Type: Riding Mower
Motor: Kohler
Horsepower: 12
Description: No power to coil.
Answer: The problem of no power to coil would be caused by the electrical system. When you turn your key on, 12V is supplied to the ignition coil much the same as a car. On a riding mower, of newer vintage, there may be several safety switches also involved. Examples of where the switches are located would be: The transmission and shifter- most have a neutral switch, some have a reverse switch that shuts off the motor if the blades are running and you shift into reverse. The seat- shuts off motor if pressure is removed from seat. Power take off or blade engage. Clutch pedal. A misaligned switch is one of the most common problems. What you have to do is trace the battery voltage to the ignition switch, turn on the key, see where it comes out. If it doesn't come out, the ignition switch is bad. You can short across these to eliminate them as a problem. Please be aware that the safety switches are there for a reason. Since they are not reminding you, please remind yourself.
Status: No email address-assumed resolved
Type: Riding Mower
Motor: Briggs & Stratton
Horsepower: 10.0
Description: My Sears riding mower started fine this year, I ran it for several hours. The
second day I tried it, it started OK again. I then had to turn it off. When I tried to
restart it, all I heard was a click, when the switch was in the start position. I thought
that the probelem may be the solenoid so I tried to jump past it by shorting across the
two top connectors. The engine turned over but I had to stop it again. When I tried to
restart it all I heard was the same click again. I tried to jump the solenoid again but it
did not work this time. Do you know what the problem could be? I checked all the wire
connections and they seam fine. What can I do to start the engine.
REPLY1: You should be able to "hot wire" your motor by using a jumper cable from your positive battery terminal to the lug on the starter itself. Newer equipment has several safety switches in series throughout the machine. OSHA requires these safety devices. For example you must have the machine in neutral, the blades off, the clutch/brake pushed down and someone has to sit on seat. Also when you go in reverse, the blades must be turned off or mower will quit. When one of the switches goes bad or becomes misaligned you won't be able to start. Hotwiring the starter should turn the engine over, but it problably won't start. The shutoff ground on the motor will have to be temporarally disconnected to get ignition spark. If you follow the throttle cable to the motor, there should be a lug on the plate that the cable clamps to. Disconnecting the wires on this lug should allow spark. If it doesn't, the problem is in the motor and not the safety switches. Please be aware that once these wires are disconnected, you won't be able to shut the motor off. Also make sure that the machine is in nuetral, and the blades are off, if you do this. This should be done for troubleshooting purposes only, and problem should be corrected before using mower. Also on the briggs I have found that if the battery is low when you attempt to start, the starter armature will get stuck on the flywheel. Turning engine counterclockwise should release the armature. Let me know how you make out, and if necessary, I can help you with further troubleshooting.
ANSWER1: I made a mistake in my initial submission. The motor is made by Tecumse, not Briggs & Stratton. Also, I guess I wasn't clear in my last message when I said that I tried to jump over the solenoid ( this is the same as "Hot Wiring" the motor). It connects the positive terminal of the battery directly to the starter. The motor did not respond in this case. Since then I thought that the battery might just have had enough strength to get a couple starts since the winter. So I tried to jump start the engine with my car battery. It worked. I guess the battery was just to week from the winter storage. Since the battery did not recharge during the several hours it ran the first day, I think that I need a new battery.
REPLY2: I did understand that you also hot wired the mower. The reason I go to the starter is to eleminate the cable between selenoid and starter. Anyway I'm glad you are up and running. It is a good idea to take your battery into warmth during winter, it will last much longer that way.
ANSWER2: Well I guess that I was wrong regarding the battery. I tried a new battery and it did not start either. I returned the new battery and had my old one tested. It tested fine. Do you think the problem could be in the solenoid? I can start the engine with my old battery by jumping the solenoid and turning the ignition switch to the start position. I noticed that if I use too small of a jumper cable diameter it does not work. That was the problem before. If I use my large car jumper cables then it starts every time. Are the smaller cables acting like to large of a resistor? Could the solenoid be faulty and drawing to much current for my battery? As I said before, if I use my car battery attached directly to my mower battery it starts fine, but my car battery supplies a much higher output.How can I check the solenoid to see if it is working properly?
REPLY3: It sounds to me like you may have either a bad ground or a bad safety switch. Why I think bad ground is because when your car ground is hooked up, it works. Unless your cables are bad, resistance is non-existant(by the way, my daytime job is an electronic tech.) To test the ground simply run a jumper from your negative battery terminal and clamp the other end on a metal surface on your motor. Try starting it as normal. Make sure all your safety switches are deactivated(ie blades off, trans. in nuetral, clutch in, sit on seat). To see if it a safety switches are at fault, use a screwdriver to short the positive battery lead, at the selonoid, to the small lug, on the selonoid. If you get a click or start, the selonoid is good but a safety switch is bad. If it is a safety switch, you can short them one at a time to find bad one.
ANSWER3: I'm not sure which "small lug" you mean on the solenoid. I think there are three terminals on the solenoid. One connected to the positive battery lead, one to the starter, and one near the bottom, which is connected to a thin black wire. I was jumping between the connector leading to the positive battery and the connector leading to the starter. Did you catch my statement, that I can start the engine by jumping the solenoid this way with my original lawn mower battery? Let me know if you still want me to try your suggestions, but please clarify which connectors I should short on the solenoid.
