Thank you for the video

Thanks for the tips. Mine (same model) ran yesterday but I ran her outta gas (hole in fuel tank so I can only fill 1/2 way) so I left her where she died and this morning she sputtered when turning the key to start but next try, turn the key and nothing. You led me down the path. Used my jumper battery but no dice touching the battery to the battery connection on the starter. Touch it to the smaller key wire (with key in run position) and was able to start her and finish grass before the rains. Interestingly enough when I shut her down, the key worked as normal on a restart. But now if that happens again, I’ll know to trace back from that key wire because something wasn’t working right from the key ignition switch to the starter.

Illinois shot you can bypass it with a regular brake solenoid there's a video on it by Terrell showing you which poles on that solenoid to hook to the other solenoid to bypass it and you mount it up on the mower somewhere that way you don't have to replace that whole damn starter

Keep it up!!

Great job there Young Man 😎👍

Excellent! I like te way you  ypass the circuit and short  straight to the solenoid and srarter.

Good commentary. Gives me some leads to work on and hopefully figure out the issue.

Helpful video about diagnosis and repair. Did you ever try Hipa accessories for the small engines? Maybe we could collaborate?

Awesome

An 20 volt drill will start your mower as well  or you take an puller off an push mower and drill it on to flywheel  then wrap rope around puller then pull it will start this works on 12 and 13 and 17 hp

😊 you got to spray some lubrication on the starter

I replaced a battery, starter solenoid, and starter only to find the problem was a bad ground. I'd run a wire from the starter mounting flange to the battery negative terminal to be absolutely sure there's a current path back to the battery before pronouncing the starter "bad" and going to the trouble and expense of replacing it.

I KNOW WHY IT WONT MOVE THE FREEWHEEL..OHH OK NOW YOU ANSWERED LOL

Liked it you should show a diagram of engine and the parts you are talking about

We got to put some lubrication on the solenoid

Ya don't wrap stranded wire around a post to attach it. Do it the right way: put a terminal on the wire and attach the terminal to the post like it was intended to be!!

I'm still curious about the "dead" wire. Where does it connect and, if it has a fuse.

I have been fussing and fighting with my L130 for a month (It sat for 3 years or so).  Anyway, I did continuity tests on all the saftey switches, charged and recharged the battery, then finally replaced the starter solenoid/motor, and the damn thing still would not crank.

Well, after watching this video, I discovered that the relay going from the battery to the solenoid had 12.6V, but the relay from the switch to the solenoid is exactly 0.0V.  I tried that trick you did by drawing current directly from the battery to the terminal for the switch and Viola!  It cranked.

So long story short, this video helped me drill down the problem to bad wiring, now I just need to figure out how where its screwed up, which should't take long.

Thank you!  This video was exactly the tutorial I needed!

Nice relatively simple fix.  I'd keep working on it, charging the customer and fix all that home-boy wiring mess.

My JD L120A project is finally finished.  Left cylinder head valve guide had to be fixed.  Rebuild the carburetor, and replace both ignition coils.  I was into $400, and sold it yesterday for $1600.  Took me over 2 months to finally get all that above mentioned sorted out, waiting for parts to arrive, had to wait on the machine shop guy who was on vacation, foul weather, etc all contributed to taking a long time to get it running and ready for sale.   And it was well worth it.

Thank you for the video! You working out there with all that metal and electricity in dark skies scared me to death... damn near sick of taking our mower out to the local john deere, spend 600 each time for them to return it and it still won't crank. Clearly a wire short or a bad connection we believe. Do you have resources on where you learn all of these things? Such as repair manual or guides... trying to get into repairing myself so we don't spend so much and it doesn't crank anyway 😂