Starter on Swisher Trail mower won't engage. Last summer, I just used jumper cables from my riding mower by touching the starter with a positive cable until the motor started. This spring, I decided to try to fix the problem. I replaced the selonoid but when I wired it just as the old one came off, the seloniod clicks as soon as the positive battery cable is attached to the left side of the selonoid (even with the key off) but the starter does not engage. The key switch does nothing when turned to starting position. The wiring I thought is basic. Left selonoid goes to battery, right side goes to starter, small wire from right top terminal goes to ignition. It had a small jumper wire running from left top terminal down to battery side bottom big terminal. Is the selonoid wiring not all basic and all selonoids pretty much the same. Does anyone know what my problem could be? Thanks for any help.

I need a wiring schematic for a Lowe's 12.5 B&S 42" cut riding lawn mower, wiring schematics same as for a 8hp B&S also, need to find out how wiring goes from starter solenoid, to battery, from the little connectors on the solenoid, wiring from the stator, wiring from the safety deck switch and the safety clutch switch. Won't crank over when key is turned on, no spark from the coil to the plug, the coil is fine, tried to get spark without the coil wire grounded, I am not a virgin when it comes to fixing mowers or cars, but this has got me completely baffled. Can some one give me some help? Thank you, Ben,

A solenoid is a solenoid except when mounted on a starter. There is one big red cable coming directly from the battery to either of the two top terminals. There is another big red cable coming from the other top post of the solenoid that goes directly to the starter.
Usually at the bottom of the solenoid there is a single wire or two small wires. If you have two wires at the bottom, one is the ground and the other is the hot wire that goes through all of the safety switches. If you only have one single wire at the bottom of the solenoid, it will be the safety switch wire and the solenoid grounds to the frame by the mounting bolts.
A solenoid is just a switch that puts power to the starter.. take a tested and check to see it you have voltage at the colored wire (small) at the bottom of the solenoid when you turn the key to the actual start position... if not you most likely have a safety switch problem.. if you do have power there, check your ground wire coming from the battery and if it is OK you probably have a bad solenoid. You can jump across the two top terminals of the solenoid with a heavy screw driver and start the engine also

Hey, Solenoids Are Different, Some Are 3 Post And Some Are 4 Post.