Spinning starter JD x300

Anonymous-0 · Apr 17, 2011

Good morning and good Palm Sunday to you,
Hoping to be ready for the lawn mowing season I was going to do maint, on our 3 yr old John Deere x300 riding lawn mower yesterday. Found that battery was low and put the charger on for a couple of hours. Lights will come on bright but the starter only spins, never engages the flywheel. Had a couple of times last year when I had to cycle key on and off to get it to start. Tried tapping on starter while it was spinning but no luck, any ideas?

Blackhole49 · Apr 17, 2011

If it is one of those little l&g batteries, replace it. Better yet, put a full battery in it if possible.

Michael Soldan · Apr 17, 2011

..could be the bendix has dried out over the winter and needs a drop of lube (graphite if it is dry lubed,oil if its wet lubed)so when it spins it thrusts forward and engages the ring gear. There is likley a tiny spring that aids this process..spring may have broke,or the bendixes they use are now often plastic and the teeth are worn off...they aren't real complicated,remove the battery cables and take the starter off and have a look..probably about two bolts and one electric connection. Many mowing machines with many different badges on them are made by MTD and all those parts are interchangable..you might even find a direlect mower to steal the starter from..been through the process!

buickanddeere · Apr 17, 2011

Exactly. Nobody ever crammed too high a capacity of a battery into a machine or vehicle.

John B. · Apr 17, 2011

If you have a B&S engine on it the starter gear is fiber and probably has all the teeth wore off of it. I wouldn't replace the battery until I checked the starter gear first.

John B. · Apr 17, 2011

I forgot to mention, don't tap on these starters, they have Alnico magnets (permanent magnets) in them and by tapping on the starter housing can easily cause these magnets to chip and lock up the starter. These magnets are very delicate/fragile.

Anonymous-0 · Apr 17, 2011

Thanks all for the replys, I started to take the starter off and just for kicks spun the flywheel by hand, took the battery charger off and gave it a try. The starter engaged but the battery didn't have enough to keep it spinning. It had been on the charger quite awhile so it tells me it's new battery time.
Thanks again
Chris

BCnT · Apr 17, 2011

if youre using the correct charger [1/2 or 1 amp] an overnite charge is required to get a full charge...if youre using a larger amp charger you will be buying batteries real regular as they tend to cook the life out of batteries.

Jon Hagen · Apr 17, 2011

Besides a defective / sticky inerita starter drive,one other posibility. If the battery was very low,Any chance you charged the battery backwards ?
I have seen this happen, with the battery polarity reversed by charging backwards, the permanent magnet starter will rotate in the opposite direction, making it impossible for the starter drive to run into the flywheel ring gear.

Might pay to check the battery with a voltmeter to make sure the POS post is indeed positive polarity.

Spinning starter JD x300

Anonymous-0

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Blackhole49

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Michael Soldan

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buickanddeere

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John B.

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John B.

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Anonymous-0

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BCnT

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Jon Hagen

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