Lawn and Garden forum - LT1000 craftsman mower not starting

Author

LT1000 craftsman mower not starting

2weezle@gmail.com

2007-04-20, 1:25 pm

I have a problem with my LT1000 not starting, when i say not starting,
i mean no clicking whatsoever, prior to my current condition, the
mower would click, click, click, then turn over to start, the starter
didnt sound like it lagged, it just sounded like the power to the
starter wasnt connecting good. the starter would turn over maybe just
a little, then i'd have to click click click until it turned over
again. but now it wont click at all. another note is: the last few
times i got it to start, i had to fully depress the clutch instead of
having it in the locked position. this is what ive done so far to
check the cause. First i read the voltage coming from the solenoid to
the starter when i turned the key, it read zero. i then read the
voltage coming from the battery ( 2 year old battery, still full of
water, has never been run down), it read a little over 12v, i then
hooked the battery up to a charger (not the best charger, kinda old)
and the meter only showed to be pulling 2~3 volts and was slowly
reaching zero, so i assumed that the battery was good. Ive confirmed
that i have 12v coming in to the battery terminal on the solenoid,
upon turning the key to start, i have confirmed that i do not have 12v
leaving the solenoid via starter cable. sooooo i then checked the hot
wire that leads off the + battery terminal on the solenoid, it makes a
stop at a 20a fuse (which is good), it then stops at the dc meter
(which doesnt register the amps, but does have a charge on the +
paddle connector), and finally makes a stop at the ignition switch. I
then checked the two paddle terminals (one single white wire, and the
other is a double black wire) on the solenoid for current when i turn
the key to start, when i turn the key to start, i get 5 or 6 volts on
each paddle connector, but when i reconnect them and read the battery
terminal upon turning the key, i get nothing, so that lead me to
believe that the solenoid was out, so i replaced it. well i hooked it
up and i get the same results, so now i assume that my method of
testing is all wrong to begin with. and now im lost like an easter
egg. im at work now, but when i get home im gonna try and jump all
the saftey switches at once, to see if one or more is out. cause if
the clutch switch is out, will i be getting partial? or no voltage on
the white and double black wires connecting to the solenoid? if ive
left anything out please let me know, sorry this is the first time ive
posted a question about small engines, im by no means a mechanic at
all. but i do have a small supply of common sense, but it seems im
out of that too. model number is 310707, type 0137-E1. OHV 17hp.
thanks in advance,
dale

Ralph Mowery

2007-04-21, 1:25 pm

<2weezle@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1177090617.967042.312460@d57g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...
>I have a problem with my LT1000 not starting, when i say not starting,
> i mean no clicking whatsoever, prior to my current condition, the
> mower would click, click, click, then turn over to start, the starter
> didnt sound like it lagged, it just sounded like the power to the
> starter wasnt connecting good. the starter would turn over maybe just
> a little, then i'd have to click click click until it turned over
> again. but now it wont click at all. another note is: the last few
> times i got it to start, i had to fully depress the clutch instead of
> having it in the locked position. this is what ive done so far to
> check the cause. First i read the voltage coming from the solenoid to
> the starter when i turned the key, it read zero. i then read the
> voltage coming from the battery ( 2 year old battery, still full of
> water, has never been run down), it read a little over 12v, i then
> hooked the battery up to a charger (not the best charger, kinda old)
> and the meter only showed to be pulling 2~3 volts and was slowly
> reaching zero, so i assumed that the battery was good. Ive confirmed
> that i have 12v coming in to the battery terminal on the solenoid,
> upon turning the key to start, i have confirmed that i do not have 12v
> leaving the solenoid via starter cable. sooooo i then checked the hot
> wire that leads off the + battery terminal on the solenoid, it makes a
> stop at a 20a fuse (which is good), it then stops at the dc meter
> (which doesnt register the amps, but does have a charge on the +
> paddle connector), and finally makes a stop at the ignition switch. I
> then checked the two paddle terminals (one single white wire, and the
> other is a double black wire) on the solenoid for current when i turn
> the key to start, when i turn the key to start, i get 5 or 6 volts on
> each paddle connector, but when i reconnect them and read the battery
> terminal upon turning the key, i get nothing, so that lead me to
> believe that the solenoid was out, so i replaced it. well i hooked it
> up and i get the same results, so now i assume that my method of
> testing is all wrong to begin with. and now im lost like an easter

I stopped your post here as from what I get when you turn the key switch you
get only 6 volts. Hook your voltmeter to the battery and then turn the key
and see if the voltage of the battery stays at 12 volts or if it dropps to
around 6 volts. If it dropps that low under load then the battery is in
need of a charge (you did check for watter in the battery ) or it is bad and
needs replacing. A battery can be bad and still show up as around 12 volts
without a load on it, but putting a normal load on it will drop the voltage
to a low value. A small drop (say to 10 volts) may be ok under heavy load
such as starting, but not to 6 volts. You can also hook your car battery
to it with some jumper cables and see what hapens. It is doubtful, but the
starter could be locked up or the eingine could be locked up. Try turning
it by hand with the switch off.

2weezle@gmail.com

2007-04-22, 5:25 pm

On Apr 21, 11:38 am, "Ralph Mowery" <rmowery28...@earthlink.net>
wrote:

> I stopped your post here as from what I get when you turn the key switch you
> get only 6 volts. Hook your voltmeter to the battery and then turn the key
> and see if the voltage of the battery stays at 12 volts or if it dropps to
> around 6 volts. If it dropps that low under load then the battery is in
> need of a charge (you did check for watter in the battery ) or it is bad and
> needs replacing. A battery can be bad and still show up as around 12 volts
> without a load on it, but putting a normal load on it will drop the voltage
> to a low value. A small drop (say to 10 volts) may be ok under heavy load
> such as starting, but not to 6 volts. You can also hook your car battery
> to it with some jumper cables and see what hapens. It is doubtful, but the
> starter could be locked up or the eingine could be locked up. Try turning
> it by hand with the switch off.

Hey thanks, yeah i found the problem, the hot wire from the battery
was lose enough to not get a connection. i checked it earlier, but i
just grabbed it and pulled on it to where it felt snug but i guess
that much movement was enough to prevent it from getting juice. It was
surprising to me how tight it seemed yet when i re-tightened it it
fired right up. i guess it still had enough connection to read at the
solenoid but not enough to give the power to turn it over. however
now i have a new problem, it surges alot when its running, and then
when i mow for a while it eventually dies, at first i thought it might
be a clogged gas cap, so i unscrewed it while it was attempting to die
but it still choked down. If i full choke the engine i can start it
right back up, and it sounds like its running great, but when you
start to put a load on it ( like engaging the mower) it dies again.
so full scenario was: i started the mower, mowed for about 10 minutes,
it started to die ( i disengaged the mower and full choked it to bring
it back), while it was still surging and sputtering some i unscrewed
the gas cap a little....got no improvements...then i unscrewed it
completely...still no improvements, then i left it full choke and
drove it back to where i was working on it. but during that10 minutes
it was running ok, it still surges when the mower isnt engaged, im
sure it really is, but i just cant hear it as well. i checked all the
gas lines, from the filter to the carb is brandnew line, from the gas
can to the filter is still very good line, i took the filter out and
blew it out earlier this spring, so it should be clean. from here i
dont know where to go to diagnose this mower.

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