I have an '88 JD160 and have been messing with it for a few years. My most recent problem was a clicking sound when starting. I decided to replace the solenoid as that seemed to be a common issue. Bought a replacement from Amazon and thew it onto the starter. When I went to reattach the negative post of the battery I got some big sparks. The starter is the only part I messed with, so I put the old solenoid back on to see, and the negative post is sparking as well. I'm a little stumped as I'm not great with electrical work. From my understanding there is something draining the battery, and thats why its sparking as I connect the negative. Why would it do this when I put on the old solenoid that wasn't having an issue before? I had disconnected and reconnected the battery many times with that old solenoid to troubleshoot other issues, and that never happened.
Sparking means a dirty, loose, poor or otherwise weak connection. That electrical load is looking for a better ground or a lower resistance path to carry on. Clean all connections down to bare polished metal and snugly tighten them. Mowers bounce around a lot loosening nuts and bolts.
Dielectric grease and star grounding washers are your friend.
#3
StarTech
Slomo there is no other path to battery negative terminal. And dielectric grease is an insulating grease.
The op has something connected wrong now than before before he/she started the work.
Slomo: I'll start cleaning the heck out of all the connections.
StarTech: It's strange because I didn't touch a thing other than the starter, and now with the old solenoid back on I'm getting a bad result. Maybe it's how I installed both solenoids, though I did it exactly the same and the connections look good.
I went ahead and ordered a full starter with the solenoid installed, just to troubleshoot that part. Everything has free returns so no worry there.
Is there a way to test for a bad connection with a multimeter? Again, my electrical knowledge is amateurish, just thinking of options.
SO you have a piggy back solenoid
And they have a + terminal direct from the battery mounted on the body and the body is ground
Some how you have bridged the insulation between the + and the body
You can check this by reading the Ω between the + and the body next to it
Should read "overload or infinity "
SO you have a piggy back solenoid
And they have a + terminal direct from the battery mounted on the body and the body is ground
Some how you have bridged the insulation between the + and the body
You can check this by reading the Ω between the + and the body next to it
Should read "overload or infinity "
So you have done it right and you have a short between the + terminal and the body
Check the insulating washers are all in place
A commonly found fault is a steel washer placed directly on the + stud on top of the insulating block that ends up touching on the body then the terminal is tightened
