Craftsman riding lawn mower acts like it has a low battery but it doesn't and won't start or even try to start

[mmoffitt]

I had similar hard-to-crank issues after a few years with my LT1000 917.275371 purchased in 2005. I would keep the battery on a tender, adjusted the valves a few times, had battery checked for performance under load a few times.

Anyway, while mowing one day the engine lost oil and seized, and I bought a new engine online and installed it, and have not had any cranking issues since. So I think there was an internal issue on that original engine.

Who is the Gal Mrs.cusser?

 

[cupboy]

It's been raining so I haven't gotten back to this. Maybe tomorrow.

 

[muddy51]

Battery is probably bad,
Disconnect it and see if you can jumper cable start from car battery

 

[slomo]

LOAD test the battery.

slomo

 

[mitchstein443]

wow.. your battery is dead.. charge it or replace it. A battery pack jump starter's wires are too thin to carry the current to turn a starter when the battery is completely dead.

I've seen it a hundred times, person swears the battery is good, people tell him to pull plugs, check valves.. just put a new battery on it, if you do not want to spend 50% on a new battery to test it out, get yourself a good quality 2awg or 0awg jumper cables, hook it to the car with the car running, attach it to the tractor, let it try to charge the tractors battery for at least 15 minutes and then try to crank it over..

Portable jumpstarters are not for completly dead batteries, unless you got one of the 900amp cranking power ones for like 300$+. Also, if the battery in the tractor did in fact go 100% dead, chances are there is now a short between the internal cells, this alone can draw up to 250 amps from your jump pack. those batteries are not designed to go below 70% charge at 0% few if any can be recovered. Personally I would just replace the battery, they are less then 50$ at walmart.

 

[Cusser]

Who is the Gal Mrs.cusser?

Yep, Mrs. Cusser, a few years ago. Cannot remember the occasion for champagne in summertime...

 

[cupboy]

Removed the spark plugs and it turns real good this way. Attached the spark plugs to the two cables and checked for a spark and there is none. Should there be a spark? And if so, why would there not be one? Same with both spark plugs.

 

[Scrubcadet10]

Removed the spark plugs and it turns real good this way. Attached the spark plugs to the two cables and checked for a spark and there is none. Should there be a spark? And if so, why would there not be one? Same with both spark plugs.

The plugs have to be grounded to the engine block for them to spark.

 

[cupboy]

Oh. I will have to check on how to do that.

update: I found an article on this but it's way too complicated. I'll just give the local shop a call and have them come and pick it up next week sometime and they can fix it. I give up! Wow. Serious things can happen just by simply running out of gas... If I had it to do over I never would have bought any lawn equipment and just used a service. I'd come out ahead financially.

update 2: Went to Ace and bought a new battery. Installed it and it started right up. That Diehard battery died pretty easily after all. Now if I can find the receipt I'll check into the one year warranty. I know I have had it less than a year (well I hope so... just my luck I missed it by a week... I will start looking for the receipt).

update 3: Found the receipt. Unfortunately I bought it in July of 2018. Seemed like just last year.

 

[Cusser]

I had an automotive battery that was less than a week out of warranty, parts place offered nothing. I went caddy-corner and bought a Walmart battery for $20 less than the parts store. Both were made by Johnson Controls, which has like 85% of USA battery market.