# Craftsman gt5500



## Rookie01 (Jul 18, 2015)

I have a craftsman Gt5500. Its last years model with the keyless ignition. When its running it cuts out bad and will not idle at low rpms. However, when I engage the deck it runs perfect , but only when the deck is engaged. I am sure its electrical but am lost as to where to get started in the diagnosis/repair. It has the Kohlor 26hp with a 54 deck. Only has 28 hours. Anybody had this issue or can point me in a direction to start? Thanks in advance


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## jhngardner367 (Apr 5, 2011)

Check the safety switch,and the ignition switch. They are both know for trouble.


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## Rookie01 (Jul 18, 2015)

How do I check those? Would engaging the deck somehow fix a faulty switch?


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## film495 (Nov 1, 2013)

it likely draws electrical power through another circuit when the deck is engaged, and pulls enough power to engage a magnet, if that's how the clutch works. i don't know this machine, just speculating. as a first effort, I would just go over the electrical connections to the switches and make sure they all seem to have a good connection, and don't find any badly bent, frayed wires. disconnect the battery first if you do this.

I had a switch start to go, and the way the machine behaved, is it would just turn off when running. I didn't know what was wrong, as the machine would just start right up after and seem to run fine. Eventually, I got smart and figured out I could use a small alligator clip to jump from the battery/power terminal to the run terminal on the back of my ignition switch. Basically, this did the same thing as having the key in the run position. When the machine would not start one time, I did this test, and the machine then started, and I isolated it was a bad connection in the ignition switch. 

I'm not familiar with a keyless ignition, but I imagine it has the same accessory, start, run, functions on the front and respective electrical connections on the back.

I'd be willing to bet the switch that engages the deck, or the starter switch is starting to go. More likely the starter switch.


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