the joy of victory..
My Husqvarna riding mower wouldn't start. That's a bit of an emergency in early summer, when the grass is growing so fast you can hear it. Miss a couple of mowings, and it can get so high even this mower has a hard time cutting it, and it piles up in ugly rows of clippings like a hay field waiting to be baled.
It wouldn't even try to crank, which obviously meant the battery was dead, right? So I tried charging it, and still got the same result. So I replaced the battery. No difference.
So maybe the starter, right? I saw a YouTube video that showed a way to check it by jumping the relay / solenoid. Doing that, the starter cranked the engine over, but this mower has always been really hard to start. This time was no different, so Travis and I poured a little gas directly into the carburetor and cranked it again. It would start and run till that gas was burned up, and die again.
Gotta be a gas supply issue, right? So I checked all the hoses and replaced the fuel pump. I also replaced the relay / solenoid, in case that went bad or was damaged from jumping it. Still nothing.
So it's got to be one of the safety switches that prevent the mower from starting if the blades are engaged, the brake isn't set, or you aren't in the seat, right? So I pulled the battery and it's bow, because that's the only way to reach the brake safety switch, and checked it. I pulled the seat out, and checked that switch with my shiny new multi-tester.
They all seemed fine, but the mower still wouldn't even attempt to start. All along the way, I'm cruising through troubleshooting videos and answer forums and the manual, which is soul-crushingly tedious and slow, because of course, no one is repairing this particular mower, and you have to make extrapolations and adjustments. But finally one of them mentioned the fuse..
Fuse?? I had no idea there even was a fuse, let alone where it was. Only one of the videos showed a location, but it wasn't a Husqvarna. That fuse was tucked up under the rear fender. The manual only showed the wiring harness laid out over a diagram, which only gave a vague notion of the possible location of the fuse - but I found it. But only because I had already pulled the battery box, and had a strong flashlight.
Sure enough, the fuse was burned, which explained why the engine clock wasn't even coming on. I still think I have an issue with the brake safety switch, and it still is as hard to start as any engine I've ever had, but I got it started, and got the grass cut. I call that a victory.
the joy of victory..
My Husqvarna riding mower wouldn't start. That's a bit of an emergency in early summer, when the grass is growing so fast you can hear it. Miss a couple of mowings, and it can get so high even this mower has a hard time cutting it, and it piles up in ugly rows of clippings like a hay field waiting to be baled.
It wouldn't even try to crank, which obviously meant the battery was dead, right? So I tried charging it, and still got the same result. So I replaced the battery. No difference.
So maybe the starter, right? I saw a YouTube video that showed a way to check it by jumping the relay / solenoid. Doing that, the starter cranked the engine over, but this mower has always been really hard to start. This time was no different, so Travis and I poured a little gas directly into the carburetor and cranked it again. It would start and run till that gas was burned up, and die again.
Gotta be a gas supply issue, right? So I checked all the hoses and replaced the fuel pump. I also replaced the relay / solenoid, in case that went bad or was damaged from jumping it. Still nothing.
So it's got to be one of the safety switches that prevent the mower from starting if the blades are engaged, the brake isn't set, or you aren't in the seat, right? So I pulled the battery and it's bow, because that's the only way to reach the brake safety switch, and checked it. I pulled the seat out, and checked that switch with my shiny new multi-tester.
They all seemed fine, but the mower still wouldn't even attempt to start. All along the way, I'm cruising through troubleshooting videos and answer forums and the manual, which is soul-crushingly tedious and slow, because of course, no one is repairing this particular mower, and you have to make extrapolations and adjustments. But finally one of them mentioned the fuse..
Fuse?? I had no idea there even was a fuse, let alone where it was. Only one of the videos showed a location, but it wasn't a Husqvarna. That fuse was tucked up under the rear fender. The manual only showed the wiring harness laid out over a diagram, which only gave a vague notion of the possible location of the fuse - but I found it. But only because I had already pulled the battery box, and had a strong flashlight.
Sure enough, the fuse was burned, which explained why the engine clock wasn't even coming on. I still think I have an issue with the brake safety switch, and it still is as hard to start as any engine I've ever had, but I got it started, and got the grass cut. I call that a victory.