Sounds like your battery caught a bus out of town. It's gone. ***"After trying to charge it a bit"*** How long is "a bit"?? What AMP rate are you charging it with?? It's possible that your tractor charging system is not producing enough current to charge the battery BUT....that scenario is unlikely to be the case IF your Scott's has an electric PTO to engage the cutting deck. If your tractor has an electric PTO, and you have had no problems of the PTO "disengaging" the deck while you are mowing...........but yet, the tractor will not restart and the only response you get is some "clicks"........your battery is "real gone". How old do you believe the battery to be? Do you own a volt meter (hand held voltage tester)? If you have a volt meter, check the voltage across the battery posts while the engine is running at near wide open throttle. The volt meter should register a reading of 13.0 to 13.6 Volts DC while the engine is running near full RPM. Next, cut the engine off. Now read the voltage across the posts again. Your battery voltage this time is probably going to be near 12 volts, and, you may be able to see the battery voltage slowly dropping. Next test. Hold the voltmeter test leads in place on the battery post while a helper tries to start the engine. If the battery is OK, the volt meter will only drop to about 6 or 8 volts (and the engine would possibly start). If the voltage drops to near zero, the battery is no good.

Update....the engine is running!!! My son and I had faced a setback earlier in the week when one of the head bolts sheared after the second round of torquing to 36 ft-lbs. That was a bummer, but a couple days later we got the bolt out with an easyout. We put all the parts of the rider back together (with a new needle/beam torque wrench) and fired it up with some carb cleaner, and it started up fairly quickly!!! As expected, we did have the smoking of burning off of oil, but after 20 minutes or so, that seem to diminish to nothing. Seem to have a little bit of burning oil smell still, but I am hoping that is just some residual oil burning off the frame or muffler shields - those parts around the muffler seem to get very hot. Only remaining issue was a backfire after turning it off. It happened half the time after shutting it down, even when I would let it idle for 15 seconds before turning it off. But I can probably live with the backfiring. I would welcome any input on this problem, but I can do some research on the internet about this seemingly separate issue. Thanks so much for walking my son and I through our first fix of this magnitude....usually we only fix fuel problems. It was a really satisfying experience, and I am really grateful for your advice along the way....I was truly amazed. Again, thanks so much.

Hi, I have a problem with starting my Lawn Tactor, I hope you can help. First some Specs: It is a (heap of junk - ha) B&S 18hp Twin I/C M/No: 422707 Type:1263 01 Code: 9312065A on a Murray Lawn Tractor. It doesn't appear to have any form of fuel pump unless it is part of the carb. (I believe it is gravity fed). A little history: For some time I had been having to leave the choke on just a little to make the thing run smoothly. The last time I used the machine I fiddled a little with the various adjusting screws on the carb. with no improvement, so I set them back to where they were. I figured I could live with the choke being out a little. My problem is that the last time I used the machine it died on me after about 1-2 hours mowing and simply would not start again. I figured it had simply overheated so I pushed it into the garage. Now (a week later) it doesn't want to start, or if it finally does (after lots & lots of starter motor winding), it is only for a brief period and it will run like a pig and backfires and soon dies. It smells strongly of fuel during starter motor winding. When I pull the plugs out after this (and having not started), they are wet with fuel. This makes me think there is a spark problem or a timing problem. I have tried the following: I have replaced the plugs, I know all 3 of the kill switches are working (I checked them with a multi-meter), I made sure the earth wire to the ig. coil wasn't shorting and was working properly with ig. key switch, I pulled the coil off and checked the winding with ohms on multi-meter (this was ok), The coil is approx. one millimeter away from flywheel which I think is fine, I have checked for spark from both leads (with spark test pen) and this seems to be working, I have removed the plugs and grounded them then wound it over and they both have spark (maybe a little weak ?? not sure), I asked a mower shop guy if this thing runs points and as I suspected it is electronic timing (so I don't believe it has anything I can adjust), I even pulled the flywheel off to check there was not a sheared key or something there that may explain the timing being out (key and keyway was fine), I tried starting it without the air filter (just in case some blockage - no help but desperate), I have sprayed some engine start spray directly into each of the cyclinders through spark plug holes and after some winding got it to start and got a "Really Cool" backfire. I am suspecting the coil is "Kangaroo-Edward" ("Roo-Ted" for non Australians) but do not know how else to test it (other than how I have stated above) or whether the spark it is putting out is as strong as it should be. (I thought of letting the wife hold the spark plug lead end and depending on her reaction it might of given me an idea of how strong the spark was - ha ha - but I thought better of it). I didn't want to buy a new coil if it wasn't the problem. I don't believe it is a fuel problem due to the fact the plugs are wet. Am I wrong in my deduction of it being Spark/Timing and what else can I do??? Please help me Fellow Lawn Tractor Guru's, before I just set fire to it and roll it down a hill or beat it with a stick. I know this won't fix it but boy would it make me feel gooooooood!!! (I have read through many of the other peoples problems on your forum and I felt they were all a little different to mine - Please help!) Thanks in advance for any help you can offer. P.S. By the way, I noticed a few people in your forum having a problem with the charging of the battery. I too have suffered this problem in the past. I thought I would mention that when I pulled the flywheel off, that the amount of dirt/dust build up inside of the flywheel and around the stator was amazing. It was packed in solid and coating the magnet faces and stator faces. I hosed all of this away, cleaned the stator faces, blew it all dry and sprayed it all with CRC/RP7 before putting it back together. I wonder if this may be a major part of the problem. I don't know if it has fixed the problem yet because my machine is not running, but I reckon it can only help. I hope this helps.

Results I disconnected the "kill" wire comming from the ignition switch routed internally to the coil (white) and as suggected the engine started normally. Shut engine down with fuel shutoff. Reconnect the coil wire and crank but no start. Disconnect the coil wire again to start to allow me to mow Father in law yard, thinking I would get a new ignition switch when in town during the week. Finished the yard, reconnect the coil to ignition switch connector to shut the engine down by the "grounded coil wire or faulty ignition switch" and engine did not shut down until I turned ignition switch key to off position. Disconnect and reconnect the coil "kill" wire to re-verify the no start and to my surprise the engine started and would shutdown correctly with ignition switch. Guessing the ignition switch or wire ground issue could act up again and not work but wonderning if moisture, connection or worn through insulation causing ground contact could have corrected itself only to return in the future. Any thoughts? Thanks again Larry and Bill for your valuable help. Harold