negative battery terminal. This is the black cable or the one with the negative sign.
• Do not touch anything that doesn’t have a rubber coating to prevent electrocution.
• Set the charger’s voltage and amperage level to the desired level. The average volt level for lawn mower batteries is usually 12 volts. amperage charges the battery faster. Start with two amps and work up to no more than 10 amps. A slow charge is best.

If you find the battery won’t hold a charge, you must replace it with a new one. You can find 12-volt lawn mower batteries at your local hardware or automotive store. You may also find batteries at your local lawn mower dealership.

Bring the old battery with you. Most places will charge you a core fee unless you provide them with your old battery. Core fees average 20.

Bad Safety Switch on a Kubota Mower

A Kubota uses a safety switch in the seat as part of its operator presence system. The seat switch is installed under the seat to sense when the mower operator is in the seat.

As part of the safety system, the lawn mower blades won’t turn on without the operator in the seat.

If the seat switch fails to work, it may not properly engage when the operator sits in the seat. The safety system will prevent the blades from engaging when there is a bad seat switch.

Test the seat switch using a multimeter or you can temporarily bypass the safety switch to identify a bad switch. Do not operate a mower without the safety switch installed for your safety.

Always have safety switches installed and working on your equipment.

Blown Fuse on a Kubota Mower

You may have blown a fuse when you aren’t getting power from the battery to the clutch. The fuse is used to protect the Kubota electrical system from things like a power surge or a short.

Replace a blown fuse with the same size fuse. If you continue to blow fuses, I recommend taking your mower to a Kubota service dealership or a lawn mower repair shop to find the root cause of the electrical failure.

Still Experiencing Problems with Your Kubota Lawn Mower?

Own a lawn mower long enough, you’ll start running into problems with it starting, not continuing to run, smoking, leaking gas, giving a bad cut, vibrating, or another issue.

To help you save time and money, I have put together a guide to help you troubleshoot the next problem that develops on your Kubota mower.

If you are unsure how to perform diagnostics and repairs on your Kubota lawn mower safely, it’s best to have a professional complete the repairs.

This will help you avoid personal injury or additional damage to the mower. Your local Kubota lawn mower dealership or lawn mower repair shop will be able to help you solve your problem.

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The best cordless lawn mowers in 2023

Looking for the best cordless mower? Browse our experts’ pick, from budget to premium models.

A lawn mower may be one of the first purchases we make when getting a garden of our own, but that doesn’t mean finding a good quality one is easy. There are so many models and brands on the market to choose from, including corded electric and petrol, but as their range increases and fall, cordless, battery-powered models are an increasingly popular option.

Light and compact compared with traditional petrol models, cordless mowers are simple to use, easy to manoeuvre around the garden, and have none of the maintenance and servicing needs or costs of petrol lawnmowers. Powered by a rechargeable lithium-ion battery, which charges up quickly and won’t lose power in storage, they’re also quiet and emission free.

To compare these cordless mowers against other types of mower, we’ve reviewed the best lawn mowers, robotic lawn mowers, electric lawn mowers and push mowers, too. And if your lawn needs a bit of attention, our experts have tested a range of the best manual and powered aerators and scarifiers.Keep edges looking neat with our pick of the best strimmers, the best garden shears and the best lawn edging, and if you’re thinking about somewhere to store your new mower, our comprehensive guide to choosing the best garden shed will be helpful.

For your next DIY project, have a look at the best cordless drills.

The best cordless mowers to buy at a glance

Cordless mowers. Buyer’s Guide video

Many thanks to Rosie Yeomans and Sparsholt College for their help in making this video.

Getting the best cordless lawn mower for you means ensuring it has the correct cutting width, range of cutting heights, and weight plus a battery run time that matches the size of your lawn. We’ve tested a range of cordless push mowers, putting them through their paces across a range of grass and terrains, to help you find the right one for your garden.

Each mower has a detailed list of pros and cons for clarity and has been rated according to set up and storage, handling, mowing and value for money. Every mower in our round up below has scored a minimum of four out of five stars, so you can buy with confidence.

In every review we award outstanding products our coveted Best Buy award. To see these and the others we recommend, browse our pick of the best cordless lawn mowers, below.

