Starter Electrical Problem

Working on an off color riding mower (anyone got an old Allis rider for sale?) and I’ve hit a wall. Problem was I could turn the key to start and you could hear the bendix engaging, but you’d have to turn the key off and back to start position a dozen times to get the starter to actually turn. Then it would crank fine. Recently everything quit. No solenoid clicking, even though battery is fully charged. Decided to take the starter off, which was a big chore in itself. Hooked jumper cables straight to the starter after I removed it and the bendix extends and the starter turns, every time I put power to it.
At the ends of the 2 starter wires, the battery cable has 12 volts, as does the solenoid wire whenever I turn the key to “start”. Every time. Tested it over a dozen times. When I hook the wires back to the starter, they both still have power when key is in “start” mode, and even with a dedicated ground wire on the starter (starter still removed from engine at this point) there is no response. I can’t figure out why it works fine when hooked direct to the battery but not when hooked to the wiring harness, even though it has 12 V going to it, and a dedicated ground wire running from the clean starter to the clean negative battery post.

YEP... solenoid is bad or one of the cables is rotted end on it.. Your getting 12 volts, but not enough amps to move the starter... jumper across the solenoid with  cable / pliers and see if it cranks..  check cable ends for corrosion... bad ground on strap.

Go buy a new battery

Leesok wrote: Go buy a new battery

I had one that it would quit running but if you was fast enough at wiggling the key it would keep running, replaced ingition and problem solved

Thanks for letting us know