A little background....
I purchased my JD 135 tractor new in 2006. I've never had any major issues with it and have never needed to bring it in for service....ever! We're moving in about 10 days and I decided to give the tractor to my neighbor (he thinks he's buying it, but I'm giving it to him for free). I cleaned it up and asked him to come over and take a look at it to make sure he wanted it. It looked great after I washed it and of course, he said he wanted to buy it. I put it away in the shed later that day - and it ran fine.
A few days later, I needed to cut my lawn, but the tractor wouldn't start. But it's not an engine issue, I get nothing when I turn the key to start the engine. The lights come on fine / nice and bright. I talked to a few people and also read numerous online posts about battery connections being a common cause for non-starting issues. I really didn't think that was my issue, but I decided to clean up all of the battery and ground connections - still nothing. I figured the other potential cause was one of the safety switches, so I checked the 3 safety switches and they all seemed to operate properly. (Correct me if I'm wrong but all of the switches seemed to work the same way; 2 connections were shorted and 2 were open until the switches were closed and then the opposite happened, the open switches now had continuity and the shorted connections were now open - I assume they do this as a way to double-up on the safety aspect....?) I was using Contact Cleaner on every connection I could find, so once I pulled a connector apart, I cleaned up both male and female connectors....but nothing corrected the issue. I even cleaned the wire connection to the starter and then ran a wire from the battery directly to the starter and it started to turn over, but I knew it wouldn't run without the real issue being corrected.
I then focused on the ignition switch. I don't have the service manual for the tractor so I wasn't sure how the 7 pin switch worked. But I used my multi-meter to try to figure it out....and it just didn't seem right to me. Fortunately, my brother-in-law has a JD 110 tractor, so I brought my ignition switch over to his house and held my breath as I connected it to his tractor and turned the key. UNfortunately, it worked just fine....so now I've run out of options, at least that I know of, to troubleshoot further.
BUT - I think(?) the BIGGEST CLUE to my issue might be the fact that ever since I washed the tractor and this issue cropped up, I no longer have a display (hour meter) when I turn the key on. Even though I know the battery is fine and the battery connections are good, I'm not sure what ISN'T happening to allow the hour meter to display. Shouldn't the hour meter come on as soon as the key is turned ON, even without starting the mower? The display doesn't come ON in any of the 3 positions.
I'm hoping it's something simple and that someone out there can help point me in the right direction. Unfortunately, I don't have the time to bring this to a repair shop since I'll probably be gone (moved to a new state) before the repair shop even has time to look at it. It's extremely frustrating (to say the least) since I likely caused this just by washing the tractor down to make it look nice for the person I'm giving it to.
What's that saying......"No Good Deed Goes Unpunished"... ?
Any help would be appreciated!! Thanks in advance!
The power to the starting solenoid passes through the PTO switch through the parking brake switch then to the starting solenoid.
Not sure if your model has a relay as well
Check the trigger wire on the solenoid
It should be open circuit with the ignition off & on but go battery voltage when the key is in the start position.
As it turns out....the Starter Solenoid was causing my issue. I installed the new solenoid and as soon as the tractor started up, my Hour Meter Display came back ON too. I guess I was wrong that the Hour Meter / Display became active with the Key in the ON position.....unless something changed over the course of this issue occurring.
