I tried to start our riding lawn mower to move it and it turned over but wouldn’t start. So I engaged the parking brake (I’ve only driven it a couple times and couldn’t remember if I needed to just depress the brake or engage the parking brake to start), set throttle and turned key- it made a weird clanking noise but did not turn over. I turned key back to off, disengaged parking brake, shut down throttle and now it won’t turn over at all just make a high pitched whinning noise.
It has premium fuel in tank. I used it a few days ago with no issues. So I’m wondering if I somehow engaged a safety feature by using the parking brake while attempting to start the engine?? I checked the fuse near the battery and that is fine.
Any suggestions on what I may have done to cause this and how to remedy it?
It's your starter. The whining sound is the starter pittman not engaging the flywheel. You might try wacking the starter with a brass hammer to dislodge the pittman and get it to engage but a new starter is on the horizon. Might be under warranty. You might want to check
Before you get the hammer out, check the oil level.
If it is OK then remove spark plug & try to turn the engine over by hand.
Mower starters are deliberately under powered so if a mechanical problem happens they do not self destruct.
Turn it both forwards & backwards.
You should feel some resistance as the valves open but other than that it should turn over freely.
If not let us know what happened.
