Tiger cub fiasco. any help would be appreciated

I have been having intermittent issues with my tiger cub with a 26hp briggs. I have had to put a battery in it at the end of last year and then just a couple weeks ago. Then the mower just started to quit like you shut the key off while mowing. I started to try to trouble shoot the issues and had a battery and jumper cables to start it and also jumped all the safety switches and was able to get the deck to engage and the mower to stay running. Before as soon as I tried to engage the blades the mower would quit without actually engaging the clutch. left all the switches jumped so I could get the lawn mowed before it rained and unhooked the jumper cables and hopped on the mower and went to engage the blades and same thing. My thought went to most likely the charging system is the issue and not enough battery juice to handle the load and it wanted to shut down. Here's the issue now, I grabbed the battery and jumper cables, with the mower running, was going to confirm that the blades would engage with the larger car battery and thus verify my theory on most likely its a battery issue. Problem is I crossed the battery cables on the battery and when I hooked it up to the battery the motor stalled. I realized what I did and switched the cables and tried to refire the mower and now it has no spark. what is the most logical culprit at this time and how should I go about testing it. Thanks in advance for any help.

Check all your fuses first.
Other than that not sure where to check from there.


Someone will come along with good suggestions on where to look.

Crossing the terminals will always blow the fuses so that is where to start.
After that time to check the charging system.
When the battery goes down the fuel solenoid shuts off which will stop the engine.

bertsmobile1 said:

Crossing the terminals will always blow the fuses so that is where to start.
After that time to check the charging system.
When the battery goes down the fuel solenoid shuts off which will stop the engine.

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As strange as this may sound neither of the 2 20 amp fuses at the controls panel are blown

bskizl said:

As strange as this may sound neither of the 2 20 amp fuses at the controls panel are blown

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That is a worry.
Pull the blower housing off then remove the kill wires from both coils.
Crank the engine & check for a spark.
If there is none then you have fried the chips in the magnetos $$$$$$.
An expensive lesson