It could still be the battery or connection. How badly do the headlights dim when it clicks. If they stay fully lit, the starter solenoid is probably bad. IF they dim, then the troubleshooting begins.

I'll chime in a bit, mainly because there seems to be some confusion. I am no tractor expert, but I am an electrician, so the electrical end of this stuff is right up my alley. First let me start by saying that Mownie is giving you some sound advice here, and knows what he's talking about. Ok, on to my explanation. First off, a starting solonoid is actually better described as a relay, where a 12v coil is first energized, which magnetizes, and pulls up in the "rod" or assembly that is attached to a set of contacts, which closes the circuit to the starter. The starter solonoid can fail in several ways: 1. The coil can stop functioning, resulting in the starting circuit NOT closing, thus you get nothing. 2. The coil insulation can fail, resulting in a short circuit, therefore blowing the fuse. This sounds probable based on your information. 3. The contacts for the starting circuit can wear over time, becoming intermittent, but this would be noticable by choppy starts, and intermittent starting failures. With that said, the way I would go about troubleshooting this is disconnect only the +12v cable from the load side of the solonoid, that goes to the starter itself. Connect your meter to ground, and to the terminal where you disconnected the +12v cable to the starter. Set the meter where you can see it, hop on the seat, and turn the key. One of 3 things will happen. 1. You get +12v when you turn the key. This would mean the solonoid is good. 2. You blow the fuse. This obviously means that you have a short circuit, either in the coil, or the starting control circuit. 3. You get nothing. This scenario will move you to the next step, because it doesn't necessarily mean the solonoid is shot. If you get the 2nd or 3rd test result, you then need to proceed to disconnect the +12v control wire that energizes the coil. Make sure that you do not allow the wire to flop around and possibly short out. With that said, connect you meter to this wire, and the other lead should still be connected to ground. Now hop on the tractor again, and turn the key to start. 1 of 3 things will result. 1. You get +12v. If this happens, your solonoid is bad. 2. You get nothing. If this happens, you have a problem in the starter control/safety circuit, which is inhibiting you from starting. 3. You blow the fuse again. If this happens, you have a shorted wire in the starter control/safety circuit. Now, mind you a lot of this was said, and this pertains to testing the starting solonoid only. You mentioned not blowing the fuse when "the starter wire is not connected to the starter". If you are referring to the control wire, then the above steps will help. However, if you are referring to the large cable that goes from the load side of the starter solonoid, to the starter itself, then you have an issue with your starter. Hope this helps, Joe

This is my first time on here, so I don't exactly know how to post so here goes. My JD-425 has a flooding problem. Sometimes it runs ok, and sometimes not. When I turn on the ignition, the fuel pump starts (as normal) and I can usually start it. Then, after running for a while, it begins flooding. This is between 15 minutes and half an hour most of the time. I can keep it running if I go full throttle and have the tractor under load, like mowing grass, but there is so much gas entering the carb that there is a bit of black smoke as well. If I stop it and remove the air cleaner, and look into the carb, there is gas everywhere. Here is what I did so far... The carb was new 3 years ago. But I removed it, and took it apart (did this 3 times). Each time I took it apart and put it back together, I know I did it right because the machine started and ran as noted above. I thought it just might be plugged or something. The first time I took it apart I also replaced the electric solenoid valve, just to be sure. And I know it works, because I saw it operating with the carb disassembled. Then, I thought it might be that the float valve was leaking or perhaps the floats had a hole and was full of gas. All was good. When the carb was back together, I blew into the fuel hose when the carb was full of gas and proved that the float valve was working. Hmmm. There is a manual in-line fuel shutoff valve, so what I did was throttle it back so that it would take 30 seconds to to let about an ounce of fuel out. Full blast, the pump actually pumps a lot of fuel. This time, I was able to keep the machine from flooding too bad. And was able to mow the 1 acre of grass I have. Today, however was different. It ran for about 5 minutes, then began to act up. I turned it off, removed the air cleaner and looked into the carb. When I turn the ignition switch on, (not engaging the starter) I can see tons of gas coming out of every carb orifice, flooding into the engine gas everywhere. This is without the engine running. The only thing I can come up with is that the fuel pump for some unknown reason has too much pressure behind it. Another wierd thing is that when I turn a sharp corner, under the flooding condition, the flooding gets noticably worse. Any ideas anyone? Is there a pressure regulator somewhere in the fuel pump line? Thanks.

Sounds like your not getting any power to the fuel pump, I would take the fuel hose from the fuel pump to the carb and disconnect it from the fuel pump and leave it connected to the carb then feel the hose full of gas and see if it runs.