The Hidden Safety Switch Trick Exposed

You are great , but too fast lol

I'm pretty sure the carb solenoid is out on my mower. I'll have a new one tomorrow to confirm. Thanks for the great video.

Excellent video to help me sort my problem with my mower.

I have an old john deer. When I try to start it I bolw the fuse.

engine starts and runs, engine stops when engage trans or mower, LX173 mower, gear drive, thanks

Nice video! 😄

What if the mower won't turn off?

This video was extremely helpful, thank you! Thought I knew what my problem was and replaced both the starter solenoid and brake interlock switch with no luck. I was about to disable the seat safety switch when I found this video. I went through the test procedure and found that my seat switch was good. My problem seems to be the PTO. Do you have any other videos that cover diagnosing/troubleshooting the PTO clutch?

Thanks for the tips. I had the engine cover all already, so I use the wire right off the coil for the diagnostics. Found I had an intermittent seat switch. Put some wd40 and worked by hand about 20 times (wd40 is non conductive) fixed that. Test the rest of the switches and all worked per your walkthrough. The end culprit was also a blown 20amp fuse… so, key wasn’t giving power to starter relay nor the carburetor solenoid. Engine cranks now.

I would truly like to thank you for this video. I'm having a problem with my mower and I have a much clearer understanding of how exactly everything is supposed to work
Thanks again
Hopefully with your video I will be able to get my mower running again

Excellent video. Thank you so much. I have an old Bestgreen mower with no cutting deck which pulls small trailer around our property. Very useful it is too. This morning it wouldn't start. I knew it would be safety switch related, but had no idea where they were. As I'd been meaning to disconnect them all at some point, this was the opportunity to do it. Found the under seat switch and afrwe testing with a meter shorted out the two white wires. Still no start. Eventually found the switch under the parking brake - same type of switch so shorted out the same. Still no start. Spent over an hour trying to find another switch - which I knew must be related to the Brake/clutch but I couldnt find it anywhere. Google is my friend and I hit your excellent video first go. 5 mins later I knew where to look, found it, shorted it out and BINGO! She runs perfectly so I finished the job by removing all unnecessary levers and clutter. Thank you so much and best wishes from an Englishman living in France!

Sir. Very precise indeed! Have you done this on a Snapper 2013 RER 210, as it's called, "Turtle"? I'm trying this same idea myself. I don't know if I've found all the safety swithes. Thank you.

54 inch white zero turn mower not cut off

Runs until you let the clutch pedal out

Thx very informative.

Thanks for this. I was pulling my hair out because I am generally pretty good with a wrench or a soldering iron, but it took me an hour to figure out that the circuit for the seat safety on mine was open circuit for on instead of closed.

I need help I am putting a Craftsman 18 horsepower OHV motor on a 93 Western Auto riding mower my brother gave it to me and I had that extra motor the motor on it was locked up but all the connection stuff on it was different from the motor so I took all the electrical off of the Craftsman LT1000 it was on and put it on to this one but the black wires that run from the ignition I had cut all the wires to try to put it on the motor for the Western Auto while it was in there and it wouldn't work because it wasn't the same stuff but if you could get ahold of me I really need help

Didn’t see you mention seat safety switch on DGT 6000

Where is seat safety switch on DGT 6000 ?

No need to cut the black wire just unhook it from the coil just slides off. Hope this helps someone.

After I have mower running and I release the brake it dies. How come?????

Thank you for the life saving video sir. Great service to the community.🙃

Excellent video. Very clear and easy to understand.
My Craftsman lawn tractor recently stopped working after running for a while. It starts alright but when I try to release the clutch/break pedal the engine stalls/stops. Could this be because of a faulty switch under the clutch/beak pedal?
Thank you.

Thank you. I do have a question, though. I have no power to the key switch to activate the start solenoid to the starter. But if I turn the key to the run position, I can cross the battery poles, and it will activate the start solenoid, and it will run. Is this a safty switch issue or a key switch issue? How do you determine that? Thank you in advance for any help. Sorry, info craftsman 15.5 hp 42 inch deck

This was an excellent video right to the point and simplified explanation of all the safety switches, wish your videos were around at least a decade ago 👍

Question, so if one of the safety switches is bad will it stop the spark plug from firing?

Very informative.Thank you bald eagle just what I wanted to know

Supremely helpful video! Now I know my issue is the brake switch, but thanks the whoever engineered the YT3000 series decided the best place for the switch was directly on top of both the deck pulley assembly and the brake linkage itself! Virtually no room to let the old switch just fall down without first taking both assemblies completely off! A 10 minute job (at most) is now close to an hour. More if you run in to new problems resulting from removing everything that shouldn't have needed removal in the first place! Thank you, Mr Craftsman "I've never actually worked on a lawn mower" Engineer!

