Bad Starter or Solenoid?

[John Sully]

My Craftsman model 917 271653 has been getting harder to get the engine to turn over and start for the past 2 years. For these past 2 years it has basically eaten up one Diehard per year. I have always kept it on that tender but as of last year it just would not start on a fully charged battery. I put a new battery in this year again and it tries to turn over but not enough to start up...not even a full revolution. I tried jumping the new battery in line with another 12V and turned the engine and it fired right up. I am thinking I either have a bad starter that is drawing more amps than the tractor's battery can supply, or a bad solenoid.

Also once jumped started it runs fine until after 20 or so minutes when it tries to stop running. If I put the clutch in it may or may not recover. I think this may be unrelated although it feels more like and electrical issue than a fuel issue. My model does have a separate solenoid to the carburetor.

My model is about 15 years old. Still chugs...or used to. Would prefer to get a few more years out of it. Can anybody suggest what may be wrong??
Thanks.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Same as 30% of all the posts to this combined forum.
Valve lash which is supposed to be checked every 100 to 200 hours ( depending upon enigine ) and is never done by home mechanics & sadly seldome done by shops unless there are signs of it being wrong.