Red wire super hot!

[bertsmobile1]

Part of my annual maint on mowers is to clheck battery connections and clean as needed and then spray with Permatex 80370 battery protector. I tried the liquid electrical tape thing once. Worked well till i tried to change the battery. Too much to aggravation to clean it off.

I use longish bolts to connect the battery terminals with wing nuts
When you pait the terminal, you only need to cover the bit where the nut, lug & terminal are all in contact because to get a galvanic cell you need the metals to be connected and an electroylte on the edge .
I do not cover the end of the bolt so there is somewhere for jumper leads to make contact.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Yes I don't even bother to watch those vids. My crimper can crimp so tight that is actually fuses all the strand and cable as on piece but that isn't how the crimp should be done either.

FWIW I use a nut splitter with the cutting edge ground round.
Works a lot better than the $ 150 dedicated battery terminal crimper.
And yes I like then really tight as well
The trouble is the strand size & lay of the actual wires.

What I have noticed is some of the Chinese made AYP copies fitted with the Chinese Kohler Courage engines have battery cables that are copper plated steel wires.
Anything to make them cheaper I suppose.

 

[StarTech]

Here my crimper came from Harbor Freight which currently without coupon 60 usd. I have in the last few made enough cables to pay for it.

 

[Hammermechanicman]

Got this tiller in a few days ago for carb work. Cust also said problem with the starter. When you turn the key to start the starter drags slow and the throttle cable starts smoking. The jankey ground connection doesn't ground to the engine and the starter current is going through the throttle cable. Just one more thing to fix.

 

[StarTech]

Lost of ground between the engine and frame on that TB Horse.

 

[Hammermechanicman]

Yup. More wiring by an uninformed novice i get to fix.

 

[cubcadet79]

Thanks for all the advice. I'm rapidly out of my depth but will push on, as I can only imagine how backed up the local lawnmower shop is currently.

So here is a recap of the starting issue, which seems to have likely caused the burnt solenoid.

On cold start it would never fire up, no matter how long you turned the key. I didn't bother with trying that much. I don't see much success with any motors that way.

So I lift the choke. THAT doesn't work either if I just keep the key cranked.

But when I crank the key with the choke up and within 2-3 seconds, push the choke down, it is more successful than anything. In fact I think I have to start like this even warm most times.

The SOUND it makes during this start up is the following: it makes the first click, something metallic kind of jumps off to start the crank and then instantly gets slowed down to a total halt like it got jammed. It's at that point that if I push the choke down it will resume the crank and start up.

So is that likely a starter issue? Or ACR?

This Cub Cadet mower has definitely seen a decent share of rainy summer nights. It is model number 17AI2ACP056 893-999.

Thanks all!!!

 

[cubcadet79]

So I replaced the solenoid, brushed the terminals, applied some grease and it started right up. The hesitation in the turning over is still there. I will have that looked at now that it can start. The red wire does not get so hot anymore. Thanks again.