Craftsman GT 3000 will it run?

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:14]Now, look how clean that headlight means is.

[00:00:21]Pretty clean.

[00:00:24]This is one of the nicer ones I've seen in a long time.

[00:00:28]Well, if it'll run.

[00:00:30]Well, hello guys. It's Lee. So, today I have another one just like couple of videos ago. I had one just about like this.

[00:00:39]But man, this is like cleaner.

[00:00:42]Nicer. Uh, you know, it's been sitting for a couple years.

[00:00:47]Um, the starter went out on it. The guy took it off and threw it away.

[00:00:52]Which I was bummed out about because that would tell me a lot about part numbers and all that. How many teeth it had.

[00:01:00]But I did a quick Google search.

[00:01:02]And it's uh, 10 teeth on this particular engine. There's 10, 9.

[00:01:07]Some are 13, you know. Those are just ones I remember.

[00:01:12]But anyway, the um, but I have a 10 tooth starter on my in my shop from a different tractor. It has probably not perfect, but it must not have been completely out.

[00:01:28]Or I'd have threw it away.

[00:01:29]And um, and this is the kind of starter, and I'm bummed out about this too.

[00:01:35]Don't like them, but it's the starter that's got the solenoid on the piggyback of it. So, let's see.

[00:01:41]So, this is what we got. That's just what I had in the shop. Not 100% sure it works.

[00:01:50]That's the number.

[00:01:52]But it's 10 teeth. I counted them.

[00:01:55]And uh, Google said it's 10 teeth. and it's got the you know, that's the solenoid.

[00:02:00]Because the way you can tell is this this hot wire comes off the battery.

[00:02:06]And normally it'd go from there to the solenoid, but here it is, so anyway.

[00:02:11]So that's it. So I do have the bolts, which I was very fortunate about that.

[00:02:17]Because those are kind of hard to come by.

[00:02:20]So I'm going to install this.

[00:02:23]And then I'll have to find a battery because this one Now I'm in 2026.

[00:02:28]That's 2016.

[00:02:30]So you know, the more I think about it, I think this has been sitting more than a few years. It might have been sitting for 10 years, who knows.

[00:02:38]But anyway, it looks good. It's clean.

[00:02:41]You know, it's got compression. It had all It's probably going to run, but I bet it's going to need a carburetor cleaning and all that. So anyway, let me go ahead and put this on there real quick.

[00:02:58]Okay, so you know, that's a just two 10-mm bolts.

[00:03:04]And then the hot wire here, and then that.

[00:03:07]Of course, the ground wire is right there. It's already hooked up.

[00:03:11]But look what's happening. The key's off.

[00:03:17]Well, the positive thing on.

[00:03:21]Make a little better connection here.

[00:03:25]Watch.

[00:03:31]It's It's clicking, like it's wanting to turn over, and the key's off.

[00:03:36]So evidently this is a bad starter. Um I think I got the right one, it's just a bad one. It's 25 I can't read with that. My glasses old 9808.

[00:03:51]Is that what it says? Hang on, let me get my glasses on. Yeah, it says 2509808.

[00:03:57]So, anyway, looks like I'm going to be ordering like I'm going to order a starter because it has to be the starter.

[00:04:05]Everything else is wired up. I double-checked and triple-checked the way I wired it.

[00:04:10]So, you know, it's been sitting on the shelf for probably 10 years. I have no idea of the history of it.

[00:04:17]So, when I get a new starter, I'll come back and we'll put it on.

[00:04:21]And it still don't guarantee it starts.

[00:04:25]$100 starter.

[00:04:27]That's why I don't like those with the piggyback on it.

[00:04:31]But anyway, all right, I'll come back.

[00:04:33]Okay, so it's a couple days later.

[00:04:35]You know, that starter, I think it's kind of jacked up because I don't even have the key on.

[00:04:42]And when I put the power to it, the solenoid was it was clicking. Yeah, it shouldn't been doing that. So, let me tell you what I'm going to do. Now, look real close to that starter.

[00:04:52]So, coin- coincidentally enough, the um Toro Wheel Horse that I have has the exact same starter.

[00:05:01]And it works.

[00:05:04]But it will click a quite a bit. I mean, it's a older one.

[00:05:08]Uh haven't replaced it since I've had this, so it might be original.

[00:05:12]It works. It starts it and all that. But they're identical. So, what I did is I ordered a brand new starter.

[00:05:19]I'm going to put it on my Wheel Horse with the front end loader because that is something I want to be dependable and I want it to start when I want it to start. I use it to do things around here a lot, almost every day.

[00:05:32]So, here's the machine. So, what I'm going to do, right here is the starter.

[00:05:39]So, it's pretty accessible. Um I'm going to go ahead and just change that out.

[00:05:44]And I'm going to take that starter and put it on the uh Craftsman.

[00:05:50]Because I don't even know if the Craftsman will run. And I'm not going to spend money on a brand new starter because I know this will at least get the job done.

[00:05:57]Um then I'll have my brand new starter on here.

[00:06:02]And then if the Craftsman does work good, then I'll maybe get a new starter for it. So, anyway, that's what I'm going to do.

[00:06:10]I'm not going to video the change out of it cuz basically all you're doing is 10 mm 10 mm bolts right here. One, two. Just take those out. Of course, you unhook the power wire that comes to directly to your battery cuz that's your solenoid.

[00:06:28]And then this little blue wire here clips in. That's it. I mean, there's really nothing to it.

