Last Wednesday I gassed up the mower and started mowing the yard. i was probably 2/3s done when I parked the mower to get a drink of water. Went back and tried to start it and the starter absolutely had fell apart. It was probably going bad and I just didn't notice the grinding noises (always wear ear plugs) but whatever, it died while the mower was sitting out in the yard. I managed to get it into the garage and looked up the part number and ordered one. This wasn't a big deal to install, it took maybe an hour to get the old one off, and a little less to put the new one yesterday. Fired right up, and I tried to finish the job. About 30 minutes later I turned a corner and the danged thing died.....not a sputtering/slow down/cough cough die, it went completely dead (electrically) immediately. In looking at the schematic, there appears to be a 20 amp master fuse but there's no clues as to where the dumb thing is located. Crap, now I've got to try and get it into the shop (where I have light) and track it down. I was thinking I'd like to replace it with something that doesn't ride so harsh, maybe now I have too.

29 minutes ago, Fred W. Hargis Jr said:

not a sputtering/slow down/cough cough die, it went completely dead (electrically) immediately.

That happened to me once with a car.  Turned out to be corrosion on the battery cables.  Cross your fingers!

Don't know how new it is but there are a lot of safety kill switches too.  I had a stick get into one and held it shut cutting the power.  Hope you find it quickly and it is something simple.

Well, I did find the problem...the primary fuse was not only blown, but it destroyed the fuse holder as well. When I pulled it out (one of those flat blade auto-type fuses, all I got was the plastic cap. It turned out the manual (one of them) has the location of the fuses identified, silly me I should have known you had to read every friggin' word in 3 different manuals to find what you needed to know. It's a 10 year old mower but still seems to have plenty of safety switches to trip things up; running those problems down is an even bigger headache. Anyway, I still don't know what would have caused this thing to meltdown, but I've bought a new fuse holder and once it's wired in we'll see what happens.

3 hours ago, Fred W. Hargis Jr said:

Well, I did find the problem...the primary fuse was not only blown, but it destroyed the fuse holder as well. When I pulled it out (one of those flat blade auto-type fuses, all I got was the plastic cap. It turned out the manual (one of them) has the location of the fuses identified, silly me I should have known you had to read every friggin' word in 3 different manuals to find what you needed to know. It's a 10 year old mower but still seems to have plenty of safety switches to trip things up; running those problems down is an even bigger headache. Anyway, I still don't know what would have caused this thing to meltdown, but I've bought a new fuse holder and once it's wired in we'll see what happens.

Check your connections at the starter.  My apprentice put a starter in last week.  Started up first time okay.  Came back from a test drive for a noise and it wouldn't start.  Main battery feed cable was just barely touching a stud.  

As soon as I read your post I ran out to the barn to look. The connection looked to be clear of everything and it has a nice rubber boot over it, but tomorrow when I have better light (in the shop) I'll go over it again and make sure it's clear. Thanks!

The started solenoid may be sticking in the on position causing a constant high draw on the electric.

If the fuse holder had become a loose connection, it would start melting the connection till it got so loose it would blow the fuse. A massive short circuit SHOULD only blow the fuse, where it was all melted makes me think loose connection. Bad battery connections shouldn’t cause the fuse holder to melt. (Can cause fuse to blow by having the the bad, high resistance, connection increase the amperage draw.) 

 

I like what  @Artie suggested but I still think the solenoid may be a problem too.  You say the starter fell apart and staying engaged in the flywheel while the motor is running could have caused it to.

I've got it in the shop now so will be going over everything this afternoon (I hope).

Starter motors, on small engines, are typically permanent magnet motors and can become generators when they are the "turn-ee" rather than being the turn-er.

Well, I've pretty much not got anywhere with this. I replaced the blown fuse holder/fuse and did get juice to some places (i.e, the lights came on) but the solenoid isn't getting the "start" message from the key switch. Since that goes through about 4 different safety switches (the pto, the parking brake, and both motion control levers) I'll have a headache trying to find the where the power is lost. One thing I was able to check the starter again, I have a remote starter control from my car stuff, and I can get it to turn just fine. So I haven't checked the solenoid yet, I took the battery cables off of it and tried to hear it click when I discovered I had no power there. I hate this crap.

Do you have a wiring diagram?

Yeah, that's where I got all the safety switch stuff. I think I got that resolved, I now have power to the solenoid. One of the control levers was not moved all the way back (I guess). After I moved it I had power again. But I'm out of time for today, tomorrow I'll check the solenoid.

OK, I went through all the suggested checks and didn't really find anything that would seem to cause my problem.  The solenoid does seem to switch as it should, though the key switch lead connection to it was badly rust/corroded. I cleaned it off and put everything back together and she fired right up. If Artie was correct about the fuse being loose, I did replace that fuse holder so that should be solved. Now I just have to run it a little and see what happens...thanks to all for the suggestions.

This is really aggravating, I have to laugh to keep from burning things up. Yesterday after getting the mower to run I parked it in the barn and came up to the house. Needed to take a load of stuff to the recycle center so I pulled my '07 F150 out of the garage and loaded 'er up. Jumped in and the danged thing wouldn't crank! Another electrical issue and I'm getting fed up with control boards, relays, and all the associated crap that goes with it.

Darn Fred, I feel your pain.  I have weeks like that myself sometimes.

That wasn't Karma, it was "MURPHY"

DAMHIKT

I forgot to come back and update this. Proving to me that it has a mind of it's own, after 2 days my truck fired right up like nothing ever happened! This doesn't exactly leave me with a warm and fuzzy feeling. Much better to have a problem that actually has a repair made.

We've been on a similar track Fred. 

Over the summer my truck left me walking one day.  I changed out the fuel pump and was good for about a month and then out of the blue the same issue, no start.  I changed out the fuel pump again and sold it.  I want to have a reliable truck if & when travel restrictions are lifted...

I went to mow the lawn a couple weeks ago and my mower wouldn't start.  Wouldn't even roll over.  This happened right after I bought the mower and the carb never shut off and filled the cylinder with gas.  Figuring it was the same problem last week I put a manual shut off valve in the line, drained the cylinder - it was full of gas, checked the oil - it seemed good, level, thickness, feel & smell - so I fired it up and went to mowing.  Two passes around the yard and POW, a large pop, blue smoke and it quit and wouldn't restart.  I shut off the gas, pulled the plug and it was wet from gas.  Checked the oil and it had a belly full of oil and gas   So right there in the yard I did an oil change and put in a new plug.  It fired right up and I finished the lawn.  What will it do when I need it next, we'll see...