Its been a great work horse for several years. The mower itself is pretty beat up but it always starts and gets the job done. About two months ago, when I would start it up and engage the blade, it would die. Acted like a safety switch was killing it as I engaged the blade. I could slowly move the lever up and most of the time I could get it going. Last time I was mowing I hit a fence post with the right from wheel, gave it a pretty good jolt and it died immediately. Can not get it to start at all, will not turn over, no power. I checked the battery, the fuse and both are good. I did a visual inspection of the seat safety kill switch and it seems fine. So now I am stuck. Not much of a mechanic, but I tinker till I figure things out. Before I start taking everything apart and have a bigger mess than when I started, does anyone have a specific suggestion? It has a Kohler engine model CV16S.
Craftsman 917.271080 riding mower wont start
- Thread starter seanh
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gfp55
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Do you have a manual? If no, I would get a service manual so you can know where things are and the names or the parts. How do you know the battery is good? Have you tried to jump start at the starter? You need to check all the safety switches, seat, clutch/brake, blade PTO, etc. The manual will help you.
reynoldston
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Seeing how you could get it going by moving the PTO lever up and down maybe that would be a good place to start. Check the PTO lever switch.
hrdman2luv
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It sounds to me like maybe a ground problem. When you hit the fence, it died. Like the jolt connected a bare wire to something metal.. Check the spark. I'm having the same issue right now. No spark with two new coils. I thought one was bad, so I put another one on. And still no spark. Even after disconnecting the kill wire.