YTH26V54 Mower will not start

[dwatkins741]

YTH26V54 Mower will not start. Less than a year old. I changed the oil before the last time I cut and it ran fine. 2 acres.

When I finished mowing and drove it into the building and turned the key off, it kept running at a low, rough idle. I took the key out and got off the seat, and it kept running. I tried putting the key in and turning it to each position. I tried different throttle positions and nothing would make it stop. Then I pulled up on the blade engage button to turn the blades on. That killed the engine instantly. A week later I went to use it again and it won't start. It has no response to the key. It has an LCD hour indicator that normally lights up when the key is turned, and it stays off. My guess is that when I engaged the blades a safety mechanism activated and is preventing it from starting now. I checked the oil and it is still full. I tried moving the blade engaging button up and down a few times, no luck. I took the battery out and was going to replace it, but it has 12.76 volts so I'm putting it back in. What do I look for? Any other ideas?

 

[dwatkins741]

Found broken headlight cables and fixed them. Now at least it tries to start, the hour counter LCD lights up and the the engine turns over but no fire. It usually takes about a minute with the key turned to the start position to get this mower to start. I wonder what is causing that?

 

[DMorin16]

Hey there,

Just last week I experienced the exact same issue that you've described with your mower. I actually did find the same damaged headlight connector but they still worked so I figured that it wasn't causing an issue.

I tested the solenoid just by jumping it with a wrench and the thing fired up right away, this made me think that maybe the switch was gone because, same as you, the LCD wasn't showing hours anymore either.

I bought a new switch off ebay and tested it with no change, same thing as my original switch, just a soft little "click" from somewhere near the engine.

I'll have to go back outside and fix that connection for the headlights and see if it makes a difference.

Before you found this issue, did you have a hard time with it running on longer than usual after getting off the seat with the key in and such?

I've had various issues with this thing but it seems they might all be connected to that same dumb connector.

Cheers

 

[dwatkins741]

Dmorin,
After posting on 4-21-13 that it won't start, I kept trying and it finally did start. My mower is back to its normal ways- The headlights don't work and it takes about a minute to cold start it. I check the oil before trying to start it, no problems there. That one time was the only time it ever took longer than usual to turn off. One thing I learned was that I should have been putting the idle lever to low (turtle) for a few seconds before turning the key off. This was probably allowing some kind of residue in the cylinders that ignited and kept it running. I expected it to start up faster after I started idling it down before I turn it off, but it still takes about a minute. I would like to get to the bottom of that.

I wonder if there is a fuse in the headlight circuit. When I put the cover back on after changing the oil, I wasn't careful enough where the headlight cables went, and they got pinched. I think this was unrelated to the engine not wanting to stop.