John Deere 185 Hydro/new battery, acts like its a dead battery

[frankiebee]

Hi guys, I am having trouble with my john deere 185 hydro. I am fortunite to own a deere, I bought a house last year and my father gave me his lawn tractor. As far as I remeber when you turn the key it always "clunked and clicked" a few times then it would fire. From little research I've found that that clunking sound is from a failing starter solenoid.

I changed that, I also left my battery hooked up all winter that was dead and wouldn't hold a charge. So I bought a new battery, Keep in mind I had this started after I put in the solenoid, by putting a BOOST Charger on it I am guessing about 15-20 Volts. Now I have a new battery and It acts like a dead battery, Lights dim when I turn the key, you bearly hear anything.

I tryed to jump it off the solenoid and its sparking like hell and it sound like somthing in spinning really fast. Could I have a bad starter?

My battery has 13 volts, the starter solenoid has 12 volts I checked it with a volt meter. Im sure if I put the boost charger on it will fire up, but I dont want to do that to my brand new battery. Any Suggestions, I am tempted to go buy a new Deere, but That wouldn't make my girl very happy.

Any comments are welcome. Thank You and I appreciate it.

cleaned the cable connections with baking soda and a wire brush? do you get 13 volts with the engine running? if not, there is a charging problem.

 

[Cherrypicker]

You may want to check with your local dealer to see if there are any updates. I ended up putting an additional relay on my 185 Hydro. This was a JD part, not that expensive either. I used to have to fool around with the ignition switch, continuting to turn it on and off and eventually the starter would engage. Additionally I has issues with the clutch actuation after swapping out the drive belt, hope you don't have to tackle that job soon. But if you do make sure you firmly reengage the little plastic coupler so that you have a good contact.

 

[Cherrypicker]

Hi guys, I am having trouble with my john deere 185 hydro. I am fortunite to own a deere, I bought a house last year and my father gave me his lawn tractor. As far as I remeber when you turn the key it always "clunked and clicked" a few times then it would fire. From little research I've found that that clunking sound is from a failing starter solenoid.

I changed that, I also left my battery hooked up all winter that was dead and wouldn't hold a charge. So I bought a new battery, Keep in mind I had this started after I put in the solenoid, by putting a BOOST Charger on it I am guessing about 15-20 Volts. Now I have a new battery and It acts like a dead battery, Lights dim when I turn the key, you bearly hear anything.

I tryed to jump it off the solenoid and its sparking like hell and it sound like somthing in spinning really fast. Could I have a bad starter?

My battery has 13 volts, the starter solenoid has 12 volts I checked it with a volt meter. Im sure if I put the boost charger on it will fire up, but I dont want to do that to my brand new battery. Any Suggestions, I am tempted to go buy a new Deere, but That wouldn't make my girl very happy.

Any comments are welcome. Thank You and I appreciate it.

You might want to look into a relay kit: AM107421, got mine off of Ebay, but JD dealership should be able to pull it up and may actually have one in stock. Do a search for "Starting Problems with JD185 Hydro and see where it takes you.