[showmeguy]

My 430 pedestal I thought seemed to be hot. The key wasn't exactly burning my fingers but it was certainly hot. I figured the mylar firewall would do the trick to help get that corrected. Not sure how much help it's done at this point. I pretty much cut it to fit the firewall.. was it supposed to have more overlap? Still seems to be hotter than I expected.

 

[chuckv]

Ted,

The firewall insulation should extend past the sheet metal to seal against the other bodywork.

Is your key itself noticeably hotter than the surrounding sheet metal of the pedestal? If so, you might have enough internal resistance in the key switch contacts that it is heating electrically. If this is more pronounced when using the PTO that would also point to the internal resistance theory... Presuming your key switch is original to your 24 year old tractor, you should consider replacing it with a new one.

The AM100810 ignition switch is more heavy duty than other garden tractor key switches, and costs about $65 from Deere...

Good luck finding the root cause of your key heating issue, and let us know what you find.

Chuck

 

[showmeguy]

Well dang... thats kinda a bummer. I guess I should have searched for more help before I installed it. Wasn't alot of info along with the Mylar I got..

Guess I'll try to bandaid it and go from there.

 

[rfjdarrin]

Ted,

One thing to remember about the 430 is that it draws the air for cooling the engine from the front and pushes it to the rear. This along with the thermal conductivity of the sheet metal could be giving you the impression of the hot pedestal and key.

The best piece of advice I can give you is to remove the belly pan and ensure that it is clean along with the underside of the tractor from front to rear.