Stubborn ghosts - the old mower finally? Defeated me

You may have seen that I bought a new mower.

I was sure the old one had a bad starter. I figured it was a cheap fix so I would give to a friend or sell for cheap on CL.

Tonight I fought that thing for 2 hours. New starter was not a fix.

Symptoms are the engine won't turn over much past one revolution. This is the same on both starters. This is the same whether on battery, jumping battery off my running car, bypassing solenoid entirely (removed from circuit completely), and jumping straight to starter post and grounding on the block. I also tried a jump pack before the car.

It's like an electrical gremlin except I don't see how it can be once I am down to the block and starter.

Any ideas? 15hp Briggs on a Craftsman rider

 

Overhead valve engine ?

 

Yes, single cylinder OHV

 

You have too much valve lash and the compression release isn't working properly.

 

Well might as well make this my guinea pig for learning how to adjust valves.

 

Lol. Easy peasy. I think it's .005 intake and .007 for the exhaust. Take off the sheet metal and get to the valve cover and pop it off. Some oil will leak out. I'd pull plug so you can turn over easy and get followers on low side of cam.
For the heck of it see how far out the lash is right now. When your done you can spin over slow by hand and see the exhaust rocket arm bump just a little bit to bleed compression on the compression stroke.

 

I had to do the valve adjust on my 16.5 HP Briggs ohv single in the mtd mower tractor when I had to put a new head on her . It was simple.

 

This is how I bought my JD la115 for $50. Guy thought it had a blown engine. I ended up needing to put a new push rod in "$8.00", on the intake side as it was bent from not doing the valve adjustment. The factory uses an aluminum push rod on the intake and a steel push rod on the exhaust side. They are both the same size so I put a steel one on the intake. I hit the key and she fired right up. Have not done a dang thing to it but change the oil, and this wil be my fourth year with it.

 

i've found that .004 on both rockers works every time, though there was a small time frame where briggs had issues issues with the cam/compression release on some of these ohv engines.............may also want to make sure the engine is solidly grounded as well as the battery to frame...........

 

Pull the plug and try to crank over before going into the valves.
seen a few hydro locked from tipping during oil changes

 

or gas in the crankcase/cylinder..............

 

It won't spin with the plug out. My suspicion is the valves are out but I fried the solenoid in the process of "figuring" this out. Solenoid is clickety clacking like crazy while engaged.

I should have asked sooner. Someone will get a deal like mijdirtyjeep !

Oh, and to top it off, the rear axle is now locked up, like the parking brake is engaged but it isn't. One more thing to fix before it goes. This thing is like a jealous ex-girlfiend; next thing you know I am gonna wake up tomorrow morning and my car is keyed.

I'll offer it the classifieds for Karma for a week here first.

 

clicking solenoid sounds like a poor ground or faulty safety switch interrupting the circuit.
If you test voltage to the solenoid with wire removed to ground key turned to start you should have exactly what the battery reads from positive to negative post.

With the plug removed so it won't start in neutral :
use a jumper cable attached to starter post + and touch it to battery + (it will arc) have a meter across the battery it might read 12V but with the starter load it will probably drop to 4V which will also cause a solenoid to chatter.

Do you have any of the other safety switches jumpered out?

 

A fine adjustment of 10 pounds of tannerite placed just below the deck and a tweek with a rifle as a activator and it will be tuned to perfection.

 

I wonder if that isn't the cause of the engine not turning over?

 

the brake lever on these (and others) like to stick, reach under the rear of the trans and find where the brake lever is, pull back on it, i'll bet it will release..............

 

Nah that just happened as I pushed it across the yard to jump off the car.

It's going on here first for free, then CL for parts. And if nothing then I will revisit all these good suggestions. I have cut my teeth learning small engine repair on this mower. I am sure I can get it running, but it won't fetch me much money in return so just a learning experience. Problem is time isn't on my side right now.