Repairs Dixon 428 - engine will not shut off

[smalltownguy2]

Picked up a Dixon ZTR 428 last night from a friend. The ignition switch has been rewired to start the motor, but it will not shut it off. Previous owner picked up the mower in tough shape, and hotwired the switch so he could crank the motor to start it, but never got around to getting things hooked up completely.

Does anyone know how I can at least hook up a kill wire on this Briggs motor? It's kind of tough to shut it down - only way to get it to get it off right now is either choke it out, or lower the RPMs all the way down and engage the blades to stop the motor. Not very effective, or safe.

 

[ILENGINE]

You can either fix the wiring so you can shut it off with the key switch, or if you don't want to fix that, you can install a wire between the ignition module and a toggle switch that you can flip to kill the engine. Just remember to flip it back on to restart.

 

[smalltownguy2]

Thanks for the info. I took a quick peek under the control panel of the switch board this morning before work. It appears that all the original wire connectors are still there, but a few of the wires have corroded and broken loose from the connector pins. I suspect that a ground probably broke loose at some point, and that probably caused the key switch to stop working properly. I have the wire harness diagram, and I see that ground is daisy chained Then the previous owner tapped directly into the switch, unplugging the original connector.

I'll see if I can figure out what should connect back to where after I give the unit a good test drive tonight. I'll sharpen the blades and let the wifey cruise around a bit.

 

[smalltownguy2]

Did my best to fix up the wiring on this mower. Found a ground wire that was broken up by the ignition switch. Also found another wire plug had backed out of the connector between the body and the rear. Found a headlight wire not hooked up.

I have lights now, and the engine will start and shut off with the key. But the blades do not engage. As soon as a I try to engage the blades, the engnine kills.

There's another connector that is not connected to anything. It's a four position connector, and two of the wires have been bridged with what looks like a paper clip inserted. I presume this was someone's handy attempt at bypassing the seat switch.

My question is this: are the other two wires on this connector for some sort of other interlock? Perhaps some other safety switch?

Something still isn't right. Before, the blades worked with the switch, but it was wired in a weird way. The ground wire was bolted directly to the engine, and the hot wire came off the switch.

That switch to engage the blades has two connectors that attach to it: a 2 position connector that goes down to the blades rotor, and a 3 position connector that must talk to the safety switches perhaps. I'm not sure what I have hooked up wrong, but when I try and engage the blades now, the engine kills.

 

[smalltownguy2]

Another update - as I'm reading about how the wiring is set up on this mower, I realize that there may be a relay missing on my mower. I have an extra connector under my ignition switch panel that wasn't connected to anything. Two of the contacts on the connector were bridged with a paperclip - I'm guessing that was the seat safety switch. The other connectors must have something to do with the safety switches for the blade clutch. Looks like there are 3 contacts left. Is there any way I can test connections to see that my wiring is correct? I will replace the relay, but I'd like to jumper connections to make sure that the wiring is OK first.

 

[smalltownguy2]

Finally got most of this wiring sorted out. Big problems in the wire harness connector between the body harness and rear harness. The connector is shot. Need to replace it.