John Deere LX173 Won't Crank Blows Fuses

[Seabeeman01]

I have a John Deere LX173 that blows the fuses and won't crank . I put a used ignition switch on it after the old one started smoking . It looks like it burnt up a resistor or something on the old switch . Occasionally it will start with the key , but the last time I had it running I had to turn the key on and jump the starter solonoid . It has two 15 amp fuses on the ignition switch curcuit board , but I can't find what the fuses protect . Could I have a bad neutral safety switch ? I also changed the starter and this didn't help .

I figured it out . PTO SWITCH WAS BAD !!!

 

[2720wes]

Good job. How did you figure out the pto switch was the problem?

 

[Seabeeman01]

The wiring diagram showed the power routed through the PTO switch , so I had a spare and installed it to see what happened . Starts right up now . I knew something had to be bad , either the neutral safety switch , seat switch wiring or what ever was fused in those 2 fuses in the ignition switch . Bypassing the seat and neutral switch didn't do it , so I went to the PTO switch .
It's interesting that even in the service manual , Deere doesn't state specifically what the fuses go to or what they protect without reading the wiring scematic .