# 20G electrical issues



## jpmill (Aug 6, 2011)

well I finally got my 20G. I ran it for about a half hour and shut it down but left the head lights on (I had turned them on to see if they work and forgot they were on). Well the battery died so I hooked up a brand new battery charger I had bought. It is a Schumacher SC-600A. It is a pretty smart charger and will not start charging until it is hooked up properly. Well I know the gravely is negative ground but when I hooked up the charger it would not light up as "connected" so after a while I tried hooking it up backwards. - to + and + to - and the charger said it was connected. The battery was totally dead and it took about 10 hours to charge it. And it charged just fine. I though the mfg had made a mistake and hooked their wires up wrong but I hooked the charger up to my car and it was "right" meaning the + to + and - to -.
Now here is my issue... the tractor will not start with the key but I can jump the solenoid with 2 screwdrivers and it will run. BUT I noticed smoke coming from the wire plug (under the hood) that is connected to the key socket and it is melted some.
So something is seriously wrong here. The tractor sat for over a year outside with no cover on it. I had to clean up the jets and put new gas in it and it ran ok after I adjusted the jets. I ran it for about an hour total before I shut it off.
The safety switch under the seat had a jumper on it so I connected it back up but it still won't start with the key. I know I must have a short somewhere but any ideas where to look? Sorry this post is so long but I thought I would share as much info as I can so we don't have to play 20 questions before we get to the root of the problem.

TIA for any siggestions
John


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