How to test lawn mower key switch

[Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] hey guys josh here with metal in motion outdoor power equipment pair I wanted to show you quickly today how to test key switches in riding lawn mowers there's a lot of different kinds of key switches and there's a lot of different kinds of wiring layouts so the best thing to do is to check your manual and look at the section in there they have on key switches today's key switch is a very basic key switch it's the key switch that is found on ride riding mowers like Murray this one came off of a craftsman a lot of your lower end mowers like Bolin's will carry this key switch I wanted to show you the concept of how to do it because there are so many different layouts this will give me the idea of how to go about testing it once you find the material you need in your manual so let's go over to the bench and I'll show you how to do it alright so we're looking at a basic key switch here this is a five terminal key switch just the bare-bones style and if you look really close you can see that there are letters scribed in the plastic on the bottom of the key switch there's an M that stands for magneto ask this force Illinois L is for lights G is for ground B is for battery now the way we test this turn the switch in the off position I've got my key switch underneath here turn it in the off position and you're going to put your digital multimeter I've got my set on continuity and here the beeping you're going to put one lead on the g terminal you're going to put one lead on the M terminal and it should be connections are a little dirty there you can hear the beeping so we know that the shutoff part of the switch when you turn the key off the is working it's going to turn your motor off all right next we want to check the run / lights position essentially this is when you want to turn your lights on you're going to put the key switch in that that position so we've got our key switch turned one click off of the off so it's in between the start and the run in the off position and you're going to be testing terminals B and terminals l and it should beep so we know we have continuity between those two terminals so that tells us that as far as the key switch goes our lights should be working the last section is going to be the start position now this is the spring-loaded part of the key switch when you turn the key switch to crank your motor when you let go it springs back to the run position and what we have to do is it's a little bit tricky unless you have alligator clips on your your multimeter leads you have to hold the multimeter leads on the terminals and turn the key switch at the same time so what we're going to be testing is we're wanting to go from the battery to the cylinder so there's a little wire that goes down to you're still annoyed when you turn this key switch 12 volts is applied to the scylla need so there are little holes in top of these terminals and you can hook your your multimeter leads through them so I usually hook one through this side when I'm doing this one went through this side just make sure that your multimeter leads are not touching each other or not touching any other terminal so you've got those held there I'm cranking the engine and I've got perfect continuity so as far as this key switch goes it's good it's a very good working key switch in fact I knew it was working but I wanted to test it for you guys and that is the switch to doom it out here that's the switch that we tested a five pull switch off the craftsman mower so that's the concept on how to do it like I said go to your manuals they have a section under the electrical that usually will show a diagram usually it looks something of the sorts something like this or something like this key switch test and it'll have this box here which will have the off run and lights run and start position and you can kind of it'll tell you which terminals B s a one is accessory one for this style switch and you'll just connect those with your multimeter leads and you want to see if you've got continuity through those so I'm Josh with metal and motion outdoor power equipment repair thanks for watching and stay tuned for more videos [Music]

Channel: Metal In Motion Shop

Views: 837,012

Keywords: electrical, How-to, Riding mower, Lawn Mower, key switch, continuity, multi meter, Murray, Craftsman

Id: q8G7kxCl9hY

Length: 4min 53sec (293 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 06 2012