I have a craftsman lt 4000 lawn tractor model 917.255581 12.5 hp IC Gold Briggs & Strat motor that I care for and well maintained......Won`t start. worked fine last week, got on,turn the key and nothing,new battery,new selenoid, inline fuse good, tried by- passing seat switch still nothing. I bench tested the starter, thats fine! used a volt meter to see if power is going to the stater, it does. I give up!! Can someone Please share your thoughts on this matter PLEASE? Thanks

Richie, May 2008

try taking a srew driver an touch both post of the swith if that dosent work you have a grounding problem look for the ground wire and make shure it didnt snap or touching other elctric devises

redneck, June 2009

I had the same problem and it was the clutch lever switch. There is a button at the bottom of the lever the lever pushes in when the clutch is disengaged. So I jumped the switch and it started right up. Hope this helps

Mark Berreth, December 2008

My tractor will not start also, I am trying to take the starter out,
do you have to take the fly wheel off to get at the starter.

Is it torque down?

jim, September 2008

If you have power to the starter but the engine doesn't crank, there are only 2 possibilities ;-

1) The starter is duff (in spite of the bench test, it could have very low torque and not be able to crank the engine).

2) The starter (or the whole engine) may not be grounded properly.

phil_saunders@bigfoot.com

Phil Saunders, May 2008