Cub Cadet LTX 1040 Won't Start without Charger Connected
#17
If you know somebody who has a real tester/maintainer/charger, ask them if you can use it. Voltage across the terminals doesn't mean much and that's probably what Walmart did.

I had a similar issue with my Cub Cadet this year. I thought the battery was fine, but after testing it with a proper tester I found out it wasn't. Once charged up fully it was fine and has been fine all year.
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#18
(11-19-2020, 12:57 PM)Cub_Cadet_GT Wrote: My money is on a bad battery. a L&G battery is only $40 I would give it a try.

+1. Disconnect the battery and charge it.

Re connect the battery. See if it starts the next day.

An ohm meter between the disconnected hot battery lead and the frame will tell you if there's draw (short) somewhere. If no draw, it's the battery.
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#19
The current from the key/start switch has to pass thru multiple safety switches and interlocks before it energizes the solenoid on the starter. Try this; with a charged battery and key on, attachments disengaged, (this allows spark), jump from battery + to starter coil. If it fires right up there's a lot more connections to check, or dare I say, by-pass. Also, you might be able to revive a weak battery by running it thru a couple of charge/drain (not completely!) cycles using an old school (non-automatic) battery charger. I discharge with an automotive headlight 'til it's noticeably dim then charge at 10 amps for about 6hr.s. two times then charge again, wait 12hr's or more and see if it keeps the light bright significantly longer. Yes= success. No = it's probably a good candidate for a core. This sometimes works for ni-cad tool batteries too, but the charger that came with them is "automatic". We just have to get a little creative to supply constant voltage a little higher than rated voltage.
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#20
Another area to check I forgot to mention is to check the resistance across the starter relay. Mowers use a small version of a Ford starter relay. The contacts arc and burn during use and resistance increases with wear. With the quality of parts like this being very poor these days it's something to check. Resistance in the solenoid contacts will greatly reduce the amount of amps the starter can pull. Unfortunately MTD and others put the starter relay in a really hard to get to spot these days...

           There are two ways to test it. 

                1) The preferred way. Place a volt meter across the leads of the starter relay. Crank the engine and see what the voltage reads. What you are measuring is voltage drop across the connections in the solenoid. You want that to be under a volt ish.. 


                 2) Disconnect the cable from the starter and check the resistance across the relay terminals while you turn the key. This should be as close to 0 as possible.
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#21
Well here's what happened this weekend. The cables and crimps to the battery cables (on both ends) are tight and have no play.

After charging the battery, you can get one good crank before it won't crank again. When it's in that condition, I could jump directly to the starter lead from the battery (as one of you suggested) and it would fire right up. Which indicates that it's somewhere with the starter relay or solenoid.

At that point my dad got pretty impatient and was kinda done looking at it. I have learned to just not argue with him. He took it Monday and dropped it off at a shop. I'm curious to see what happens.
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#22
(11-25-2020, 12:06 PM)speckledpig Wrote: Well here's what happened this weekend. The cables and crimps to the battery cables (on both ends) are tight and have no play.

After charging the battery, you can get one good crank before it won't crank again. When it's in that condition, I could jump directly to the starter lead from the battery (as one of you suggested) and it would fire right up. Which indicates that it's somewhere with the starter relay or solenoid.

At that point my dad got pretty impatient and was kinda done looking at it. I have learned to just not argue with him. He took it Monday and dropped it off at a shop. I'm curious to see what happens.


          Make sure they check the valve adjustment. Trust me if it has any hours on it at all it will need to be done. It is an extremely common problem on these engines. You can put a new battery on it and it will work for a bit then back to normal. Do a quick search on kohler courage valve adjustment. Your story is the same as everyone else with one. 

           One of many https://www.mytractorforum.com/threads/k...cs.202707/
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