Ask Me Help Desk - Yard Machine Clicks but won't start

Hello All,

I just bought my first ever lawm mower this month - a used, very good condition Yard Machine with 17.5 Hp, 42" cut Briggs and Straton engine, did the oil change and cleaned the air filter, put in new gas, and used it a couple of times (I bought my first home with a half acre yard with tall weeds and am bringing them down little at a time). I have 2 issues with the mower rite now:

1. Yesterday, I started my mower and it cranked up fine, reversed it out of my garage and turned it around towards my yard, and noticed some weeds stuck between the blade and the plate. So I turned off my mower (parked in neutral, blades disengaged), cleared up the weeds, got back on, turned the key and CLICK!. once more and CLICK.. once more and the engine seemed to turn a couple of times like it was going to start and nothing. Since then a lot of clicks and a couple of engine turns a few times, but no starting.

2. The mower won't shift into neutral when parked - i.e. the mower turned off with shifter in park, gear in Neutral, and blades disengaged but the wheels are locked as if it is in gear. This I can bear a little longer, but not as immediate as #1.

I've been reading other similar posts and their answers, like check solenoid, which sounds great but I have no clue where it is and how to check it.

Can someone please help? I just invested $500 to buy it and I don't want to spend more than I have to. I am a newbie to mower care and with the rite guidance, learn fast. So if you could give me some pics/websites to go with what I need to do, that would be great. I will try jump starting the battery with my car and will post back how it goes.

Thanks all,
VJ

Quote:

Originally Posted by vrijesh

Hello All,

I just bought my first ever lawm mower this month - a used, very good condition Yard Machine with 17.5 Hp, 42" cut Briggs and Straton engine, did the oil change and cleaned the air filter, put in new gas, and used it a couple of times (I bought my first home with a half acre yard with tall weeds and am bringing them down little at a time). I have 2 issues with the mower rite now:

1. Yesterday, I started my mower and it cranked up fine, reversed it out of my garage and turned it around towards my yard, and noticed some weeds stuck between the blade and the plate. So I turned off my mower (parked in neutral, blades disengaged), cleared up the weeds, got back on, turned the key and CLICK!.. once more and CLICK..once more and the engine seemed to turn a couple of times like it was going to start and nothing. Since then a lot of clicks and a couple of engine turns a few times, but no starting.

2. The mower won't shift into neutral when parked - i.e. the mower turned off with shifter in park, gear in Neutral, and blades disengaged but the wheels are locked as if it is in gear. This I can bear a little longer, but not as immediate as #1.

I've been reading other similar posts and their answers, like check solenoid, which sounds great but I have no clue where it is and how to check it.

Can someone please help? I just invested $500 to buy it and I don't want to spend more than I have to. I am a newbie to mower care and with the rite guidance, learn fast. So if you could give me some pics/websites to go with what I need to do, that would be great. I will try jump starting the battery with my car and will post back how it goes.

Thanks all,
VJ

That's a common problem with yardmans. If it's the problem I am thinking of, then you have fuel loaded in the cylinder. Remove the sparkplugs, then try starting. If you get a blast of fuel all over, that was the problem. Reseat the plugs and it should start. Go to home depot and get a fuel line shutoff valve. When you shut down, shut off the fuel. When parked, the fuel keeps flowing to the cylinder until it is filled. Liguid doesn't compress, so the crank freezes up. It doesn't happen all the time, but happens way less with the valve in place.

Quote:

Originally Posted by grasswhacker

That's a common problem with yardmans. If it's the problem I am thinking of, then you have fuel loaded in the cylinder. Remove the sparkplugs, then try starting. if you get a blast of fuel all over, that was the problem. Reseat the plugs and it should start. Go to home depot and get a fuel line shutoff valve. when you shut down, shut off the fuel. When parked, the fuel keeps flowing to the cylinder until it is filled. Liguid doesn't compress, so the crank freezes up. It doesn't happen all the time, but happens way less with the valve in place.

Thanks grasswhacker. But I guess that was not the problem. I tried what you said but there was no "fuel blast" (however, the spark plug in there was old and rusted, so I replaced it.) I simply hooked up my mower battery for about 15 minutes to my car battery, turned the key, and it started rite up. I ran it for about a half hour so the battery would charge up a little, but the moment I turned the mower off, it would not start back up. So I hooked it to my car battery again, and in 5 minutes I was up and running. Again, after about 30 minutes, I turned it off, and again, would not start. So I am taking the battery to Autozone to check it out and if required, replace it.

Will let you know how it goes. In the meantime, what else could be bad - alternator?