You do take special care of new kids right?
My name is Paul Lloyd I live in upstate NY. I have a John Deere x300 and it doesn't work
I am not sure if I am okayed to post or not yet but here goes
First of all let me say I know what a wrench is but obviosly I am not a bonafide mechanic. As I said I have a JD x300 42" mower w/100 hrs that I have been using right along with no issues at all. Last cut was 2 weeks ago. I went out yesterday and it would not start I used my trusty spark plug tester to confirm there was no spark. There was gas as pulled the plugs to see. I checked 3 fuses they were all good. I do know that there is a safety interlock system that tells the engine not to spark or stop sparking if things are not right. So I disconnected the black ground wires to the two coils and walah engine fired right up. I put my foot on the brake and turned the key off and (suprisingly} the engine shut down. I started it up again and got up from the seat (with the break off} and it shut right down, as it should. I started it up again and went out to mow. That is when I discovered the PTO/mower blades would not engage, I put her back in the garage and revved up my puter. On my first trip to this forum I spotted a thread that was identical to my issues, Only one was a solution and it read: get a multimeter, click on this link to get schematics and start testing. That is not a bad idea, as a matter of fact I had it myself before I got on the puter. But not knowing as much as I probably should, I was kinda hoping someone could tell me what I should be looking for and where I might find it.
An example of what I'm looking for is:
What has to happen for the PTO to engage? I am thinking PTO lever activates a switch that confirms or not whether a ground is present?
On startup with the ground wires attached to the coils. What are the somethings that could tell the coils not to spark.
I was thinking if someone could educate me on these functions - that would point me in the right direction.
