The Snapper SR-1642 riding mower is used to mow around our house and a small park we own. My woes started when I noticed the black wire that runs from the negative terminal to the body was loose. Tightening and/or trying to get the bolt of was a pain, ended up replacing it with a stainless steel bolt of the same size. After making sure the battery was fully charged and I started putting it back in. Positive terminal was attached to the proper pole, but as I was tightening the bolt (dumb @55 me) touched the positive to negative pole. Made me jump needless to say, the wrench remained on both terminals for about 5-8 seconds and I removed it.
Since the terminals were a bit damaged (and battery was old anyways), I bought a new battery, connected to mower (carefully this time) and when trying to start it, the engine sounds like it is starting up (turning) 没rom, vrom, vrom but never fully engages.
I have checked the fuse (OK), all visible wires (OK), but I cannot get the engine to fully engage just spins and spins.
Any hints on what to look for are fully appreciated.
Further information: based on a bunch of videos I watched, I tested the electrical system up to engine, and it all looks fine. Finally I purchased an inline spark tester and was getting sparks from both spark plug wires. So if my tests are on target, it seems like the issue MAY be on the engine block itself... maybe
After countless hours of troubleshooting, cleaning carburetor, adjusting valves, the problem ended up being that the kill switch bolt was connecting to the protective frame bar on the back. I am assuming that the last time I lifted the mower (flipped it up on the back end) to work on it, the bolt scratched the pain off the bar and the bar itself may have bent slightly creating the problem. I inserted a shim between the engine and the the protective bar preventing the contact. Engine fires up fine now. All the additional cleaning and adjusting I did also seems to be making the engine run a lot smoother.
