Look for a safety switch under/near the seat.

Thanks, Lurker. I thought about that and I did look, but couldn't find where it plugs in. I'll have to take a better look manana! May have to disassemble the whole mower :).

Regards,

Jim

There may also be a safety switch so the tractor can ONLY start in neutral.

Just went back and looked at it again. Not the seat switch.
I did find that the wire must have gone to the place that covers the gears, etc. But when I plugged it in, it didn't make any difference. Will do more tomorrow. There is some sort of metal spring-a-ma-jig where it connects, but it seems to me that as long as the clutch/brake is fully depressed it will start in any gear.

It just wouldn't be right if I had a full day to loaf, would it. Ah, retired life!!

Well, at least you can forget about trying to make the yellow wire "a hot wire to the ignition" because the ignition is a magneto based system, meaning it makes its own electric power without any kind of power from outside the engine. So there is no "hot wire" going to the coil at all.
There is however the "kill wire" that grounds the ignition coil to stop spark when you don't want the engine to run.

Does the starter solenoid have 4 terminals on it (2 big and 2 small)? If it does, the yellow wire could possibly be part of the interlock system that provides a ground for the starter solenoid only when the tranny is in neutral.

that's the problem with old equipment and no skills. You owners manual will not be any help even if you find the wiring harnesss it's not going to show a good enough picture to be any good. You have to have the ability to look at the diagram and the harness as it routed on the LT and be able to idenify basiclly what the wires go to and what that system does. You may have to study the wiring diagram and your mower for days.

How do you get skills, by understanding how systems work in relation to when you turn the switch. IF it was me I would remove the panel and the rear fenders/transmission cover. Now you can get a good look at what actually under the your seat. Keeping old equipment running in not luck but based on the owners ability to idenify problems when they arise. If the owner can't do that then he has two choices" take it to someone that can or buy a new LT.

For those lacking skill and experience, paying attention or diagramming or taking pictures is mandatory but so rarely done.

It's amusing how simple things appear during disassembly and how complicated they become going back together.

RC:

Thanks so much for your help.

My step dad had a Statesman mower - read MTD. There was a cover over the gear shift with I think 4 phillips screws holding it in. You had to unscrew the gear shift knob to get that cover over top of it.

Under the cover was the gear shifter, and a beigish looking connector that a wire connected to. It was for the neutral start switch. It had a male connector that was very hard to see.

Look around that area - it was very close to the gear shift itself. If nothing else, extend the wire to its full length, and then look for a male connector it'll plug into.

I'm sure you'll find it.

Rusty: Break out the banjo! I have a hankering for some dueling banjos!

MOWNIE: Did you see my post where I found where the yellow wire plugs in? It plugs to a connector on the cover that goes over the gear-shift (F N R). I thought 'that's it', but when I connected it, nothing happened. So, I'm back to square one. One picture shows where it plugs into. There;s a metal spring or something which I thought might be what the shift lever rests against when it is in neutral, but I have never had to have it in neutral to start it.,......as long as the clutch was fully depressed. I guess I need to find out exactly what happens when the clutch is depressed.....how it might react with some switch or the shift lever or whatever.....

www.garlic.com/~jimd/mower1.jpg
www.garlic.com/~jimd/mower2.jpg
www.garlic.com/~jimd/mower3.jpg
www.garlic.com/~jimd/mower4.jpg

...................SORRY FOLKS...............

You can view the pictures now. My error.

Looks like somehow that long flat blade was bent out of position. Most likely it is a Neutral safety switch and the F-R rod makes or brakes that circuit in the Neutral position.

Jim, I didn't mean to be an a$$, even though I sounded like one! just things aren't that simple. MTD 13HP tec. don't tell us much. First off is it a elect. clutch or manual?. You should have at least 3 safety switch. seat switch, clutch switch, and RIO (manual clutch engagement switch, and maybe the neutral safety switch?.

First off I would start at the 30 amp fuse, see if thats good. then I would move to the battery, see if thats good. Then I would verify all the safety switches by activation and see that you get ground or not ground when you actuate the switch with multimeter. Then I would turn the key on and see if you getting `12V to the starter solenoid and in the start position? IF not I would back track to find out why.

Surely you would of found something by this time. IF not then it time to get the diagram out and trace every wire from point a to point b and verifing with multimeter the wiring and the conponent from point a to b are good.

Then there is hot wiring around curcuit to verify the LT will start and function, but not recommended.

posting and Viewing photo's is not that easy on this forum do a search on how to post a photo and they should show up in that format. Good Luck and I hope you get it going.

Well, that is definitely a "grounding switch" for some kind of interlock.
I'm not 100% convinced that it is a neutral switch at this point because the switch does not appear to be bent out of its intended shape. The shape it has does not look like it could be influenced by the F&R lever.

What kind of PTO is used to drive the deck? Is it an electric clutch? or is it a manual lever? If it is a manual lever type, look closely at how the linkage moves when you move the deck engagement into and out of engagement to see if there is a rod or lever involved in that which can operate the spring arm of the switch.
If this was intended to inhibit the starter from engaging when the deck is engaged, it would have required either a relay in the starter solenoid control circuit, or it would have required the starter solenoid have 2 small control posts instead of just one.
It is possible that a solenoid having only 1 small post was used as a replacement for the original starter solenoid, which would defeat the interlock design and allow the starter to engage whether the deck was engaged or not so long as the clutch pedal was pushed down.
Look around under the hood, behind dash, or wherever some electrical components and wires converge or meet. See if there is any kind of relay (similar to the standard Bosch 5 blade relay you find in everything these days) and if you do find a relay, does it have a "yellow with black tracer stripe" wire going to it?
And look at the starter solenoid, if it has just 1 small post, look around there to see if there is an unused wire end that may have at one time been conected to a "4 post" solenoid.

MOWNIE - That wire may or may not have had anything to do with it not starting by key. I forced started it at the starter and noticed it was vibrating. It was normally smoothe as silk. It turned out to be that the deck switch had become inactivated (deck not up far enough or lever not back far enough). And that was the problem............after I had spent a fortune going to lawnmower college for an hour back
in Main this morning (smile). Thanks to all.

Jim

Here is a link that might be useful: About Me

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GarlicJim,

That wire is for the non-mow in reverse. I remember that now. And, as soon as you said something about the deck not being high enough, I remembered that too.

Yeah, my step dad pulled both of those stunts on me.

Glad you found the problem.