Repairs Electric System Fix.

Hello all, just joined your forum, Hope someone can help me out. I recently bought a nice Sears Craftsman Rider Mower, 18 hp Kohler Magnum, I believe it is about 10 yrs. old? low hours really clean and untampered with.Using the owners manual as a guide, I began going thru it to make sure everything is as it should be. But....coming from the backside of the ignition (key) switch, terminal G is a single black wire that goes to a spade connector (not plugged in) and nowhere obvious to plug it in. Also, at the spade connector another black wire feeds in, but this was cut off from itself- the apparent source being the A terminal of the pto switch. I am confused because this differs from the schematic in the owners manual. If someone with the same or similar mower can look at my pictures and compare to their own ? and provide me with the right answer? It would seem they are all grounds, but that spade connector should plug in somewhere, and it only goes 12 inches from the ignition switch max. Thank you for any help, Paul Caruthers

Last owner removed safety switches from PTO.

Clutch/Brake safety sw. is there, and the seat sensor is there and appear to be hooked up.

He said the PTO, not clutch, not brake not seat, PTO.

We can not help you if you do not give us more to work with like a model number.
There are a lot of old craftsman mowers with 18 Hp engines in them.

917.252712 Its in the pictures.

Model Number 917.252712 - The schematic isn't showing any other safety switches besides the two I mentioned, but I concede that the schematic is showing some things slightly different, example - The G terminal of the ignition switch is shown with a single wire to ground and that's it, but the G terminal wire is the one that is joined by another at the spade connector. This spade connector isn't shown anywhere in the owners manual. If you guys need another view on any of the components, just say it and I will provide it. Thank you for your efforts. PJC

Paul Caruthers said:

Clutch/Brake safety sw. is there, and the seat sensor is there and appear to be hooked up.

Click to expand...

The wire he cut disabled them for the PTO switch.

Did the engine start and shutdown properly before you starting checking it? On my gt6000 from that era the wire from the G terminal on the key switch goes into a double wired spade connector like that, that is the ground for the solenoid and the other wire is grounded to the frame. It also might be possible that the 4 wire solenoid was replaced with a 3 wire that grounds directly. I agree that the disconected wire from the pto switch was to disable a safety switch, my guess would be it was to disable the seat switch.

Thank you guys, HughDaHand and BlazNT, an interesting point is that the previous owner did change the solenoid, I will ask him if he can remember that. I just wanted some advice from experienced people rather than go with my gut feeling. Don't want to connect anything wrong and end up having to spend $50 to $100 on a component if I can avoid making a dumb mistake. Thanks again PJC

The G terminal stands for GROUND.
It connects to the M ( MAGNETO ) terminal to stop the engine

The PTO safety switch is incorperated into the the electric PTO switch.
Usually that switch will have 1 or 2 power in wires and 1 or 2 power out wires .
All the rest are earth ( ground) wires that make or berak the earth contact to the magneto,
So as you were told in the first responce, some one has cut the MAGNETO cut out wire most likely because the switch was faulty or the Seat & or Brake switch was faulty

In photo 3 you see 2 wires from the A terminal.
Ultimately both of them connect the M terminal to earth and shut down the motor depending upon the position of the set switch and / or the brake switch
By choppig off the wire he has dissabled the engine kill function from the seat, brake & PTO switch, a thoroughly stupid idea if I have ever seen one.