Murray just won't start (model shows murray 45000X8)

astrolux

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Hello everyone!


I am new to the form, so hello and hope you can give me some advice.

First off, I am not a car nor am I a small engine guy, never fixed much other than putting in new batteries, lights, spark plugs, etc, but either way I have a problem with my mower.

It's a rather old Murray, with a brigss engine, given to me by my father in law. It worked fine the other day. I cranked it up, cut the grass, put in some new gas, and then when I went to put it in our little shed it would not start. It wouldn't even click. The flywheel would spin maybe a few turns, slowly, then die out. I got a new battery, it's fine, I checked it with my multi-meter, it's pushing out 12.93 volts. I also got a new fuse, changed the oil, and a new spark plug, changed the air filter and bought a new solenoid. It still doesn't start. I checked the cable from the battery to the first mount on the solenoid, it gets about 12.9 volts (that's on the battery side). I even put a wrench in the middle of the solenoid and it will spark, but doesn't crank, and what is weird is that it will not CLICK unless I have that wrench in the middle of the two sol. posts, if I take it away, it won't make that click/clunk noise. The only way we got it to start was hooking a jumper from the battery + terminal and then hooking the other end directly onto the positive cable running to the starter motor, and then it will turn over, I turn the key and it cranks.

I am at a loss, I am not sure how to go about testing wires/grounds, and if it's the ignition switch, but normally if it was the ignition switch would it have cranked when I turned the key from on to start when I jumped the starter motor?

Any help would be appreciated. I don't have a huge yard, but down in SC during the summer it is hot as heck, and using my push mower isn't too fun.
 

Boobala

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Hello everyone!


I am new to the form, so hello and hope you can give me some advice.

First off, I am not a car nor am I a small engine guy, never fixed much other than putting in new batteries, lights, spark plugs, etc, but either way I have a problem with my mower.

It's a rather old Murray, with a brigss engine, given to me by my father in law. It worked fine the other day. I cranked it up, cut the grass, put in some new gas, and then when I went to put it in our little shed it would not start. It wouldn't even click. The flywheel would spin maybe a few turns, slowly, then die out. I got a new battery, it's fine, I checked it with my multi-meter, it's pushing out 12.93 volts. I also got a new fuse, changed the oil, and a new spark plug, changed the air filter and bought a new solenoid. It still doesn't start. I checked the cable from the battery to the first mount on the solenoid, it gets about 12.9 volts (that's on the battery side). I even put a wrench in the middle of the solenoid and it will spark, but doesn't crank, and what is weird is that it will not CLICK unless I have that wrench in the middle of the two sol. posts, if I take it away, it won't make that click/clunk noise. The only way we got it to start was hooking a jumper from the battery + terminal and then hooking the other end directly onto the positive cable running to the starter motor, and then it will turn over, I turn the key and it cranks.

I am at a loss, I am not sure how to go about testing wires/grounds, and if it's the ignition switch, but normally if it was the ignition switch would it have cranked when I turned the key from on to start when I jumped the starter motor?

Any help would be appreciated. I don't have a huge yard, but down in SC during the summer it is hot as heck, and using my push mower isn't too fun.

Your engine info ( Model,type, & code numbers ) would help, but it sounds as though you need to adjust the valves ASSUMING it's an OHV model engine see attached info..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PEUt_KAcYk&t=21s



ENG ID.jpg .. if you have OHV engine .. numbers located here on the valve cover
 

Pumper54

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Jun 19, 2014
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Hello everyone!


I am new to the form, so hello and hope you can give me some advice.

First off, I am not a car nor am I a small engine guy, never fixed much other than putting in new batteries, lights, spark plugs, etc, but either way I have a problem with my mower.

It's a rather old Murray, with a brigss engine, given to me by my father in law. It worked fine the other day. I cranked it up, cut the grass, put in some new gas, and then when I went to put it in our little shed it would not start. It wouldn't even click. The flywheel would spin maybe a few turns, slowly, then die out. I got a new battery, it's fine, I checked it with my multi-meter, it's pushing out 12.93 volts. I also got a new fuse, changed the oil, and a new spark plug, changed the air filter and bought a new solenoid. It still doesn't start. I checked the cable from the battery to the first mount on the solenoid, it gets about 12.9 volts (that's on the battery side). I even put a wrench in the middle of the solenoid and it will spark, but doesn't crank, and what is weird is that it will not CLICK unless I have that wrench in the middle of the two sol. posts, if I take it away, it won't make that click/clunk noise. The only way we got it to start was hooking a jumper from the battery + terminal and then hooking the other end directly onto the positive cable running to the starter motor, and then it will turn over, I turn the key and it cranks.