I have a 2003 craftsmans LT 2000 lawn tractor with a 17 horse Kohler engine. The lawn tractor runs; however, after warming up the engine just cuts off as if I had turned the key to the off position. There's no coughing or sputtering noise as if engine wasn't receiving enough gas or air. The carberator was replaced in 2022. Ihave replaced the fuel filter, fuel line, oil filter, and changed the oil. Any thoughts as to next steps?



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All this palaver with cut-out this and cut-out that on all these mowers.. Just to gut a few square meters of poxy grass..!! anyway good vid. Makes me wanna go out in the rain and fix it; rather than running the bloody thing into a wall and leaving it..

informative video! However, my craftsman also has RELAYS in addition to the switches. So now I am troubleshooting switches and relays. any suggestions on simplest methods of doing so? Thanks

Best interlock video I've seen. Thank you for putting the cookies on the bottom shelf. very informative video

Thanks Baldeagle242, I just acquired my first Lawn Tractor, a JD X300 2007 FH491V 2007 (just like the one in your video regrading surging - thanks!). I have no spark but cranks issue and unplugged the wire to the coil (mine has a connector already in place where you cut this one) and once disconnected it will start and run and shut off at the key switch. I set the voltmeter for continuity and when I turn on the key, no matter what I do the beeping never stops. Your video doesn't state the switches need to be checked one by one or in any certain order but that was my approach. First of all I set the emergency brake and made sure the PTO button is off (pushed down). Pushing the seat down does not stop the beeping took switch out and depressed by hand, still beeps. I do notice the fuel solenoid clicks when I depress the seat switch. I had thought it was the
ECM but thought I would go through the switched first since it seems the only way to test the ECM is to bypass it but a bad switch can identify the same I believe. Any advice? Thanks.

is the plug that goes into the interlock switch mower dependent? On my ztr the switch on the handle has a broken wire at the connector. It's a 2 wire connector.

Hey I’m having problems with my cub cadet I put a brand new wireing harness and key switch and got the brake sensor tested and the pto switch tested there good but it still don’t have power to the key switch and the battery is off

Is it possible to bypass all of the switches?

I saw this add here about replacing windows. Sure, anyone can do it, so can you. It's simple really. I replaced 33 in my home, bought from home depot. Took less than 20 minutes each. Repainting the trim takes the longest time. GOOD LUCK but it really is easy. I did one room per day and was done in about 2 weeks.

Moving on. I have no black wire going to my starter. I've checked every switch, battery and solenoid too; still nothing but click, click, click!

Wow❤❤❣️ looking for wire cutters right now!!
That should save me hours thanks man.

the problem am haven with my mower is it blows the fuse can't figure out why . any ideas to help me out with it thanks

OK,... I have a tester connected to + on the battery, the other to cut wire going to harneses, not motor. Tester is lighted, I then pull every leaver with a safety, and the tester stays lighted???😢. No break in the switches??
Perhaps it's pinched, grounded somewhere?

I have a Husqvarna TS 138 when i put my foot on the forward pedal the mower drives in reverse, the reverse is fine, mower will not drive forward..?

👍🏼👍🏼

This has been incredibly helpful, I've just changed the hydro transmission on my Husqvarna because the mower was cutting out every time I released the clutch/brake - can't thank you enough.

My Craftman yt4000 tractor hit a large stick that got stuck in the discharge and stalled the engine. After that it would not even turn over. There is no click in the solenoid either. i replaced the blade switch, the brake switch, the solenoid, and cleaned the ground. It still will not turn over or even click. I got the engine to turn over by jumping the solenoid so the starter works and the engine is not froze. What am i doing wrong?

THANK YOU YOU SHOWED ME WHAT I NEEDED TO KNOW THAT'S WHERE THE SAFTY SWITCHES ARE

Thank you brother

I have a Ariens 46 inch cut standard lawn mower and I cannot get a ground to activate the starter solenoid .It is a hydrostatic transmission. There's a blade switch and a brake switch and a switch on the transmission.

Excellently done!!! You know your stuff!!!
Many of these safety switches are NORMALLY CLOSED type switches
For example - in the case of one mowing tractor - the seat switch contains two NC switches
When the person sits on the seat - these two switches will then be in the OPEN position and not conducting.
One switch will turn ignition off in the instance that a person is not on the seat and the blade is running
The other switch will turn ignition off in the instance a person is not on the seat and the clutch/brake pedal is not depressed

So my guess is the seat switches function to BYPASS (when the user is sitting) other safety switches such as the PTO or clutch/brake switches

It makes sense that these switches would interconnect to some kind of grounding circuit which disables the ignition when the switch is closed.
THANK YOU!!!

This video is unbelievably helpful. I have scoured the internet and this is the clearest and most straightforward troubleshooting video for a very frustrating and annoying problem. One question, do the PTO and starter switches need to be checked? Thx