Being a newbie on this forum, I thought I'd post this as a heads up to anyone else that this happens to.
My tale of woe:
Yesterday I started the mower to warm it up & drain the oil. After it ran for a few minutes, I shut it off and lifted the hood to start the process. Apparently, somewhere between last fall & yesterday, the connectorized cable that runs to the headlights came in contact with the exhaust & melted pretty severely. I cut out the melted portion of the cable and connector, intending to repair it after the oil change.
Finished the oil change & went to start the mower - nothing. No solenoid click, no hour meter,no nothing. The only thing I could hear was the fuel shutoff solenoid clicking on. Not thinking of the obvious (wires that I'd cut - that was only cabling to the headlights - right?), I went through the drill: battery, ignition switch, check the solenoid - all OK.
To make a long story short, I found out that the ground wire from the starter solenoid goes to the connector for the headlight cable and is tied to the ground wire (internally in the connector )that feeds the headlights. When I cut out the melted part of the cable, I cut the solenoid ground wire. A quick splice fixed the problem.
I don't know if I explained it clearly, but it just seems strange to me that they'd route that starter solenoid ground wire all the way out to the connector in the cable that feeds the headlights just to pick up its ground.
