Hi group! I've had an LT 1000 tractor for a number of years now and it's been a good reliable mower. I've been a mechanic all my life and consider myself pretty good at mechanical repair, but sometimes electrical issues drive me crazy. I am hoping someone who has owned this tractor has had this issue and solved it and can save me a whole lot of time. About a year ago or so it started to labor when it cranked, but would start and I just wrote it off to an aging battery and not enough mowing time to keep the battery up to full charge(meter said it was charging the battery). However even when I charged the battery this problem slowly got worse. Eventually it got to the point where it would crank slowly once or twice and stop. The starter will heat up like it's not getting enough juice. I would get frustrated and jump it with my truck and it would turn over fine and start. Finally it came to the point where even with a fully charged battery and jumping it, same thing slow crank, overheating starter. And yes battery terminals clean and tight, solenoid, starter stud, switch connectors all checked clean and secure. So I figure its the battery. New battery...seems to help for awhile then back to same old. Ok it's the original starter so maybe... new starter. New starter.. same thing. New solenoid..same thing...new switch..same thing. finally got a higher amp batt but it made no difference. So now I've dumped over a hundred into this stabbing in the dark and from the wiring diagram it's so simple i don't see what it could be. I don't think it could be the safety switches since they only cutout the ignition switch right, as opposed to actually carrying voltage to the starter? There is a connector on one of the wires that looks like a fusible link, but I cant get it apart. Like I said the starter acts like a motor not getting enough amperage(heating up) so it's got to be a connection prob somewhere. Battery to ground??? HELP!
