Mower totally dead
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Mower totally dead
Have a MTD riding mower w/ a B&S 17.5 hp motor. One day it stalled while mowing, still has 1/4 tank of gas in it. When the key is turned we can hear the solonoid click once and nothing else happens. My multi-meter read aprox 11.8v on the battery, so I replaced the solonoid. It would click at a rapid pace while the key was turned. Pulled out the starter motor, hooked up jumper cables from the battery to the motor, it spins fine. Put the battery on a trickle charger (because I was flummoxed) for 9hours and now we hear no noise at all from the solonoid and the grass is starting to grow over the hood, Help!
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This may seem obvious, but you should make sure you can rotate the flywheel by hand, (with the key off just to be safe).
You could also remove the spark plug to see if the starter motor will turn over the engine with no compression. It doesn't seem like the stalling and starter motor problems are related. Did you hit something with the mower just before it stalled, if so you may have sheared the flywheel key which would alter the timing to protect the motor from damage when the blades hit an obstruction, (instead of breaking the crankshaft). Don't forget to make sure all of the safety switches are not the problem either!!
You could also remove the spark plug to see if the starter motor will turn over the engine with no compression. It doesn't seem like the stalling and starter motor problems are related. Did you hit something with the mower just before it stalled, if so you may have sheared the flywheel key which would alter the timing to protect the motor from damage when the blades hit an obstruction, (instead of breaking the crankshaft). Don't forget to make sure all of the safety switches are not the problem either!!
#3
The rapid clicking solenoid is an indication of low voltage. Clean and tighten the battery cables. If the same problem occurrs, you may need a battery regardless of the voltage reading...unless a load test is performed on the battery and the voltage holds up.