[00:06:35]I can't use a socket on that cuz I can't cuz this I need to drill a hole in that and go right straight to it, but I won't do that. I'll just use a wrench and or a short socket. But anyway, I'll get this done and uh report back. And there you go.

[00:06:51]So, that snug that up. 2 mm 2 mm bolts. They're snugged in.

[00:06:59]Got to have your blue wire clip on here.

[00:07:01]And I did disconnect the positive off the battery right there >> [snorts] >> cuz that is a live wire. So, um so, disconnect your battery.

[00:07:12]And we're going to hook the battery up.

[00:07:14]Make sure this do cranks over before I move on. Okay, new starter, take one.

[00:07:32]Okay, now that we know that starter works over there, then I'm going to take That's the one I just took off the Wheel Horse.

[00:07:39]I'm going to swap it out with that.

[00:07:40]Remember what happened when I hit the battery cables, it uh it started moving or clicking or doing something that it shouldn't have been doing.

[00:07:49]So, something about that starter's not good, and that's the one I had on my shelf for 10 years.

[00:07:55]And obviously, I don't know why I kept it, but I did.

[00:07:58]So, now I'm going swap them out.

[00:08:20]All right, so we got it put on. Pretty simple process.

[00:08:25]So, [clears throat] now I'm going to hook this battery turn terminal up.

[00:08:33]Remember what it did last time?

[00:08:38]All right, so if I touch this and it clicks, we got a problem.

[00:08:42]Let's see if it's still doing it.

[00:08:47]At least this is turning it.

[00:08:49]So, I got a further problem, maybe with this key switch, cuz it's um It shouldn't be doing that.

[00:08:59]Look at the the switch is off.

[00:09:03]Let's see what happens if I can get it to turn over.

[00:09:24]The only thing I can think of now, and remember the key switch is off.

[00:09:38]Okay, now I'm kind of thinking that the key switch is messed up because the So, I'm going to keep my old starter because it was probably okay.

[00:09:46]Um So, remember when it was turning over, key switch was off. So, that is the concern. So, I do have that key switch, so I'm going to swap it out.

[00:09:58]Okay, so that's the key switch that was in it. I just left the key in it to identify. I had this on the shelf.

[00:10:07]Oops.

[00:10:08]The key fell out.

[00:10:11]But, I'm just going to swap it out and see what happens.

[00:10:16]So, here it is.

[00:10:20]Now, the wires are right here behind it.

[00:10:25]So, let's just stick this dude in here and see what happens.

[00:10:30]Yeah, okay.

[00:10:33]I think it's in there pretty good.

[00:10:35]Now, I'm going to take this key and put it in here.

[00:10:45]Now, I got the key off, so there again, this shouldn't do anything, but we'll see.

[00:10:52]See, it's still doing it.

[00:10:59]Let's see if it starts anyway.

[00:11:16]All right, I think I might need some help.

[00:11:20]I don't know why I don't know why it's uh turning over.

[00:11:29]I'm looking for additional wires.

[00:11:41]The key switch obviously went in it.

[00:11:47]I wonder if it does it with that PTO pulled out.

[00:11:53]Well, see the PTO's on and it's doing it.

[00:11:57]Hang on.

[00:11:58]Safety switch hitting even.

[00:12:00]>> No.

[00:12:01]That shouldn't matter.

[00:12:10]All right, so I pulled the PTO out and it's still turning.

[00:12:14]Not even you have the brake pressed and it's turning. So now >> [snorts] >> I don't know what it is.

[00:12:25]I don't know what to do.

[00:12:31]This PTO Am I missing a wire? It's a mystery.

[00:12:37]All right, guys. So it's about a week later.

[00:12:40]Yes, it's raining.

[00:12:43]But uh so forgive the noise.

[00:12:46]But uh so I couldn't figure out what was wrong with the starter and but it was the uh the power cord maybe the way it was angled, it was grounding itself off out against the um starter itself. So let me show you. If you'll look at a previous shot of it, that cord was up against it.

[00:13:14]So everything's the way it was but I had this tilted in this way and I didn't really have that boot on that well and it was grounding out right in here.

[00:13:24]So let's see.

[00:13:27]See if I can do this one-handed.

[00:13:29]Choke it.

[00:13:33]But, there it is. Everything works like it should.

[00:13:41]So, that was it. I feel like I went through a whole lot of trouble to figure out that uh But, I had to get somebody else, a second set of eyes. It was off camera.

[00:13:54]A buddy of mine helped me.

[00:13:56]And he That's what he uncovered, and he was right.

[00:13:59]So, anyways, a great mower. You saw it started easy.

[00:14:03]Didn't really need anything. So, the next video on this mower You see that deck over there? Right there.

[00:14:12]That deck right there, it's a 50-in deck.

[00:14:15]We're going to clean it up, inspect the pulleys, and install it on uh on here.

[00:14:23]We'll put it on here and uh mow some grass with it.

[00:14:28]But, like I say, this is a very clean machine.

[00:14:31]Pretty happy with it.

[00:14:33]Well, by the way, this is one of my latest purchases.

[00:14:37]Um it needs some tweaking done on it, as well.

[00:14:41]So, that's coming up.

[00:14:44]Here's just all my junk in here.

[00:14:47]Did a video on that not too long ago.

[00:14:51]All right. Well, that's it. Um I'm going to try to get back into the shop without getting wet. All right, I'm out.