I have a John Deere LX176 with a kohler 14hp engine. Upon trying to start, it acted like a dead battery with indicator lights, then won't do anything. I checked fuses, cleaned terminials,checked wiring for connections or shorts, tried to jump start, still no indicator lights or engine turnover. What can it be?

Have you had the battery off the unit? I have had folks put the cables back on incorrectly, and yes it can happen. Have you had the battery tested with a load tester? Have you checked the ground to the units frame from the battery?

I have a John Deere LX176 with a kohler 14hp engine. Upon trying to start, it acted like a dead battery with indicator lights, then won't do anything. I checked fuses, cleaned terminials,checked wiring for connections or shorts, tryed to jump start, still no indicator lights or engine turnover. What can it be?
It isn't the battery. The engine turns over great witout jumping, as long as I jump the solenoid, but it will do nothing with the key. Could it be a safety switch involving the deck? I can't find one. Where would it be?

I have the same model with the same problem. Just found tonight, before it got dark, that the 2 large brown wires in the 3 wire connector by the starter are only have 9.4v with 12.6v elsewhere. I'll be looking for an electrical scamatic on this mower tomorrow, but feel this is likely due to high resistance in a corroded connector. These wires look to come from an aluminum solid state device under dash (an igniter ?). What ever it is has 12.6v coming in and only 9.4v coming out.
Brybug

I finally found my problem. The small red switch wire connected to the hot battery terminal was covered by the rubber protective cover, while the battery cable was connected correctly, the small switch wire had actually corroded and broken into. Once stripped and reconnected everything was back to normal. I felt like an idiot for spending so much time then "not seeing the forest for the trees.