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brianl · Apr 2, 2007, 05:30 PM

I have a six year old yard man lawnmower that runs fine when I finally get it to start.the problem is the only way to use my lawnmower is to jump start it or chrge it every time.I thought I needed a bigger cold cranking amps battery but it did not help.I have tried buying a new battery and that did not help.it did the same thing.The battery in it is a year and a half old.I looked at the starter and cannot see anything that looks wrong with it right off hand.what can it be ?Please help.Thanks

newaukumdon · Apr 2, 2007, 05:53 PM

Lawn equipment batterys suck, they are usually poor quality and do not get used enough to keep them up. The power it takes to start it takes 2 hours of running to replace with the low amp charging system they have.

Buy a battery tender and plug your machine into it when you are done.

Don

Morrowrj · Apr 2, 2007, 05:55 PM

Does your tractor have an ammeter gauge on it? And if so , have you noticed what it reads? My first item to check would be if the battery is getting charged when the tractor is running. Let us know about the meter status when running

Good Luck
Morrowrj

brianl · Apr 2, 2007, 06:25 PM

The ammeter gauge does show that it is charging back although the meter doesn't move a great deal. Even after putting the battery on a 2 amp trickle charge for several hours, it still doesn't turn the mower over easily. Thanks for your help.

hwy61 · Apr 2, 2007, 10:39 PM

You could still have a bad battery. Some don't last long and you should check all your groundings. Once upon a time did it start easily. Blades turning freely, etc. Loosen the bolts, screws, tighten back down several times to make sure everything is grounded properly.

I was recently having problems with a starter in a Chevy truck. It wouldn't work. Bought a rebuilt one, it wouldn't work. Tested fine though. The ground strap from the engine to the firewall had corroded in half. I ground the motor to the "A" frame with jumper cables and it worked fine. So I bought a new ground strap and installed it. I didn't realise they put those parts on there for a reason. Lol

Morrowrj · Apr 3, 2007, 08:37 AM

hwy61 brings up what was going to be my next suggestion; its possible that your wiring, battery cables have begun to corrode. This will dramatically increase the resistance of the wire and limit the amount of current making it to your starter, making it difficult and eventually impossible to start. I would check all cable conditions and check for corrosion. Check resistance of main battery cables with and ohmeter, (and battery disconnected) if one is available.

Good Luck,
Morrowrj

Matt3046 · Apr 3, 2007, 08:49 AM

How about the plug, you could try a hotter plug.

Matt3046 · Apr 3, 2007, 11:03 AM

What are you stupid? MORRonrj

newaukumdon · Apr 3, 2007, 01:40 PM

Matt3046, What he is saying is the mower won't crank from a low battery or bad starter, It would have nothing to do with a bad plug. Negative response is for the person who may happen on the site and read your input and be misled do to poor info.

Don

JAZZ184 · Apr 7, 2007, 10:55 AM

Originally Posted by brianl

I have a six year old yard man lawnmower that runs fine when I finally get it to start.the problem is the only way to use my lawnmower is to jump start it or chrge it everytime.I thought I needed a bigger cold cranking amps battery but it did not help.I have tried buying a new battery and that did not help.it did the same thing.The battery in it is a year and a half old.I looked at the starter and cannot see anything that looks wrong with it right off hand.what can it be ?Please help.Thanks

I have the same problem with my mower. I have changed batteries, starter with little to no long term inprovement. I have been told that some larger mower engines have a compression release that allows the starter to be able to rotate the engine. Not now but last year I was able to rotate the fly wheel from the screen atop the engine. This would bypass the compression stroke allowing the starter to do it's job. But with all that I'm not at all sure how to fix by problem?

brianl · Apr 10, 2007, 12:10 PM

Thanks to everyone for all of the help/advice with my mower. Basically, all I needed to do was adjust the valves on my mower and it then started with ease. Evidently this is a common problem with Briggs engines with OHV...

meadwesley · Apr 12, 2007, 11:15 AM

How do you do that I am but a novice and I am having the same problem

brianl · Apr 12, 2007, 01:27 PM

For my particular engine, I followed the instructions on the following link to "adjust" the valves properly. This was the first time I had ever attempted to do this and I had no problems.

Briggs Valve Adjustment FAQ

Dave37072 · Feb 9, 2008, 09:33 PM

WE had an MTD mower that had the same problem. My Dad (75 yrs old) decided to replace the battery with a regular car battery. This battery still ran down.

I opened the engine cowling and verified the generator diodes were good and replaced them anyway! The battery still discharged.

The solution was to replace the starter assembly. There was a short in the starter assembly that caused the battery to run down!! THIS IS A VERY EXPENSIVE PART, SO BE SURE THAT YOU HAVE VERIFIED THE CHARGING ASSEMBLY (DIODE ARRAY) IS NOT DEFECTIVE FIRST.

MOWERMAN2468 · Feb 10, 2008, 07:15 AM

Originally Posted by Matt3046

What are you stupid? MORRonrj

Even though I agree with you Matt that a spark plug has nothing to do with the unit not turning over and trying to start. You do not need to be so harsh with your comments.