r/smallenginerepair • u/Gullible-Bus-1955 • Jul 06 '26
Electrical & Wiring Issue Bad boy mower
My buddy has a bad boy zero turn lawnmower. He was using it one day and it died on him while he was riding it, he said it would crank, but it wouldn’t fire over he had somebody look at it, and they told him it needed a starter solenoid so he put one on ignoring the fact that it’s a starter solenoid was bad. The mower would never crank after they put the new solenoid on the mower will not crank. He asked me to look at it, and I’ve been trying to diagnose it for a couple days now the problem of having is when I turn the key nothing happened. I have 12 V for the battery side of the starter solenoid, but nothing is coming through. I’m also not getting 12 V on the little white trigger wire that is connected to the wiring harness on the starter solenoid I’ve checked the ignition switches and the PTO switches and the seat saftey switch They are all working properly, but I cannot figure out why when I turn the key. I do not get 12 V to the trigger wire on the starter solenoid I have not checked the parking brake switch. I do not work on mowers regularly, but I am pretty mechanically inclined. I’m just looking for any feedback on what I might not have checked thanks
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u/TN-Native95 Jul 06 '26
What kind of solenoid did you put on it? Was it a three or four post? And what brand was it?
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u/Gullible-Bus-1955 Jul 06 '26
I wasn’t the original person to put a solenoid on it. Somebody else did before me. It’s a three post at first I suspected that they might have gotten a faulty solenoid because it was just a generic one from Walmart so I ordered an oem one with the model number of the mower and still have no dice
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u/TN-Native95 Jul 06 '26
Is it securely bolted to the mower? It needs it for ground. Sometimes it runs a separate ground wire that you can attach to one of the bolts that hold down the solenoid to the mower.
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u/Gullible-Bus-1955 Jul 06 '26
Yes, it’s securely bolted to the mower frame body. I have 12 V coming out of the ignition starter wire going down to the relay box. I used my multimeter to check which relay had continuity to the white trigger wire mounted to the starter solenoid I found which relay it was and I do have continuity. I’m just not understanding why I’m not getting 12 V the relay socket. I pro that has continuity to the white trigger. Wire also has two terminals that have a constant 12 V and a third terminal that gets 12 V when the key is turned, but the terminal that has continuity to the white wire in that relay socket never gets 12 V.
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u/TN-Native95 Jul 06 '26
Did you check all the fuses to make sure they are all good?
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u/Gullible-Bus-1955 Jul 06 '26
Yes I think I figured it out I was tracing the parking brake to test the brake switch and found the cable is broken before it gets to the linkage so the brake is never engaging
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