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Greetings,

I was hoping that someone here could help me out. I have a Toro Greensmaster mower that uses a 18HP V-Twin vanguard engine that I believe may have a solenoid problem. I have tested these before in the past but I can not remember how to do so. I have looked in the service manual and there is no mention of how to test the solenoid. I was curious how to test in on the machine and how to test it off the machine as I have some sitting on the shelf that I do not know if they are any good. The battery test good under load and connections are good. How do I measure voltage drop?

Thanks for any help
Sean

https://www.google.com/search?q=how...ome..69i57.87747j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

https://www.google.com/search?q=how.....69i57j33.31539j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

https://www.toro.com/en/customer-support/education-and-tech-reference/service-manuals

On the bench with 3 pole solenoid: 12v battery with 2 (+) leads. Hook one +12v lead to big pole #1. Hook battery ground to metal solenoid bracket. Test voltage at big pole #1.
Hook other +12v lead to little pole...should hear CLICK. Test voltage at big pole #2. Should be the same. Tells you the plate inside is being drawn by the magnetic field to connect 2 big poles.

Sometimes the plate gets burned and chewed up or corroded and contact between poles is not as strong.

The solenoid is basically a switch that can handle a big load. It connects the battery cable to the starter to crank the engine. On your {4 pole} switch, voltage comes to the one small terminal when you turn the keyswitch to "crank" position, but on this solenoid, the other terminal must complete a connection to "ground", and both of these connections go through an assortment of switches to make a complete circuit to crank the engine.

On a 3 pole solenoid, the ground is carried out through the base of the solenoid. So that style would be easier to run down.

Thank you all for the replies, for the cost and piece of mind I just replaced the solenoid. Working 100% now. I bench tested one that was on the shelf and did hear a click but did not do a voltage drop test yet.