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OK, Original symptoms were that it would not turn over and made a chattering sound that felt like it was the solenoid.
Battery charged tests good but the voltage drop I mention later seems excessive so I am going to replace the battery.
New Solenoid. No change.
Return spring on the starter seemed weak. The design should make the spring unnecessary but ...
New starter. No change.
Starter does completely engage and completely disengage when key is turned and released now.
Force needed to manually turn the engine seems appropriate but it won't turn with the starter
Could the relay that the key actuates be bad so it chatters causing the solenoid to chatter causing the starter to not get continuous power? I can't feel if it is chattering but the voltage from the relay drops to about 6VDC and is unsteady when I turn the key to start putting the electrical system under load.
Even a 50AMP starter/charger won't get it to turn over.

With you having new starter and solenoid it is a good change either have a bad electrical connector or a bad ground. But you should post the model and spec of the engine along the equipment make and model numbers so someone can look at your wiring setup.

AVB said:

With you having new starter and solenoid it is a good change either have a bad electrical connector or a bad ground. But you should post the model and spec of the engine along the equipment make and model numbers so someone can look at your wiring setup.

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Ok,,
Engine Courage 18 SV470-610
Mower Gravely ZT1840XL model # 915076 Ser# 036290

Already did the connection and ground checks.. Those are good.

Most times a failure to crank problem will be either bad connections to the starter or excessive valve lash defeating the compression release
Jump your starter directly from a known good battery ( not a charger ) , use your car / truck whatever.
If the starter actions are the same as with the mowers key then it is safe to assume that the starter & cranking circuit are good.
In that case it will most likely be excessive valve lash.
The inlet valve opens a couple of thou on the compression stroke to decompress the engine just enough for the starter to push it past TDC & allow the engine to start.
Because it is such a small amount of movement, a very small difference in the valve lash can be enough to take up all of the decompression movement so the inlet never opens on compression stroke.

If you get no decompression with the correct valve lash then the bob weights on the cam have broken.

Hummnnn Has less than 400 hours on it. If the issue was that it wasn't decompressing, I should feel that when I manually turn it. It should lock even that way.

In that case it will most likely be excessive valve lash.
The inlet valve opens a couple of thou on the compression stroke to decompress the engine just enough for the starter to push it past TDC & allow the engine to start.
Because it is such a small amount of movement, a very small difference in the valve lash can be enough to take up all of the decompression movement so the inlet never opens on compression stroke.

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Now how would I check this next one??

If you get no decompression with the correct valve lash then the bob weights on the cam have broken.

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WOW. Last time I used feeler gauges to manually adjust valves was on a 1955 Oldsmobile and I was 17 years old. Turning 70 in 2 days.

texashuman said:

WOW. Last time I used feeler gauges to manually adjust valves was on a 1955 Oldsmobile and I was 17 years old. Turning 70 in 2 days.

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quite a few years!
I know on the courage the valve lash should be checked every 300 hours. That's what my manual shows.

they should be checked as part of the in warranty service.
Once adjusted to take up initial setteling they go a very long time without needing to be adjusted again.
because no cars have adjustable tappets any more, no one remembers that they wear and need to be adjusted.
So I suppose you will just feel like you are 17 all over again.
The Command series has hydraulic lifers and of course they need no adjustment.
The usual hint is the engine will spin fine without the spark plug in, but will not spin plug in.
As the gaps enlarge the engine gets progressively harder to crank till it does a short spin to TDC and stops dead.
There is a decompression system built into the cam and it has a weight that spins on a tiny pin and it is prone to falling apart.
A simple job on singles that can be done with the engine in place.
Also note that the adjustment is done with the nut that acts as a fulcrun and the torx screw is the locknut, the exact opposite of how the Olds works.

Scrubcadet10 said:

quite a few years!
I know on the courage the valve lash should be checked every 300 hours. That's what my manual shows.

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Humnn.
Looked at what I got with it almost 10 years ago and it doesn't say anything.
As far as warranty service someone mentioned, the dealer went out of business 2 years after I bought the mower.

So I suppose you will just feel like you are 17 all over again.

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No. The gravely has nothing close to the the acceleration or top end that Olds Rocket 88 had with a 3/4 lift cam.

texashuman said:

No. The gravely has nothing close to the the acceleration or top end that Olds Rocket 88 had with a 3/4 lift cam.

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it wouldn't take much to supe up your gravely. LOL.

Scrubcadet10 said:

it wouldn't take much to supe up your gravely. LOL.

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Well, I deliberately dialed the top speed back after the guy that was doing some of the mowing on my 5 acres of South Texas mesquite scrub broke two front spindle bolts on successive weeks.

OK,
New battery got it turning over again, but now that I knew what to look for I could tell it was struggling to get past TDC.
The English page with the service intervals is missing from my manual.
Pulled the valve cover and:
Exhaust was a tight .007
Intake was a loose .007 ---- adjusted to med-tight .005 and put the cover back on.
Did an oil change. I am wondering about switching to a synthetic oil??
Looked at the plug. Good.

Fired it up and I can tell that it is a bit smoother running.

Thanks to all.
Davi Wayne-Disney
Cut Right Sharpening serving the Texas Coastal Bend and Coastal Plain.
www.cutrightsharpening.us

As you have now found out your mower engine is a lot cruder than your anchient Olds was.
So synthetics is sort of lipstick on a pig.
OTOH it is only 1 quart or so a year so it will not break the bank.
Regardless of what oil you run, it will still need to be changed at the end of every season.
If synthetic floats your boat go ahead it will not do your engine any harm.
However just beware of oil with very thin bases as these tend to leak when sitting and also will usually cause a bit of smoke on start up till the rings re-establish the seal in the bore.

Regardless of what oil you run, it will still need to be changed at the end of every season.

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A "season"?? What is that? I am in deep South Texas. I mow something about every two weeks for 10 months out of the year and the other two months the mower gets started and used to pull a wagon to haul Mesquite logs around about every 2 weeks.