LX178 Starter Issue

buickanddeere · Jun 27, 2016

khodgens said:
I found the short. The PO had removed the seat switch and left the wires under it. They had been rubbing on a pulley and the exposed wire was touching the frame. That's all fixed but apparently when it shorted to the frame it fried the ignition module. It turns over great, has 12 volts to it but nothing coming out to the spark plugs. There's none available on ebay currently and I can't afford to pay dealer price. So I'm looking for a good module. If it's not one thing it's another.
Thanks for all the help.

Another example of grief when Bubba goes and jumpers out safety switches to make things better.

Richard001 · Jun 27, 2016

khodgens said:
I found the short. The PO had removed the seat switch and left the wires under it. They had been rubbing on a pulley and the exposed wire was touching the frame. That's all fixed but apparently when it shorted to the frame it fried the ignition module. It turns over great, has 12 volts to it but nothing coming out to the spark plugs. There's none available on ebay currently and I can't afford to pay dealer price. So I'm looking for a good module. If it's not one thing it's another.
Thanks for all the help.

Well not having access to a schematic, it is a little difficult to pin down the problem, but I doubt that a short in the safety wires would cause the coil or ignition module to go bad. Just doesn't make sense.

There may be other issues in play here. When you said that the ignition module had 12v on it, what position was the OFF/ON/START switch in?

Richard

khodgens · Jun 27, 2016

According to the John Deere Tech Manual, troubleshooting section, if I have 12 volts to the white and the black/yellow stripe and nothing to the spark plugs then the ignition module needs replaced. So I believe I need the module.

khodgens · Jun 29, 2016

FIXED!! I pulled the ignition module apart and it was full of dirt etc. After taking out the circuit board I cleaned it with electrical cleaner and cleaned out the case. Put it back together, plugged it in and walla it started right up. Problem fixed. Thanks to everyone for all the good advice!