Mouse Ate Red Cable. How to Fix?

Kimberly5 · Apr 9, 2019

Hello everyone. My mower's engine is a Kohler Courage 19. The engine won't crank. I opened things up and found a nice mouse nest:

After clearing the nest I found:

As you can see, the mouse gnawed through the pink wire completely. The black wire leading from the ignition module to the spark plug survived.

What is the function of the pink wire? It seems to lead to the carburetor. How can I fix it?

Thank you!

bertsmobile1 · Apr 9, 2019

Buy a cat or feed your mice more :laughing:

The wire to the carburettor can simply be replaced with some new wire joined in past where the damage is.
IT powers the solenoid in the carb which cuts off the fuel to the main jet when you turn the ignition off.
OTOH the mouse has also chewed through the spark plug wire and that is not repairable so you will need a new magneto .
At the end of next season remove the blower cover , clean the cooling fins and leave it off till spring so the mice will go find some thing else to destroy

Kimberly5 · Apr 9, 2019

bertsmobile1 said:
Buy a cat or feed your mice more :laughing:

Very funny!

bertsmobile1 said:
The wire to the carburettor can simply be replaced with some new wire joined in past where the damage is.

Where can I purchase the correct wire type?

bertsmobile1 said:
IT powers the solenoid in the carb which cuts off the fuel to the main jet when you turn the ignition off.

Wow. Very interesting.

bertsmobile1 said:
OTOH the mouse has also chewed through the spark plug wire and that is not repairable so you will need a new magneto .

Oh, I thought the wire was still intact inside. Didn't realize that "hair" coming out was actually the wire.

I will order a replacement ignition module ASAP.

bertsmobile1 said:
At the end of next season remove the blower cover , clean the cooling fins and leave it off till spring so the mice will go find some thing else to destroy

Excellent tip. I will try this. The problem is that the owner has been keeping the mower outdoors with a tarp over it. I will try to persuade him to clear space in his garage so he can use your tip.

bertsmobile1 · Apr 9, 2019

Well no use being too serious about this.
The hairy bits in the plug wire are strands of fiberglass with graphite to conduct the electricity.

Being under a tarp outside would be a problem but if the cover is off then there is no small space for them to make a nest in.
Add to that the cover should come off each year to clean the fins , so it is just a matter of putting the screws back in place so you don't loose them then putting the blower housing upside down on the seat.
Stuff like moth balls will also go a long way to keeping onterlopers from moving is.
Apparently cat wee does the same thing.
Being inside probably would not make much difference unless there is a cat in the garage.
FWIW I hate cats, but I have a shed cat that lives in the workshop.
It gets locked in overnight and let out in the morning when I arrive.
It also gets fed in the morning , inside the workshop when I arrive so it is hungry and prowling around inside all night
Before the cat I used to catch 20 or so field mice inside the office ( above the workshop ) each season .
Now it is rare to get one.
The catch is remembering it is a working cat doing exactly what we domesticated cats for , not a pampered pet there for the purpose of making funny cat videos.

Kimberly5 · Apr 9, 2019

bertsmobile1 said:
Well no use being too serious about this.
The hairy bits in the plug wire are strands of fiberglass with graphite to conduct the electricity.

Being under a tarp outside would be a problem but if the cover is off then there is no small space for them to make a nest in.
Add to that the cover should come off each year to clean the fins , so it is just a matter of putting the screws back in place so you don't loose them then putting the blower housing upside down on the seat.
Stuff like moth balls will also go a long way to keeping onterlopers from moving is.
Apparently cat wee does the same thing.
Being inside probably would not make much difference unless there is a cat in the garage.
FWIW I hate cats, but I have a shed cat that lives in the workshop.
It gets locked in overnight and let out in the morning when I arrive.
It also gets fed in the morning , inside the workshop when I arrive so it is hungry and prowling around inside all night
Before the cat I used to catch 20 or so field mice inside the office ( above the workshop ) each season .
Now it is rare to get one.
The catch is remembering it is a working cat doing exactly what we domesticated cats for , not a pampered pet there for the purpose of making funny cat videos.

Thanks for all this.

You wrote that I can replace the old wire with some new wire. How can I know the proper wire type to buy?

bertsmobile1 · Apr 9, 2019

Kimberly5 said:
Thanks for all this.

You wrote that I can replace the old wire with some new wire. How can I know the proper wire type to buy?

