LA120 loses ground

bertsmobile1

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I cleaned the battery and solenoid terminals. I also bench tested the solenoid. Starter spins jumping the solenoid.
Bridging the top terminals or energising the trigger circuit at the bottom ?
 

bertsmobile1

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By bridging the hot to the starter cable.
That does not test the solenoid
It verified that both the ground cables & power cables are working.
You check the solenoid by bridging the power side to one of the trigger terminals and ground to the other.Does not matter which way IF THE TRIGGER WIRES ARE REMOVED yes I was shouting .
You can blow the magneto if you put battery power down the wire that is connected to the kill wire
So pull them both off and push them out of the way .
 

Mortten

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I bench tested the solenoid by putting 12 volts from a battery to one terminal and the ground to the other. I also applied 12 volts to one large terminal and checked the other terminal with a dvm. The solenoid works as designed.
 

bertsmobile1

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I bench tested the solenoid by putting 12 volts from a battery to one terminal and the ground to the other. I also applied 12 volts to one large terminal and checked the other terminal with a dvm. The solenoid works as designed.
Not good enough.
Burned terminals can show a 12V potential between them but just line a corroded joint, fail to pass current
The only test is if the solenoid passes enough current to power the starter which should be under load so the easiest thing to do is to jump the trigger wires while it is in the mower
Just be careful your moving bits are clear of the flywheel when you do
 

Mortten

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There is a Packard 56 connector behind the engine. The ground runs from the negative battery cable through this connector to the rest of the unit. It was corroded. It would show continuity when everything was off. Turn the key on and start to draw current it would fail. Replaced it and all is well. Thanks to everyone for their help.
 
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