I am at a loss, I am not sure how to go about testing wires/grounds, and if it's the ignition switch, but normally if it was the ignition switch would it have cranked when I turned the key from on to start when I jumped the starter motor?

Any help would be appreciated. I don't have a huge yard, but down in SC during the summer it is hot as heck, and using my push mower isn't too fun.

As Boo said a little more info would help but a couple of quick down and dirty questions for you: Are the blades still engaged and are you sitting on the seat with the brake petal fully depressed? Safety switches will keep the mower from starting if they are not engaged.
Tom
 

astrolux

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I'll get that for ya later...I am at work :(. We are holding the break down, it's in N, and I am sitting on the seat, blades are not engaged, etc. All seems fine. I will get the model # and all that later.
 

astrolux

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in that video it shows the flywheel spinning a bit. it USED to do that, about 5 seconds before it died, it doesn't even spin or crank or click at this point or try to turn over (with new batt, sol, fuse and spark plug). I do not believe I have an OHV because I took off the front cover where the spark plug is and I did not see anything like that video shows but I may have just overlooked it. Anyway, at this point the only way it works is if I jump the starter motor with the battery which bypasses all the electrical system.
 

Boobala

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In the mean time, here's a quick informative video of a starting problem,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8m88LawN0I&t=10s

also if you have a MURRAY mower the first 2 numbers are NORMALLY the numbers of the deck cutting size.. ie. 38, 40, 42, 46... your displayed # 45000x8 is not a viable MURRAY model #

here's a Wiring Diagram of a 40 in. Murray, most murrays are SIMILAR in wiring may have different colors though ...111DIAGRAM.JPG ... click 2 enlarge....
 

astrolux

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My wife was outside today and redid the solenoid, it now works, BUT she has to bang the solenoid, which is usally a sign it is bad, but it's BRAND NEW oem BS part, it gets 12.99 volts on the right side (battery+ side) and it will turn over, and she did ride it around the yard, but it wont crank with banging the solenoid, could it be a bad one? Or a wiring issue or ignition issue at that point?
 

Pumper54

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My wife was outside today and redid the solenoid, it now works, BUT she has to bang the solenoid, which is usally a sign it is bad, but it's BRAND NEW oem BS part, it gets 12.99 volts on the right side (battery+ side) and it will turn over, and she did ride it around the yard, but it wont crank with banging the solenoid, could it be a bad one? Or a wiring issue or ignition issue at that point?

I have a riding mower that the starter motor stopped working, I tapped it and it worked, then it happened again several times and it would start if you tapped the starter, turns out that before I tapped on the starter I moved a wiring harness out of the way and one time the mower started without the tap so I started looking at the wiring harness and it had a bad connection in it. The mower was under warranty I took it back to the dealer and they fixed it. You might examine the wiring harness around the starting system to see if you have any loose wires or corrosion in the connections. Just a thought
Tom
 

Boobala

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My oversight, Pumper is correct in bringing up the wiring, pay particular attention to your battery cables, BOTH ends of every cable (double check the GROUND cable) and solenoid wires, also check the IGN. switch connector for looseness or corrosion, the Murray solenoids MUST have a clean metal to ground where it screws onto the frame (I even added an EXTRA grounding wire from one of the the mounting screws to the eng block) and don't always trust NEW electrical equipment, could be a defective solenoid too.....keep us up-dated
 

Pumper54

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My oversight, Pumper is correct in bringing up the wiring, pay particular attention to your battery cables, BOTH ends of every cable (double check the GROUND cable) and solenoid wires, also check the IGN. switch connector for looseness or corrosion, the Murray solenoids MUST have a clean metal to ground where it screws onto the frame (I even added an EXTRA grounding wire from one of the the mounting screws to the eng block) and don't always trust NEW electrical equipment, could be a defective solenoid too.....keep us up-dated

Every now and then a Blind Squirrel (me) finds an acorn. LOL
Tom
 
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