Thanks Walt You sir are a genius....I on the other hand an (expletive deleted) idiot. During the Winter I re-wired the battery, solenoid and starter and yesterday fitted the new battery. How I managed to reconnect it the wrong way round is frankly beyond me! I no longer have the old battery, I wonder if the terminals were reversed (frankly grasping at straws now!) I'm more familiar with AC motors, both single and 3 phase, Reverse the direction of 3 phase motor by changing any 2 phases. Did not know the direction of DC motor was reversed by swapping +ve and -ve. Guess you live and learn! Thanks again, you've saved me forking out for a new starter motor. Cheers Steve

never mind. I just found a parts diagram. I plan on going by that. thanks

If it was me I would do complete fuel system clean up. Said this before with that many hours and years on it your fuel system is dirty and about to fail. I would Start at the tank. remove it, clean it out either by swabbing or pressure washing. rinse with gas or alky. Next I would replace all the fuel hoses, fuel filter, install shut off valve, replace the hoses after the fuel pump and the fuel pump vaccum hose. If you don't want to clean the carb. bowl and spray the main jet with carb. cleaner add some fuel system cleaner when you get it filled back up with fresh gas and clean system up to the carb. Also while I was in there I would also inspect the elect harness, switches, looking for loose hanging wires, chafed wires, rusty connections. plastic tie wrap any loose wiring that could get chafed or rubbed against moving parts. If you want it to last you need to do this very few years 6 is pressing it, but not bad depending on conditions you work your equipment in. I would also make sure I check the air filter often older vanguard are fussy with the small air filter between the cylinders. Now cylinders reminds me of cooling fins. have you checked them lately? Might want to revisit the owners manual on pre-ventive maintenance make sure you got all the bases covered. do that and that tractor may last life time???? another thing if you going by the 50 hour oil changes you better be mowing in dust free invoriment?? if not then 50 hours between oil changes is way too long hence extreme conditions in the owner maintenance schedule??

ab26, if your engine has a "fuel solenoid" in the carb bowl, you should shut your engine off at high RPM by turning off the IGNITION SWITCH. The solenoid has a plunger valve that shuts off the flow of gasoline to the MAIN JET. The solenoid is used to prevent the phenomenon known as "afterfire" (which is what you heard). It works like this: If you shut off you engine by moving the throttle to the idle/off position, you kill the spark ignition but gasoline continues to be fed to the intake of the engine (because the solenoid is still energized). This fuel air mix is now just passing through the cylinder and out the exhaust valve without ever combusting in the cylinder. The exhaust pipe and muffler are saturated with extreme heat from use. So long as the fuel/air mix is passing through the exhaust system at a pretty high velocity....no "afterfire, or ignition" can occur because the mix is whisked through without being able to heat to the point of spontaneous ignition. BUT, as soon as the crankshaft and pistons stop moving......so does the fuel air mix and at that point the blazing hot surfaces in the exhaust system instantly raise the temperature of the mix to the point of spontaneous combustion and BANG is the result. Now, when you shut down your solenoid equipped engine at high RPM by turning off the IGNITION SWITCH, this is what happens: Turn key off, fuel solenoid closes depriving the engine of its main jet fuel. Engine immediately burns the last puff of fuel mix in the normal fashion (because the spark ignition is still firing the plugs). As the last of the gas is burned, the engine RPM sudenly dives toward zero, all the while the engine is being purged and ventilated by the air that continues to flow (minus fuel of course) through the engine and out the exhaust. Because fuel is absent, when the engine finally stops at zero RPM under these conditions, there can be no "afterfire" bang.