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ranjuro

520H - Starter behavior, troubleshooting help requested?

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ranjuro

First off, hi!  I'm a new owner of a 1993 Wheel Horse 520H. The WH is solid, does a great job, starts fine...  if I hook it up to jumper cables and a battery.  Often, most of the time, it doesn't start without the jump.  I've ruled out the battery, I've tried several, new, fully charged, no dice.  The specific behavior is as follows.  

 

Turn the key into aux position, all lights on dash light up and then turn off.  No issues.  Turn key to start and there is a click and everything goes dead.  Fuses are fine.  Subsequent attempts are totally dead, dash lights don't even come on.  Take a pair of jumper cables, hook 'em up to the terminals, and it goes back to normal and starts just fine.  Drive it around a bit and there is a 50/50 chance it starts again when I stop it.  

 

I've been disconnecting the terminals when it's not in use and verifying that the battery is happily charged before attempting to start, but it makes no difference.  I'm getting sick of jumping it.  Seems like something shorting related to the solenoid, but any pointers or advice would be appreciated.

 

Thanks!

 

Ryan

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Achto
28 minutes ago, ranjuro said:

I've ruled out the battery, I've tried several, new, fully charged, no dice.

:WRS:  Are your battery cables making good contact with the battery? Do you have a meter to monitor battery voltage while you are cranking the motor? If battery voltage does not decrease while trying to crank then I would say there is a connection issue. If voltage drops below 9v while cranking then you have either a poor battery or an excessive draw. Seems strange that it will start with a jump but not off a new battery.

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Lane Huls

To me that screams connection at the battery like crazy.

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ranjuro

Battery connection looks clean, not corroded, nice and tight.  When I turn the key to aux and all the dash lights are on, the gauge for battery charge level looks good.  But then I turn the key to start it, the solenoid makes a click, and the whole system shuts down.  I clip cables on from my little jump starter and it works perfectly.  It is very strange.  

 

I found this post that sounds suspiciously like what I'm seeing:

http://www.doityourself.com/forum/outdoor-gasoline-electric-powered-equipment-small-engines/425699-toro-wheel-horse-has-me-stumped.html#post1732146

 

I'm curious about the whole engine to frame ground.  I think I will investigate that and see what I find out.

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Lane Huls

Yeah, check all your connections. The battery connections are only two. Check your battery ground wire, check your connections at the solenoid. If the solenoid clicked but the whole system stayed on id say bad solenoid, but since its "shutting down" everything you are totally losing power. Which is typical of a bad connection somewhere.

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DougC

Remove both battery cables from the battery. With a wire brush clean the entire battery terminals and cables where they contact each other. Just because they look ok does not mean they are making good enough contact with each other. the added draw of the starter motor is enough to make what little contact you have for the dash lights  to work cease. Start at the battery since all is fine when you jump it at the battery.   

 

And :text-welcomeconfetti:to the forum!!!   :)

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benji756

:text-welcomeconfetti:and:wwp:

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N3PUY

Also check the fuse block and check to see if it still has power in and out of the ignition switch when this happens.

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new horse

I have a 520-H and was having similar starting issues, I usually had to jump the starter relay to get mine to start, it turns out one of the wires in the plug on the back of the ignition key switch was coming out of the plug, and only making "occasional contact" pushed the wire/terminal back into the plug and I haven't had any starting issues since

 

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Digger 66
5 hours ago, ranjuro said:

First off, hi!  I'm a new owner of a 1993 Wheel Horse 520H

 

Congrats & welcome to Red Square 

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Daddy Don

:text-welcomeconfetti:

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cleat

I had an old Crown Vic do the exact same thing.

 

Battery cable connections were the culprit.

 

Take all connections apart, (battery, solenoid, ground, ignition switch) clean them and you should be good.

 

Also make sure the fuse holders are clean as well.

 

I know I am just repeating what was said, just reaffirming that this must be the problem.

Edited by cleat

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ranjuro

Thanks for the warm welcome!  I'll be working on this Saturday morning and I'll definitely be using your suggestions as my guide.  So great that there is such a great resource for a newbie!  I'm looking forward to years as a Wheel Horse owner and it's a relief to know you guys are here.  I'll post some pics and an update when I have one!  Thanks again! :)

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