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Hello!

Here's the scenario...

I own a rear motor John Deere RX75, which started and ran perfectly fine last fall. Winter comes, and it sits in the garage until...well now. I get the lawn prepped for residual leaf removal. Go into the garage to start the tractor...nothing. Ugh! It doesn't turnover at all, nor does the starter attempt to engage.

I begin to inspect, first testing the starter. I am able to directly jump the starter from the battery, but away from that I'm not sure how to test anything else, i.e. seat switch, neutral switch, or the solenoid.

This mower has a seat switch and a neutral switch in order to start, which I'm sitting on the mower with it in neutral and the blades are turned off when I turn the key.

Does anyone have any advice on what could be causing this?

Also, how do you work on this tractor? There's not much room! lol

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance,
JD

Very first thing check for loose or corroded connections.

Thank you for the reply.

The connections look to be in good shape, no corrosion. How would I test the solenoid?

deanjoshua said:

Thank you for the reply.

The connections look to be in good shape, no corrosion. How would I test the solenoid?

Click to expand...

All a solenoid is a heavy duty electric on and off switch. The small terminals go to a magnetic coil that turns the switch on and off. The two large terminals go from a power source to the starter.

reynoldston said:

All a solenoid is a heavy duty electric on and off switch. The small terminals go to a magnetic coil that turns the switch on and off. The two large terminals go from a power source to the starter.

Click to expand...

So, if I take the wire I'm using to jump the starter directly, and put it on the positive "in" terminal on the solenoid, theoretically it should turnover(if the solenoid is good).

If it doesn't, and I put that same wire on the positive "out" terminal on the solenoid, that would tell me the solenoid is bad? ...does that sound accurate to you?

Turns out that it was the blade switch.

When the lever for the blades is moved to non-cutting it pushes up against a switch. That switch wasn't getting pushed down far enough.

To fix, I put some extra washers behind the cotter pin that holds a connecting rod in place. On that rod, there is a small plate welded to it, which is the contact point for the switch Adding the washers limited the play in that rod, allowing the switch to be fully depressed.

Thanks.