lawn mower keys

Are sone, most, all of the riding lawmower keys the same ?

I just bought a John Deere x590 and noticed the key looked like the same notches (teeth) as the one for my old Husqvarna mower. Tried them and either key would work in the other brand of mower.

Reply to
Ralph Mowery
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On Fri, 19 Feb 2021 11:14:52 -0500, Ralph Mowery posted for all of us to digest...

Yup, when I had a lawn tractor in for repair I asked if he needed the key. Nope, he stated they're all the same. This is lawn grade stuff and I recall farm tractors had actual keys.

Reply to
Tekkie©

My lawnmower is too small to hae a key, but I wouldn't be surprised

When I was a Yellow cab driver in 1969, all the Checker cabs had the same key. (I even made myself a copy, so I didn't have to wait for the dispatcher.)

And cars themselves used to have only a few different keys.

Reply to
micky

I can understand the consumer lawn tractors of a brand having the same key, but it struck me as odd that 2 different brands would have the same key. The keys are not very high security anyway. Just enough to keep young children from maybe starting the mower without the key. Probably more of some safety regulation by the government.

When I was in high school around 1966 three students had mustangs their parents bought. They were all good friends. Any time any 2 of them could get together they could start and open the door of all 3. One would open the door and the other would start the car. That was when Ford had a key for the ignition and a key for the doors.

My parents Chevy key would work in a friends Tempest, but they were both GM cars. Never heard of one company car key starting another brand of the Big 3.

I guess the with the newer electronic keys and fobs it is easy to have millions of combinations so it is doubtful they will work on other cars. My Camry does not even have a key as such to start the car. It does have something in the FOB to open the door if the battery dies in the FOB. Then you can hold it next to the start button and it gets energised enough to start the car.

Reply to
Ralph Mowery

Yup that was a bar bet. You could bet that if 5 or 6 guys tried their key in a car from the same maker, it would work and usually win. It wasn't until the 60s when they started putting in the steering wheel locks that they also started mixing up the keys a little better. Some of the problem was some older cars had a master key setup and that meant there were two tumblers in each key notch position doubling the number of winning combinations in each notch. Old Mopars were even worse. If you stuck a paper clip in that little hole, the cylinder pulled right out and you could start it with a screwdriver. I did that with my buddy's 67-8 Dodge van when he lost his keys in the surf in Ocean City. I took the cylinder apart, dumped out all the slugs and it was just a switch when I put it back.

OTOH old Chevys (all GMs?) in the 50s had a position where you could remove the key and the ignition was unlocked. Start it and stop it without a key.

Reply to
gfretwell

Every Peugeot in Zambia in the seventies could be started with one of

15 keys - except my 204 - it had a FIAT ignition cyl.
Reply to
Clare Snyder

One of the selling points of the Toyota I bought last spring was that it had a real live key. I can get a copy made at Ace for $2.50 instead of $250.

It does have a switch to lock/unlock the doors and hatch which I assume is installed to support the remote entry option. I also noticed the other day that in addition to the beep if you pen the door with the key in the ignition you can't lock the door.

Reply to
rbowman

Good point. Maybe they all buy from the same guy, who makes all of them for everyone. I heard there is a town in china that makes 80% of the world's neckties.

Good to know.

Reply to
micky

I notice that in my 65 pontiac when I reached for the key and accidentally fell back with my fingers on the key. It was very nice, because I could use the key to open the trunk without turning off the engine.

Reply to
micky

I never got to drive a Peugeot in Zambia. Darn. So many things to do, so little time.

Reply to
micky

Drove a lot of other interesting stuff there too - like mny 1949 VW split-window and a LandRover "swamper" series 3 1 ton 109 pickup. With the big six and HUGE tires there was basically nothing (short of mechanical failure) that would stop it. Bull low half throttle was a fast walk - - -

Reply to
Clare Snyder

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