Sorry Got diverted by the cat.
Any old insulated wire will do, a piece of speaker wire, any old auto wire, trailer light wire, any roll of wire you buy from an auto shop.
The solenoid draws about 0.25Amps.
We use different wire grading system to the USA so what I use will be of no help to you.
Any auto wreckers or go to the local dump & pull a few feet off a dead car.
If you want to go bets + braces & a length of rope approach you can go to an electric supply shop & get some fiberglass heat resistant tubing and slide that over the wire to protect it from heat.
This tubing is called spagetti tube down here, cause it is about the same colour as spagetti and we eat a lot of hollow spagetti tubes.

Kimberly5 · Apr 11, 2019

bertsmobile1 said:
Sorry Got diverted by the cat.
Any old insulated wire will do, a piece of speaker wire, any old auto wire, trailer light wire, any roll of wire you buy from an auto shop.
The solenoid draws about 0.25Amps.
We use different wire grading system to the USA so what I use will be of no help to you.
Any auto wreckers or go to the local dump & pull a few feet off a dead car.
If you want to go bets + braces & a length of rope approach you can go to an electric supply shop & get some fiberglass heat resistant tubing and slide that over the wire to protect it from heat.
This tubing is called spagetti tube down here, cause it is about the same colour as spagetti and we eat a lot of hollow spagetti tubes.

Hello sir. Thank you for your help.

I have now replaced the wire to the carburetor as well as the ignition coil (magneto). I also bought a new air filter and installed it. I was very careful and I think I did a good job.

However, the engine still will not crank!

According to the engine manual, the possible reasons are:

● Battery is discharged.
● Faulty electric starter or solenoid.
● Faulty key switch or ignition switch.
● Interlock switch is engaged or faulty.
● Loose wires or connections that intermittently ground
ignition kill circuit.
● Pawls not engaging in drive cup.
● Seized internal engine components.

Could you suggest a plan of attack to fix the problem? Thank you!

bertsmobile1 · Apr 11, 2019

The circuit theory
Mower wiring 101
Power usually goes from the hot side of the starter solenoid .
1) through a fuse
2) the the B ( = battery) terminal on the ignition switch ( tiny numbers under the switch )
3) to S (= Start) terminal on the switch
4) the the PTO switch or PTO safety switch on manual PTO's
5) to the brake safety switch
6) to the trigger wire on the solenoid.
This is a daisy chain so a break anywhere = no cranking
If the solenoid has only 1 small wire then the ground is via the case which will benefit from a clean where it contacts the body of the mower to get a good contact.

The ignition control can either be on the key switch
M + G = off
follow the thin wire from the coil
This is a ground wire.
Ground = off
Open circuit = on

The Way I like to test it
Look at the starting solenoid
There should be 1 thin wire on the same terminal as the battery cable
There should be one or two more thin wires on the base of the solenoid.
If there is only one, jump from the battery cable to it and the engine should crank if the battery, cabling & solenoid are all in working order.
If there are 2 thin wires ground the other one.

If it cranks then there is a problem in the craning circuit
If it does not crank there is a problem with the heavy cables , starter or solenoid.
Bridging the two heavy cables on the top bypasses the solenoid so if that spins the engine but the above test did not the solenoid is bad

Kimberly5 · Apr 11, 2019

bertsmobile1 said:
The circuit theory
Mower wiring 101
Power usually goes from the hot side of the starter solenoid .
1) through a fuse
2) the the B ( = battery) terminal on the ignition switch ( tiny numbers under the switch )
3) to S (= Start) terminal on the switch
4) the the PTO switch or PTO safety switch on manual PTO's
5) to the brake safety switch
6) to the trigger wire on the solenoid.
This is a daisy chain so a break anywhere = no cranking
If the solenoid has only 1 small wire then the ground is via the case which will benefit from a clean where it contacts the body of the mower to get a good contact.

The ignition control can either be on the key switch
M + G = off
follow the thin wire from the coil
This is a ground wire.
Ground = off
Open circuit = on

The Way I like to test it
Look at the starting solenoid
There should be 1 thin wire on the same terminal as the battery cable
There should be one or two more thin wires on the base of the solenoid.
If there is only one, jump from the battery cable to it and the engine should crank if the battery, cabling & solenoid are all in working order.
If there are 2 thin wires ground the other one.

If it cranks then there is a problem in the craning circuit
If it does not crank there is a problem with the heavy cables , starter or solenoid.
Bridging the two heavy cables on the top bypasses the solenoid so if that spins the engine but the above test did not the solenoid is bad

Well, it will take me a long time to get through that!

Before I go down that road, I want to note that the spark plug is not sparking. Should I still follow the checklist above, or is there something else I should do?

Scrubcadet10 · Apr 12, 2019

Do you have the correct air gap between your flywheel and Coil?

Mouse Ate Red Cable. How to Fix?

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