kennny2

someone recently gave me an old probably eighties model ford lawn mower. it ran great and still does but we had to get a new starter for it. after we got the starter, and hooked everything back up, it would not work. we tried a new solonoid and a new ignithon. neither will work. the starter will work when just hooked up to the hot and the negative but we cannot bypass the solonoid or the ignition for fear that the magnito or coil will not work therefore we would get no spark. any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated, thanks
kenny

MrChooks

Hi & welcome to TSF.
OK - 1st off- most small engines do not rely on the battery for ignition / spark. So the engine will run OK without a battery.

On the electric start circuit - sounds like there is a break in the circuit somewhere or the solenoid is not closing on start - so you are going to need to chase the circuit thru and find where the break is.

Maybe the solenoid is dodgy - see if you hear it "click" when you apply power to its closing circuit - if no "click" sound of it closing, then see if the starter works when you "bridge" the solenoid out. If so - most likely that the solenoid is your problem.

kennny2

the starter works just fine when you bypass the ignition and solonoid but we have recently gotten a new solonoin and ignition and neither fixed our problem i can't think of a single thing that would be causing this problem. with our old solonoid there was a clicking but it was not coming from the solonoid it was comong from a wire that hooked up towards the bottom of the carb. is that a good thing or bad? thanks for the help,
kenny

MrChooks

Kenny - that wire gong to the carb could be a fuel flow solenoid valve - if that wont open - then the engine will turn over with the electric start but as it isn't getting fuel - it wont start .

Fuel flow solenoid valves usually open when the ignition is switched on and closes with the ignition switched off

kennny2

Yes but even then our problem is that we can't get the electric start to work, thanks

MrChooks

Check that you get power thru the solenoid to the starter motor current feed.

kennny2

How could that be done ?

MrChooks

Kenny - - disconnect the cable that goes from the solenoid to the starter motor - then use a multimeter (or 12v light globe) and see if you get a voltage on the output side of the solenoid when you turn the key to start. If OK - you should get a 12v reading when you turn the start switch

kennny2

Ok do you think it would matter if we left the pto wires unplugged?

MrChooks

Don't think it would make any difference - you are only interested in the start circuit

Volt-Schwibe

Checking for power is exactly where we need to be here. You don't absolutely have to take the wires off, i would just test with a volt meter or test light that all prongs of the solenoid have power while holding the key on. There is a large one in from the battery, a large one out to the starter, and signal from the key switch. If all three have power, then it could be a bad starter. (i've bought parts only to find them defective right out of the box)

Double check that the ground wire is connected tightly as well.

If the large wire coming into the solenoid from the battery does not have power, check to see that the cables terminals are clean and connected to the battery tightly.

If the signal wire from the key switch doesn't have power, then check the power at the switch to see that power flows through it when you turn the key, if it does not, then a wire is disconnected/broken. (if the switch doesn't have power at any prong, then check its supply wire to see that it's properly connected to the battery. (some connect to the solenoid on the side that connects to the battery)

If the signal wire from the key has power at the solenoid, and the large wire headed to the starter does not have power, then it's a bad solenoid.

Hope that helps.

NoTicIntek

Just a thought, do you have the correct polarity on the leads going to the solenoid?

I had a truck some time back that the start-wire (activation) for the solenoid went to ground as the solenoid got it's power from the heavy lead for the starter motor.

kennny2

Thanks for all the help but we tried every thing and then pulled the motor out to see about getting the valve seat fixed but we were told that since that valve hsrn up the inside of the head so bad the block is no good. So since this motor won't last to long we just touch the positive off of the starter to the battery and once it starts we take it off. After all that our brand new exhaust that we made (smoke stacks) works great !