Sear Tractor will not Start

[Chieftin]

I have a Sear lawn tractor, No. # 917.272751. I cut the grass the other day and the next day it was dead. You turn the key and there is not a sound. The battery is fine, I inspected the three safety switches with an ohm meter and they appear to be ok, I check the fuse and it is good, I check and there is no voltage going into the starter solenoid when you turn the key to start, so their lies my problem. I have voltage from battery to the solenoid but the solenoid has no voltage to engage the starter. What is wrong?

[Tom G]

Had the same problem...drove the tractor around the house,, unloaded some stuff from the trailer and when I went to start it...dead. Checked everything..jump started by using screwdriver across solenoid. Thought it must be starter switch so changed it out. Still no start. Then, frustrated, I was sitting on the tractor and for some reason, I pushed the clutch/brake pedal down, turned the key and voila, it started. Two days of screwing around with it and I had simply forgotten that the Sears, unlike the Duetch Allis tractor, I also own and had been using more, required that you depress the brake/clutch pedal. Damn these senior moments.

Tom G

[Harry K]

Same here. Equipment has so many safety switches on them that it is easy to miss on. I was working on mine today to adjust the belts. Crawled on to start it up and nothing. As step one in the manual says 'be careful not to damage the yellow wire going to the safety switch..." I figured I had. Inspection showed no damage. A couple more tries until I noticed that the deck height lever was in the engaged position. Won't start that way. At least I did discover that I can leave that 'yellow wire' disconnected so I can now mow in reverse.

Harry K

[MLD]

There are a number of saftey switches that will prevent the enginge from starting. Depress the clutch/brake pedal and hold down each of the various levers (one at a time to isolate) prior to starting. Happens to me all the time and most of the time it's the lever (can't recall it's function--senior moment) right under the blade engagement lever. MLD