I'm very irritated with the fact that I have not yet been able to get my craftsman kohler 16.5 ohv pro riding lawn mower started yet this year. I know the lawn mower is very old, as my mother had it forever but I can work on cars so this should be a cake walk. I went through all the first check points (I do not have a manual). Since the battery is also dead and I cannot get it to fire, and therefor not recharge battery. I am always jumping at the starter with my jump box. does this bypass all safety features? to be sure that I had tried bypassing everything (even though I checked them all), I detached the white wire on the ignition module as I think this is the kill switch. It sounded the same, turning fine over and over, but no fire. I detached the positive wire to the starter as well while trying to start it to make sure I didn't have a gremlin between starter and batt.
Before trying to bypass everything I:
-checked for spark on plug and replaced plug anyway to make sure the spark was as strong as possible. Have spark.
-checked for fuel to carb via line from tank, good.
-took apart carb, bowl and shut off solenoid. cleaned the tiniest bit of stuff out of bottom of bowl- all good and put back in.
-put gas directly into carb- engine sounds the same when attempt to crank
-checked for fuel on the spark plug after trying to fire, it was smelled of gas and was slightly damp.
-removed air filter while trying to crank, same result
-rotated crankshaft around to TDC on compression stroke and found that the piston was at TDC when the magneto was a few inches out from the ignition module. (not sure if this would be correct? I have been turning clockwise.)
-Went ahead and decided to break it down to see if flywheel key was sheared or moved getting me out of time.... with flywheel removed, dang key is fine.
I'm guessing my next step is a compression test? but really comp seemed fine when trying to start without plug. Engine didn't hang up but was more difficult to push through by hand with plug in. Like I said I put a long ext on piston and all that seemed ok, I don't have any give on the piston when it's in an exhaust stoke.
I'm not a car guru, but I'm pretty decent. This is my first mower repair :/ What could I possibly be missing here? Thanks in advance
Before trying to bypass everything I:
-checked for spark on plug and replaced plug anyway to make sure the spark was as strong as possible. Have spark.
-checked for fuel to carb via line from tank, good.
-took apart carb, bowl and shut off solenoid. cleaned the tiniest bit of stuff out of bottom of bowl- all good and put back in.
-put gas directly into carb- engine sounds the same when attempt to crank
-checked for fuel on the spark plug after trying to fire, it was smelled of gas and was slightly damp.
-removed air filter while trying to crank, same result
-rotated crankshaft around to TDC on compression stroke and found that the piston was at TDC when the magneto was a few inches out from the ignition module. (not sure if this would be correct? I have been turning clockwise.)
-Went ahead and decided to break it down to see if flywheel key was sheared or moved getting me out of time.... with flywheel removed, dang key is fine.
I'm guessing my next step is a compression test? but really comp seemed fine when trying to start without plug. Engine didn't hang up but was more difficult to push through by hand with plug in. Like I said I put a long ext on piston and all that seemed ok, I don't have any give on the piston when it's in an exhaust stoke.
I'm not a car guru, but I'm pretty decent. This is my first mower repair :/ What could I possibly be missing here? Thanks in advance
