Hi guys, newbie here. I bought a Craftsman riding mower today on Craigslist. It ran fine and no problems when I checked it out. But once I brought it home and gave it another run and then turned off the mower, a spark occurred in the wiring then proceeded to catch on fire. I know nothing about mowers and was wondering what caused it, how it can be fixed, and how much cost would be involved. Thanks!
You are going to have to tell more about that wire.
It is obvious that it had an over current failure. If you do not know what wire it is, click some pictures of it & post them. It will be relatively easy to speculate as to what caused the problem... especially if you identify what wire shorted out. (and it likely shorted to the frame or sheet metal on the mower... :smile:KennyV
Looking at your photos, I can give you a guess as to the cause, but remember it is only a guess as I cannot see everything I would like to. My guess is that your key switch shorted out. From your pics, to me it is the fuse holder which burned up. For it to burn up like that you would have had to have a direct short to ground somewhere. Not being there to see other things makes it very difficult to give a better diagnosis of the cause. KennyV may have some other ideas. I am trying to find a wiring diagram to give you some other things to check.
If more photos are needed, just let me know. I am not sure if this would be relevant to the cause, but I noticed that one of the bulbs in the front didn't work when I turned them on.
I know this is not your unit, but pleasej check and see how close this diagram is to your unit. Look closely at the wire colors and where they are connected. Let us know what you think.
Looking at the pictures, Was it a wire that burned or just that black plastic block?
I can't make out what the symbol is on the side of it is, angle is a little too steep.
But like Rivets said,it looks like a fuse holder that is burnt up. If that is what that component was... I would also suggest that corrosion on the fuse spade & fuse holder generated enough heat to melt and destroy the fuse and holder. If this is the case you may not necessarily have a short, normal current flow through a resistance, like corrosion, will generate a Lot of heat.
Can you give a better picture or 2 of that burnt plastic block? :smile:KennyV
You both may be right, the only reason I went to the idea of a bad switch was the fact it occurred on shutoff when there should have not current going through that wire.
That was my first thought also... but with a resistive heating spot, it could have generated a lot of heat, razing the temperature past the plastic flash point. then with the engine shut off and the air movement around it stopped, all that heat would have lit the plastic.
It looks like there is a dab of yellow plastic on top, that would have been a 20 amp fuse, if that is correct, he could cut out the old fuse holder, and splice in a new one with a fuse, should be less than $5 repair... :smile:KennyV
I guess we'll have to wait for a couple more pics of that part. Can't remember, but isn't yellow a 30 amp fuse? Most craftsman use 30 amps in their systems.
Now that you mention it, I'd better look on chart to be sure... Yellow 20 , Green 30...
Some of the colors are not that pronounced .. especially after a flame has played with it.
Hope he places a few more pictures. :smile:KennyV
