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Message: <blockquote data-quote="-Pjackso" data-source="post: 3858645" data-attributes="member: 8119">This is the answer.The PTO clutch rarely fails outright.  They wear out slowly and start pulling more amps.The higher amp draw is what probably melted your fuse holder.Other symptom/indicators can be:-Failing/Melting the blade engage switch on the dashboard controls.  The engage switch will fail (melt due to the excessive amp draw).  The customer buys another switch and everything works again, but the same thing happens again after a short while.-It's hard to start the blades without killing the engine.(Of course, start by verifying easy spinning jack-shafts, no junk tied up in the blades, and engine runs right.)If you have a weak battery (low cranking amps) and the PTO is worn - the excessive PTO amp draw can exceed the generator output and pull the battery voltage down low - which if bad enough it can drop enough voltage where the plug coils are not generating enough spark and (occasionally) kills the engine during blade startup.  (with the additional load of trying to start the blades spinning)Edit - Another symptom/indicator:Constant problems with dead/low voltage batteries.  The mower charging system shows good charging voltage (blades dis-engaged) - but you still have problems with low or dead batteries.  A bad PTO (excessive amp draw) can pull more amps then the charging system can provide.  Over time, the battery looses voltage (discharged).  This can kill batteries over extended time, and may explain (if/why) your batteries don't last as long (i.e. the usual 4-5 years battery life).It can be confusing, because the PTO is still working right (engaging/disengaging the blades), and given they're so expensive, people will overlook the PTO.</blockquote>

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