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Best Buy cordless mowers

Husqvarna Aspire LC34-P4A

Our rating: 4.9 out of 5

• Quiet
• Cuts even long grass with ease
• Battery level visible while mowing
• Small and compact for easy storage
• Part of the POWER FOR ALL cordless range

Part of the new Husqvarna Aspire cordless range, which includes a hedge trimmer, pruner and leaf blower, this 34cm mower is powered by an 18V POWER FOR ALL ALLIANCE battery and charger. These are interchangeable with tools in other leading brands such as Flymo, Gardena and Bosch so if you also invest in tools in these ranges, you’ll only need to buy the bare tool and won’t have different batteries and chargers taking up space in the shed.Great for small gardens the mower comes ready to go, there’s no assembly or handles to attach, and it folds down to a compact size when you’re finished, with a telescopic handle that folds completely flat over the body of the mower. It can then be stood up against a wall or hung up, and even comes with a handy hook. The 30l grass bag also flattens down to take up very little room and can be hung on the mower. The Aspire is light, with a carry handle so that lifting it up steps or into other areas is easy and it has an adjustable handle to suit different height users. It’s comfortable and easy to manoeuvre around the garden and has just four cutting heights to choose from, ranging from 25-65mm and changed easily with a single lever on the body of the mower. It cuts grass quietly and smoothly and has an automatic boost that increases blade speed when you’re mowing in tougher, longer areas that works well. You can hear it kick in when you push the mower into longer grass and unlike other cordless mowers that can cut out, just carries on cutting the grass. While you mow the battery charge level is always clearly visible so you know how much battery you have left and when it needs charging. It comes with a two year warranty and we awarded it a BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine Best Buy in 2023 for ease of use.

Specs: Battery: charge time. 95 mins; run time. 500sqm. Cutting: width. 34cm; height. 25-65mm. Grass box. 30 litre.

Buy the Husqvarna Aspire C34-P4A cordless mower from Husqvarna and Sam Turner

Greenworks GDG24LM33

Our rating: 4.5 out of 5

• Easy to assemble and use
• Comfortable padded handle
• Choice of mulching or collecting clippings
• Interchangeable battery with Greenworks 24V family

Ideal for smaller gardens this sturdy, great value cordless mower is easy to put together, well thought out and simple to use. Thanks to a padded handle it’s comfortable to push, although it did feel a little short for our taller tester, and it’s light and easy to manoeuvre around trees and beds and borders. There are five cutting heights to choose from, adjusted with the simple lift of a lever and it offers the choice of collecting clippings in the 30 litre fabric grass bag or inserting the mulching plug and leaving them on the lawn to break down and feed the grass. It mows well but doesn’t like very long grass, with the battery cutting out occasionally but its long lasting brushless motor offers a a decent run time of 46 minutes and it charges in two hours. Plus, as part of the Greenworks 24V family, both the battery and charger are interchangeable with all the other tools in the range, saving you money if you invest in more in the future. We awarded it a BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine Best Buy for the best budget cordless mower in 2023.

Specs: Battery: charge time. 120 mins; run time. 46mins. Cutting: width. 33cm; height. 25-70mm. Grass box. 30 litre.

Yard Force LMG37A 40v 37cm

Our rating: 4.8 out of 5

• Rear roller
• Double folding handle for easy storage
• Quickest charge time
• Part of the Yardforce GR40 cordless range

This sturdy mower has a 37cm cutting width and useful features including a rear roller for those much desired stripes. Awarded a BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine Best Buy in 2022 for small to medium lawns, clippings are collected in the large 40 litre fabric grass bag. It offers a wide choice of seven cutting heights, from 25-75mm, and is easy to fold away at the end of the day. The 40V battery is quick to charge, taking just 50 minutes and when full it has the capacity to cut a 400m2 lawn.

Specs: Battery: charge time. 50 mins; run time. 400sqm. Cutting: width. 37cm; height. 25-75mm. Grass box. 40 litre.

Buy the Yard Force LMG37A 40V 37cm cordless mower from Yard Force, Amazon and Wickes

The Best Zero-Turn Mowers of 2023

These achieve the rare feat of making lawn mowing fun.

By Roy Berendsohn Published: Mar 1, 2023

When it comes to yard work, zero turn mowers do the impossible. They make lawn mowing fun. They accomplish this by putting unprecedented speed, control and maneuverability at the disposal of the person mowing the lawn. The so-called “zero turn” feature of these mowers converts a grass cutting machine into something akin to an amusement park ride. You steer the machine with two levers—the left lever controls the left wheel, the right lever the right wheel. With that steering setup, you can zoom over the landscape cutting straight lines, curves, or pivot the mower into and out of a corner. What’s not to like?

Read on to understand how these agile grass cutters work, how we go about testing them, and see some candidates that we’ve recently tested as well as some that we haven’t but that we think look particularly promising.

