QuestionSorry for you and your friends' tragic loss. Such situations make most of our crises seem irrelevant.
You may not have had time to find the S82 manual, but have some more info. Seat switch, transmission switch, and deck bearing are OK. Starter turns engine fine, just no spark so does not start.
Am not finding white wire/governor plate you mentioned. One white wire appears to go from ignition switch to 4-prong switch in steering column, but then I lose it in the loom, most of which is in good condition and I have not torn into. I cleaned the magnetized area on the flywheel, but have not cleaned the armature face. Only wires going to engine that I see are heavy red wire to main starter pole, red wire with in-line diode going ?? under flywheel, black ground wire to block and another black wire to armature.
Continuity check on ignition switch and wiring harness indicate good contact. Switch has five poles, marked S, B, L, M, and G. Continuity in OFF position is M to G only, ON position is B to L only (with L being unused), and START position is B to S only.
Unless I am nuts (a real possibility), problem is either faulty ignition switch or mis-assignment of wires to 4-prong switch mentioned in original question. Thanks.
AnswerLook on the engine where the throttle cable attaches. There will be a nut with 1 wire from the engine and 1 wire from the tractor harness. Remove that nut,then the wire from the tractor, it will take a 11/32 wrench, and then check for spark. Good chance the wire is black, not white, because of the factory paint.
Appreciate the condolences.
The girl that died had many freinds. They had 300 pink balloons at the grave site to release, they were short about 100 balloons. That will make the toughest guy shed a tear. That, and the movie "Rudy".
The only way the 4 prong switch can be missaligned is if you took it apart.
You don't need to clean the armature, and the flywheel magnet is probably already rusty. They are both made out of cast iron which will rust almost instantly.
