Hi,

I have a John Deere L110 (almost 3 yrs). After sitting idle most of the winter, I went to start it up and got nothing. Re-charged the battery and now I get the starter motor spinning very fast ("whirring" sound), but it does not seem to engage the flywheel.

I see from some other posts on this site that the solenoid is the usual suspect. Does the solenoid have to do with the starter motor turning? Or popping the starter gear up to engage the flywheel? I would think the latter?

Finally, I went to the John Deere website and located the Starter parts diagram - see below. It does not identify any particular part as the solenoid. No. 2 looks like the drive gear to me. No. 3 is a brush. No. 8 is labeled armature. Help please!:o :) :rolleyes:

Thanks.
Steve H.
Cypress, TX

http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/acmartina/acmartina/misc/John%20Deere%20-%20L110%20Starter%20Parts.gif

Steve.. it's NOT the solenoid. Trust me on this, as I had the same problem last summer with my garden tractor. If it was the solenoid, the starter wouldn't spin at all. The part you need on a car would be the starter drive. I don't know what it is called on a tractor, but according to your diagram, it would be the parts in #2, I believe. What is happening is... the starter is spinning, and it should be spinning the starter gear up to the fly wheel to turn the engine over, but the gear isn't getting there. It was an easy fix on my tractor.

Good Luck,
Jackie in upstate NY

Jackie is right, the starter gear #2 has friction washers and when the starter spins these cause the gear to drag a little and the gear then rotates up the spiral cut shaft. I would lube the spiral cut shaft with a penetrate (look at item#8) because grooves will gum up and the gear cannot move up.

Happens all the time.
Don

Thanks Don, Jackie. I see what you mean. That makes a lot of sense, especially given it hasn't been run in a couple of months. I did try rapping the side of the starter with a wrench while it was turning over to see if it would pop free, but no luck. This weekend I will take it apart and clean it up. Thanks again.:)

Steve

Steve,

Have you considered taking the starter off and taking it to a Battery & Electric
Shop? It sounds like the bendix to me (#2). The starter motor is not engaging
The fly wheel on the engine. I think the Spring often becomes weak, etc.

ED Rice

I have the same problem but I have put 2 new starters on and get the same results starter spins strong but will not engage flywheel. I also put a new battery in could the battery not having the right amount of cold cranking amps have something to do with this

Sounds like you have your battery hooked up wrong.