How Zero-Turn Mowers Work

A zero-turn riding mower consists of an operator platform, a frame and wheels, an engine (or battery bank), transmissions (or motors), and a pair of control levers commonly known as lap bars. In gas mowers, the engine powers a pulley system. One group of pulleys drives the blades, another group powers a pair of transmissions–one at each rear wheel. When you move the lap bar forward or back, you are directing the transmission to go faster, slower, or even turn the opposite way. When one drive wheel turns clockwise and the other counter clockwise, the mower pivots. When the wheels rotate at different rates, the mower turns in an arc-shaped path. When the lap bars are in the neutral position, the mower stops. Aside from a parking brake, there’s no other braking mechanism. Battery-powered zero-turn mowers work the same way, but have separate motors to drive the rear wheels and one for each blade inside the mower deck.

When it comes to transmission, most mowers have a Hydrogear EZT—a well-known and cost-effective residential-grade transaxle with a reputation for durability.

Some mowers use a deck stamped from one piece of steel, others use a deck fabricated from multiple pieces and welded together. A fabricated deck can be built from thicker steel at a lower cost than it would be able to be built otherwise. Once you’re talking about stamping metal as thick as 10 gauge (about 1⁄8 inch thick), the cost of stamping such a deck would push up the mower’s price beyond what most people are willing to pay. The decks in the mowers below range from 42 to 52 inches, a typical size in this class of product. When powered by these engines and the Hydrogear, these mowers will deliver a decent cut quality at their rated top speed of 7 mph. Note, however, that cut quality declines steeply if you maintain that speed in very thick grass or on uneven terrain.

As to the electric mowers, they represent the leading edge of the technology in this category. These are remarkable and expensive mowers powered by large-voltage lithium-ion batteries. If you’re interested in reducing mowing noise and simplifying your maintenance routine by eliminating gas and oil, they’re worth a look.

Selecting a Zero-Turn Mower

Everyone would like to select the biggest possible zero-turn mower with the hope of whittling a big grass cutting job down to size as quickly as possible. Reality usually intercedes because these machines are expensive and the wide range of options available today quickly drive up the cost. Roughly speaking, you start somewhere in the range of a mower with a 42-inch deck costing in the vicinity of 3200 to 3500 and move up in increments of 1000 to 1500 until you reach entry-level commercial-grade equipment that costs 7000 to 8000.

Again, speaking in terms of approximation, a mower with a 42-inch deck will cut a two-acre lot (that takes into account that the house, driveway, outbuildings and various landscape features are taking up some of that space). Use a mower with a larger deck to cut anything over two acres. But here’s the caveat. That entry-level ZTR mower (3200, say) with a 42-inch deck will wear out faster and need more maintenance than a mower with a 50-inch deck, a heavier frame, larger engine and higher quality transmissions, and thicker deck with more robust blade spindles, costing 4500.

In the simplest possible terms, you can cut a smaller area with a larger mower and expect more longevity out of the machine (not to mention a nicer mowing experience) or you can cut a larger area with a smaller machine and encounter more maintenance and a mowing experience that will be, we might say, a bit more rugged.

But there are still other factors to consider, in selecting a mower other than deck size and your budget. Larger mowers take more space in a garage or outbuilding. And a mower with a 50-inch or even 60-inch deck, as useful as it might be in getting the job done more quickly, may not fit through a fence’s gate, and it might be more difficult to maneuver in tight spots without creating scalp marks on the lawn from a lot of close-quarter pivoting.

Carefully consider all these factors when shopping for a mower: your budget, maintenance and whether you will perform that work yourself, mowing speed and time, maneuverability and trimming in tight areas, the importance that you place on your comfort while mowing, cut quality, longevity, storage, and access to the landscape.

How We Select and Test

There’s only one way to test a mower, and that’s to cut grass with it. But we also do more than mow.

We raise and lower the deck and adjust the seat. We look at service point access (the air filter, the spark plug, and the oil filter) and how easy it is to remove the deck. We mow approximately an acre with each mower, considering cut and mulching quality while running uphill, downhill, across washboard, and along sidehills. (On sidehills, we’ll mow surfaces pitched up to approximately 20 degrees; manufacturers generally recommend not going steeper than 10 degrees, but we like to be thorough.) We evaluate power and speed relative to cut quality—we investigate whether the mower delivers a decent cut mowing at full speed. When mowing in damp conditions, we look at whether the mower’s tires accumulate grass and how effectively it discharges moist clippings. Finally, we test maneuverability (these machines are, generally, very nimble) and how readily they come to a stop when you back off the lap bar control levers.