2146 Cub Cadet

Just paid for a 2146 CC. It's been working fine. Yesterday we went to use it and no spark. Tried bypassing the seat switch, no joy. Oil level is good so the low oil sensor shouldn't be issue. all gauges work, spins over fine. Not familiar with this engine at all. Anyone know anything about them? It's a Linamar or something like that.

Looking at the wiring diagram, the yellow wire
from the engine is the kill wire. It goes to the
ignition switch (ground to stop) and the seat
relay.

http://ts2.mm.bing.net/th?
id=HN.608028272488612501&pid=15.1

Locate the yellow wire and disconnect it, see if
you get spark. If you do, there is a problem with
the kill circuit.

If still no spark, the problem is in the coil or
the wire is shorted under the engine cowling.

Unfortunately it's all held together in a common block at the key switch. I've looked around a little and am under the impression from one source that the seat switch cannot be simply "jumped" as so many others can, but that it has to be in the system. Don't know about that for sure. ????

As steve said locate & disconnect yellow kill lead AT ENG,same may be in a multi prong connector & connector has to be unplugged,crank eng afterwards,if you have spark now then problem in seat sw/relay for seat sw or ign sw,many of the newer tractors use a shorting type connector for wiring harness connector to seat sw so sw can't be bypassed/defeated.

If still no spark with kill lead disconnected wire to coil may be shorted to sheetmetal as steve said or ign module(coil)bad.

If you haven't done so already & you're checking spark with old spark plug,replace plug before disconnecting anything,you may just have a bad plug.

If problem proves to be in safety sw's on tractor also check operation of pto sw,rev relay sw & rev relay along with seat sw/seat sw relay as these are all connected together & will kill eng ign if there is a problem in any one of them.

Thanks Joe! I'll see what happens.

WAH! :twisted: This thing is driving me nuts! I downloaded a copy of the wiring diagram from the Cub Cadet site and it's not even close to what I have! Can't find the rev switch either.

Gonna be a long day I think.

If you disconnected ign kill lead at eng & now have spark,as you didn't say if you have spark with kill lead disconnected,then problem in safety sw's or ign sw/wiring harness.

Do a google search for cub cadet 2146+wiring diagram,from row of images click on left image at start of row,this is probably the wiring diag steve & I are looking at,it may/may not be the correct diagram,see if it matches what you downloaded.

Next click on link below & lookup your tractor in the cub cadet listings,look at drawing for electrical parts & sw's,snap sw(20) on drawing may be what you're looking for in addition it gives you general area on tractor to look for.
cub

(quoted from post at 08:12:57 06/12/14) If you disconnected ign kill lead at eng & now have spark,as you didn't say if you have spark with kill lead disconnected,then problem in safety sw's or ign sw/wiring harness.

Do a google search for cub cadet 2146+wiring diagram,from row of images click on left image at start of row,this is probably the wiring diag steve & I are looking at,it may/may not be the correct diagram,see if it matches what you downloaded.

Next click on link below & lookup your tractor in the cub cadet listings,look at drawing for electrical parts & sw's,snap sw(20) on drawing may be what you're looking for in addition it gives you general area on tractor to look for.
cub

Click to expand...

Joe, at this point I can't determine which is the kill wire or I would have disconnected it. I;m still trying to find the right wiring diagram. Thanks for the help.

It can't be all that hard to figure out if you spend some time carefully looking around eng wiring.

If you looked at wiring detail at partstree you'll see there are only 5 elect connections to eng.
1-heavy battery cable(red)to starter sol.
2-small wire(red) from wiring harness to coil on starter sol.
3-a 3-4 pin connector on tractor wiring harness connecting to a matching connector on eng wiring coming off eng.On the wiring diagram I'm looking at for tractor wiring harness connector you'll probably have a yellow wire(ign kill),orange wire(oil sensor) and a white wire(alt output),if diagram you have has different colors you'll have to figure out what each color is for or just unplug any multi prong connector that connects to eng wiring harness,after that crank eng & check for spark or see if eng fire/runs.

(quoted from post at 11:11:14 06/12/14) It can't be all that hard to figure out if you spend some time carefully looking around eng wiring.

If you looked at wiring detail at partstree you'll see there are only 5 elect connections to eng.
1-heavy battery cable(red)to starter sol.
2-small wire(red) from wiring harness to coil on starter sol.
3-a 3-4 pin connector on tractor wiring harness connecting to a matching connector on eng wiring coming off eng.On the wiring diagram I'm looking at for tractor wiring harness connector you'll probably have a yellow wire(ign kill),orange wire(oil sensor) and a white wire(alt output),if diagram you have has different colors you'll have to figure out what each color is for or just unplug any multi prong connector that connects to eng wiring harness,after that crank eng & check for spark or see if eng fire/runs.

Click to expand...

That's the problem Joe, I have 2 red wires, 1 heavy, one about 16 gauge, running to starter sol, a 5 or 6 pin connector, no orange wires at all, two yellow and white wires and a couple other colors (green and blue IIRC) that aren't even listed on any of the schematics I've found! Very irritating. I just got done fixing a customers Ariens and hope to get the CC into the shop today. Thanks for your help. I;m sure I;ll figure it out eventually. It's just nuts that I can't find a wiring diargram that's accurate.

If anyone was wondering, I finally found the correct parts and wiring diagram at Jacks Small Engine. Haven't got it fixed yet, but at least the colors of the wires are right! :roll:

Finally got time to tear into the CC. What I found was a mouse nest built on top of the ignition module. They chewed the wires to the low oil sensor and the grounding wire to the module. I repaired those and still had no spark. Took the module off and found that the mouse urine had apparently run down between the laminations and frozen, wedging them apart. That wedging appears to have created some tiny cracks where the metal goes into the plastic on top. I imagine some got into module itself. At least I had it in hand to verify I was ordering the right part. I tried putting it on the wire wheel and cleaning it up but several of the laminations are wedged quite a ways apart. IME this generally results in weak spark at best and problems all around. The urine did quite a job on the surrounding area and It needs some serious cleaning.

At least I finally found out what I needed to look for when searching for parts for this tractor. You have to cross reference CC2146 AND the Linamar ZX390 engine to find the right parts. Once I found the right CC part numbers I was able to eventually find the parts at Jacks, but I had to drop the "ME" prefix to the part numbers and use just the digits.

Why can't it be simple?