JD GT275 not firing

W_B

Well-known Member
Bought a '97 GT 275 with the Kawasaki FC540V-FS15 17 h.p. engine late last year at an on-line auction for $325. I thought that was a great buy. When I went to pick it up the seller was just finishing up mowing his yard with it for the last time so I know it ran well then. I would start it occasionally at home and let it run a bit, started right up every time and ran great. Eventually it would have to be jumped as the battery had run down. It was low on gas and in the back of the shed with one flat tire so it sat over the winter with about two months from the last start. I had the parts to get it back in shape but didn't get them installed with the rush of life as usual.

My other mowers failed so the JD was up as primary mower. Tried to jump it in the shed with no luck, cranked fine but no
fire. I towed it up to the garage, thinking the problem was mice chewing on the ignition wire, had this problem on both of the other mowers. Tore the top off, no mice under the shroud, although there was a nest in the air cooling intake (removed before cranking it the first time). It was clean underneath.
Definitely no fire from the coil at all, not even a weak spark. I cleaned the flywheel and the coil and the wire connections and put it back on with the proper air gap, checked the plug wire for cracks or leaks, new plug, still no fire.

I found on another site instructions to check the coil and it appeared to fail those ohm tests, although it included instructions for a control unit, which this tractor does not have that. I saw where that is internal to the coil on this engine, so my testing might have been bogus. But still hoping this was the problem I went to a Kawasaki parts site and ordered the coil they show for this engine, about half of the JD price. Got the coil and put it on yesterday... still no fire. New spark plug wire tested with no resistance so it is good.

I checked the white wire going to the coil seemed to check out OK, no breaks, no resistance in the wire from the key switch to the coil. I saw no volts from the wire with the key on. Checked for any voltage where it attaches to the key switch, nothing there either, although the other pins on the switch showed
battery voltage. Fuses were fine, no resistance through them.

Should there be some volts flowing to the coil from that coil wire?
What else can I check before throwing more money at parts (I hate doing that)?
Parking brake is on, PTO off, seat switch is fine and working... would it crank but not fire if one of those other safety switches were defective?
Is the circuit board on the key switch potentially bad? Any way to test it? What am I missing?

Sorry for the length of this, getting a bit exasperated with this and need to mow, once the rain stops. Good news is the fluids and filters are all changed and axle bushings replaced, just need to it run. Wife is calling it a POS (gasp!) and wants me to go buy a big box store cheapy mower to get the mowing done on a timely basis and get the JD out of her garage (her car is sitting outside).

Thanks for any help!
 
Very common problem on Kawasaki FC540V engines.

Check or search for a Kawasaki Igniter box. Also called a CDI Box and/or Electronic Ignition box.

Be a good idea to buy a spare and keep an extra on hand. The things are notorious for going bad.
 
This model doesn't have the control module, supposedly it's internal to the coil. Wish it did as that would be easy to test and replace, and cheaper vs. the coil.
 
You mean the [ igniter ] ? Neighbor had a couple go bad. There are
plenty of replaacements on Ebay. Just get the right one.
 
WB it DOES have an igniter on the side of the motor. About the size of two quarters. One wire to it. Held on with one Philips screw.
 
Well your throwing parts at it without really understanding how it works. Then your getting BAD advice from people. BTDT too LOL. Email me with contract info for direct contact if you want.

The GT 275 does have an igniter that is on the side of the motor. Right side IRC. It is small square (#19 AM132770 list $75.57) and held on with one Philips screw. The later 17 HP motors had the igniter built into the coil.

This system generates the spark from the coil itself. The switch grounds the coil to kill it. So there is no voltage on the wire going to the coil. So you need to check the wire to ground. If it is grounded then you have a bad wire/ignition switch/safety switch.
a165932.jpg
 
Could it be that you are looking at the wrong diagram/s for the engine?

This diagram shows the Igniter as part #21119 used with coil #21121A on electric start engines with charging systems. [i:4a6fc71ccc]Circled in red[/i:4a6fc71ccc].

Coil #21121 is used on engines found on a lot of larger commercial walk behind mowers that have a pull (rope) starter and no charging systems. [i:4a6fc71ccc]Circled in blue[/i:4a6fc71ccc].

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Thanks JD. My motor is a later one, no igniter on it. The wire to the magneto/coil goes directly to the key switch. Since it is just a kill wire it should fire when it is unhooked, but no luck. I think I had a bad coil originally and the new one is either bad or the one for an external igniter. So it is going back and I will have to pony up for the expensive JD one (and hope it is the right one!)
 
It is now running. I got the coil with the internal igniter and it fired right up. Sent the other back to RepairClinic.com with no problem. One hint, if your engine has no external ignitor, like mine, you will have to get the expensive one, the $50 some one won't work. Mine was about $91 w/ shipping.
 

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