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Have any of you ever turned the key and heard the familiar "click" of the solenoid but the starter doesn't engage? If I jump the solenoid it works and starts and runs no problem, but the key doesn't start the starter. My first thought was to replace the solenoid, but after a new solenoid it still just clicks but doesn't fire off the starter. Anyone see anything like this?

Jump the starter from where to where ?

StumpyOrson said:

Have any of you ever turned the key and heard the familiar "click" of the solenoid but the starter doesn't engage? If I jump the solenoid it works and starts and runs no problem, but the key doesn't start the starter. My first thought was to replace the solenoid, but after a new solenoid it still just clicks but doesn't fire off the starter. Anyone see anything like this?

Click to expand...

Yes it is usually cause by a voltage drop in the solenoid trigger circuit. As normal the first thing is to try replacing the solenoid as they do hang. But once this is done and the problem is still then you got to find where the voltage drop is occurring. On some the wiring itself is the problem and help relay needs to be add to eliminate the voltage for the solenoid.

Most likely the voltage across the solenoid coil's trigger circuit is below 10V and there is not enough magnetism to fully pulling the solenoid assembly to engage position.

Do you have a starter with the solenoid piggy backed on it (solenoid shift) or is the solenoid mounted elsewhere?
I had to do what Star tech mentioned to my old kawasaki mule, added the John Deere starter improvement relay and she fires right up every time now..
i had no idea about the kit until i read about similar issues on a JD forum,

AM107421​

StarTech said:

Yes it is usually cause by a voltage drop in the solenoid trigger circuit. As normal the first thing is to try replacing the solenoid as they do hang. But once this is done and the problem is still then you got to find where the voltage drop is occurring. On some the wiring itself is the problem and help relay needs to be add to eliminate the voltage for the solenoid.

Most likely the voltage across the solenoid coil's trigger circuit is below 10V and there is not enough magnetism to fully pulling the solenoid assembly to engage position.

Click to expand...

Hmph, never heard of sucha thing! I'll put a jumpbox on it tomorrow and see if that takes it up to working again. The wiring is pretty straightforward, 10 gauge from battery to solenoid, then from solenoid to starter. I'll report back tomorrow on the jump.

Scrubcadet10 said:

Do you have a starter with the solenoid piggy backed on it (solenoid shift) or is the solenoid mounted elsewhere?
I had to do what Star tech mentioned to my old kawasaki mule, added the John Deere starter improvement relay and she fires right up every time now..
i had no idea about the kit until i read about similar issues on a JD forum,

AM107421​

Click to expand...

It's separate. Battery positive to solenoid, solenoid to starter. Negative straight to ground. I'll look into that improvement relay and see what it's about.

Really need the model number of the off the serial number tag; unless, you want to be secretive about it. As with it we can pull the wiring schematics. We need to know it a four poster is involved as if so you can have a voltage drop problem in either the positive side or ground return wiring.

First 10 ga is pretty small wire for a starter circuit; unless we referring to a walk behind mower. Most riders needs at least a 8 ga with a 6 ga being preferred.

I repaired a Craftsman 917.273811 back in the Spring that multiple bad connection (voltage drop) points in both the positive and ground return line. One was main positive battery terminal, one at the ignition switch, and one in the ground return line. So if you are jumping across the two large posts and the starter is working normally that eliminates the main battery positive cable and the main ground return. But doesn't eliminate anything in the trigger side of the solenoid circuit. Again you need to do voltage drop tests to find the culprit(s).

With a separate starter solenoid a help relay will probably not needed once the voltage drops are eliminated.

If you have a volt meter, set it to DC, and check for voltage on the trigger tab of the solenoid... i believe you'll have to do this with the wire on it so there will be a load on the trigger circuit and cause the voltage drop.
if you just pull the wire off completely and check it, there will be no load thus no drop.

Well I got it figured out boys. Bad ground spade on the solenoid. Corrosion didn't look bad at all but volt meter said I was getting 4.8v with the key on "start", which I should have caught earlier, but better late than never. The old gray matter ain't as fast as it used to be.
New ground spade and she fired right up.

yep, people scratch their heads and open their wallets... when the culprit is sometimes a less than 1 dollar terminal...