Electrical Issue? I’m out of ideas....

[BrianSki]

Sorry if I misspoke, but I meant the kill tab on the ignition coil itself. No one has given me an answer yet, but is that supposed to be grounded as soon as I bolt it on? That kill tab is measuring a short to ground as soon as I bolt it on.

To answer your question. Yes the kill wire would read ground, but with a higher resistance as you mentioned in another post. You are reading the ground through the coil. This is a simple coil schematic of the coil system, that may help explain it better.

Not sure if you have points or an electronic system on that mower, but this gives you an idea what the ignition switch is doing to kill the coil. And how you are reading a ground through the coil.

 

[ttippetts]

I have seen the LCD hour meter short internally causing it to go to ground. You might try disconnecting it

 

[dcox1]

Check your new coil and see if there is a tiny screw where the kill wire plugs on. If there is take the screw out and bend the edges back from the metal body of the coil and then plug your kill wire back on. I have found this on off brand coils. When the screw is in and you plug the kill wire on it grounds the coil out immediately. I had 2 coils like that.

 

[olie01]

IF it has a Kawasaki engine it has a module M18 spark igniter on the side of engine block the coil ground goes to it, I found if it doesn't work the engine wouldn't start.

 

[Gord Baker]

The RIO [Reverse Implement Option] switch is the yellow push button on the dash just below the throttle lever on the left. If you have the blades engaged and you shift to reverse, the moment you press the drive pedal, the engine will shut off. You must press the yellow RIO button before pressing the drive pedal in order to back up with the blades engaged.

FWIW!

Correct!

 

[wheelie]

Just throwing this in.. I just had a similar issue with a friends older Craftsman Indy Edition mower.. Tested checked gave up.. replaced the ignition switch and all the safety switches except one which I unplugged (2 wire) seat one..It would not start or It would start and sometimes die right off and sometimes you could get started mowing then it would shut down... Just for drill I pulled the PTO switch off a different mower and exchanged them.... Everything worked great.. ordered a new PTO switch and He has been mowing once a week and this was a month or more ago..

 

[AimmeAshley]

Explain, I am not following.

To answer your question, I switched the multimeter to DC voltage and had one probe on the kill wire and the other on the battery negative terminal. Then, I switched the ignition switch from OFF, to run with lights, run and start mode to check to see if there were any stray voltage spikes. There weren't.

 

[AimmeAshley]

Your interpretation of the schematic w.r.t. the RIO switch(S6 on your schematic?) is correct! That switch is only closed when in reverse. The RIS switch(S4 on your schematic?) is the push button on the dash which activates the RIO latching relay(K1 on your schematic?). FWIW, I suspect JD calls S4 the RIS(Reverse Implement Switch) on the schematic because that's exactly how they refer to it in the text of the operating manual on p20 in the section "Using The Reverse Implement Option (RIO)" and because they already called S6 the RIO switch on the schematic!

Thanks for your response! On my mower, I just don't see a physical switch for the RIO (S6). Should I just measure for continuity on the two nubs that I think are the switch?

 

[AimmeAshley]

Isn't there a one way diode that can go wrong on these systems?
One of the symptoms are, no spark with the kill wire attached.

On the D100, I don't think there's an in-line diode with the kill wire. In my manual, only the D140 and above have the in-line diode.

 

[AimmeAshley]

Are you sitting on the seat when you're doing your testing? If not, did you bypass the seat's kill switch? If you answer both of these "No" then that's your problem.

Thanks for your suggestion. Yes, I've placed a weight on the seat to simulate having the seat switch engaged. I can also confirm the seat switch is working correctly because if I pull the PTO lever to ON, the kill wire will show open load, versus a short (with the ignition key at RUN) if I wasn't engaged properly.