REPLY4: The selonoid is nothing more than a relay with high current contacts. To
activate the relay, 12v must be applied to its coil. This means the leadcoming from the
battery needs to be shorted to the small lug on the selonoid. This should cause contacts
to close and current to flow to third wire,
going to starter. The reason I wanted to check ground is that the selonoid gets its coil
ground through its body contact, so it must have a good ground. The small lug that you
short to is actually where the keyswitch supplies 12v to selonoid.
ANSWER4: I checked the ground. It did not make a difference. I also went through the safety switch checks as you suggested. These did not make a difference either. I checked the solenoid by shorting the positive battery terminal to the small lug. It clicked. So therefore, the solenoid was not the problem either. Now that nothing seamed to be at fault, I tried something different...I ran a jumper from the positive lead on the battery to the solenoid ( the jumper was in parrallel with the original lead cable). Sure enough, the mower started. So I removed the original cable, cleaned the contact lugs and replaced it to see if it was the culprit. The mower started right up. I guess that the cable contacts were dirty enough to present a large resistance which is why the mower started when I used my car battery, but not the mower's battery.
STATUS: Resolved
Type: Riding Mower
Motor: Briggs & Stratton
Horsepower: 18.5
Description: I was mowing and nudged a tree stump with the mower deck. I pulled the deck
back up and then attempted to mow, but when I tried to lower the deck again the mower
would stop running. I checked the belt and it was ok. It is shutting off every time almost
like the safety switch has been activated. Any ideas?
REPLY1: If the motor is cutting right out, I would agree that the problem is a safety switch. The lever that engages the blades should have a safety switch on it, but it doesn't make sense that the motor would quit when blades are engaged. If that switch was bad, the mower would not start. On alot of newer mowers, there is a safety switch that shuts the mower down when blades are engaged and you shift to reverse. Check the switches on both the blade engage lever and the shifter lever to make sure they are not out of alignment. If the mower is bogging out, I would check to make sure that the blades are moving freely(with mower off obviously). They will move hard in disengaged position because of brakes. Just make sure their path is clear as the deck could have been pushed into their pathway. Have someone else operate the blade engage and look at all the moving pieces. There may be other switches depending on make of machine. Obviously something got knocked out of wack.
STATUS: Waiting for Reply
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Type: Lawnmower
Motor: Briggs & Stratton
Horsepower: 3.5
Description: I have a murray model 2007 that sat since last growing season. Wish that I
had checked your site first because I tipped it back to take off the blade and oil went
into the carb. I was having a problem with it before this happened yesterday. It ran but
became carbon fouled quickly. I could mow half the yard and needed to remove the plug and
clean it before continuing. Finally it just quit and would no longer start. Even the
muffler would become very black on the outside after running just a few minutes. I had
wiped it off before hand. After reading your page I will empty the old gas tomorrow and
the old oil and replace with new. However now I have oil in the carb and the problem
before of carbon fouling. The oil problem you siad to run on flat ground for 5 minutes but
I need to get it started first. The plug is new. What should the plug setting be and will
it be on my auto gauge.
REPLY1: It sounds to me like your mower may actually be overfilled with oil. I think that the motor you have has a dip stick on a screw in plug. The motor only takes about a pint of oil. If oil is overfilled, it will come out everywhere. Drain it and put in correct amount first. The spark plug gap is .030". I think you have a magnetron ignition, so as long as you have spark, the ignition should not be an issue. If it was a point type ignition, oil can seep through the upper crank seal and foul out the points. After you replace the plug, remove the aircleaner and replace the aircleaner screw(this will allow automatic choke to work), Pour a little gas(2-3 tablespoons) into carb opening, and try starting. The excess oil should burn off once you get it going. Repeat the priming and cleaning of the spark plug several times if necessary.
STATUS: Waiting for reply
Type: Lawnmower
Motor: Briggs & Stratton
Horsepower: 3.0
Description: SEEPING GAS! I have a MTD push mower. The gasoline started seeping out from
the gas cap. There seems to be no cracks or broken seals. The mower is 2 yrs old and kept
garaged.
REPLY1: If gas is seeping out of the cap, the liner inside the cap has either fallen out on dryed up. You can purchase a new cap from k-mart, wal-mart etc. Probably about $2.00.
STATUS: Assumed resolved
Type: Riding Mower
Motor: Briggs & Stratton
Horsepower: 12
Description: Ran my mower to pick up leaves on March 26th. Went out to use it again April
6th and found oil all around under the mower. Wiped the oil off and started the mower to
see where the leak was coming from. No oil leaked. Then I engaged the blades and oil began
to leak where the top of
the motor meets the base. Would you think this to be a gasket?
REPLY1: Being that the motor only leaks when a load is put on the shaft, I would suspect the lower crank seal is leaking. It is a cheap part but a little difficult to replace. Is the oil coming out underneath at all? I find the most common problem, aside from not enough, is too much oil in the crankcase. When there is too much oil the crankcase can't breathe and oil will come out where it can. Most of the time just taking out excess will fix it. Is the engine blowing smoke at all? A blocked breather will also cause this. Last thing I can think of is a leaky sump gasket. This is a seam in the motor, running parallel to the frame, about 2" up form frame. See if you can pinpoint the source of the leak. Check the oil. Fill me in on your progress and I will help you further.
STATUS: Waiting for reply