Tecumseh HS50 Ignition Key Grounding Question

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Hello all -

I picked up an abandoned snowblower with the HS50 Tecumseh 5hp engine and will be resurecting it as my back up and rental property blower. I have everything pretty well sorted out, but one question I have is in regards to the ignition key.

I know that the plastic key needs to be inserted to break the contact between the wire and the grounding metal base, but there is a wire coming off of the grounding base that was attached to the main adjustment jet on the bottom of the carb bowl. My other Tecumseh has that same wire, but it is not attached to the carb and I couldn't clearly see where it was attached on a quick look this morning.

Is this wire simply a ground and just needs to be attached to any metal on the machine to complete the circuit, or is there more to the story? Can it be bypassed in any way since the machine didn't have the plastic key and if it can be set up specifically so that I wouldn't need to buy a key, that would be great. Thanks for any insight you can provide.
 
Probably was there so the throttle could go beyond "slow" down to "off" and ground out that way.

I would not attach it to ground if it isn't already.

If your key is stuck "off", or is it on, I'd cut its wire and put in a toggle switch... something as easy as a 49 cent leviton light switch from lowes.
 
If I'm understanding you correctly, do you mean that when the throttle is pushed down past the slow idle point it will break a contact and cut the engine? Would there be two ways to kill the engine then, throttling down past slow or pulling out the plastic key? There is a bent up wire at the bottom of the range for the throttle that rests against a similar metal ground and it too has a wire coming off of it that is attached to the engine.

Should both of these wires I see be attached to and engine ground in order for the engine to fire properly?
 
Go to partstree.com and put in the make and model of that engine. It will give you diagrams as to where all the wiring should go. There should be a tag on the engine with model # and serial #.

Tecumseh snow engines that I have seen have both the plastic key and the throttle shut off. The plastic key is more of a safety feature than a shut off. The key can be removed during storage so small children don't try to start the machine.
 
Yep, I've been on Partstree for a while and it shows the wires but not where they should be connceted.

I had a talk with a local small engine shop and they indicated that it was more of a backup safety feature like you said, and that if I didn't have the plastic key to leave the wire ungrounded and that will defeat the safety system. The throttle can then be used to shut down the engine.
 
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it sounds like a fuel shutoff solenoid. there's no other reason to run a wire to the carb bowl except for that. if you can post a pic of it i can probably tell you what it is. if that's the case, then the blower would also need a rectifier thing under the flywheel outputting a voltage to power that solenoid. if the carb bowl has a fuel shutoff solenoid, it'll be sealed into the bowl.
 
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