Starter wont overcome compression

[Florida]

I have a toro riding lawn mower that wont start. The starter will turn the flywheel about 1/2 turn until is hits compression than it stops dead. When I remove the sparkplugs the starter turns the flywheel with ease. I adjusted the valves and all are at .005 inches like the manual recommended. I starter does this with my 230 cca battery as well as my 405cca batter.
Any ideas?

thanks

 

[Tim Frank]

Re: Starter wont overcome compression

Check cable condition and connection integrity. If that is OK and the battery is fully charged, there must be a problem with the starter itself.
Those engines may be easy to turn over with the plug out, but they are the devil to get started with it out....

 

[Bart Sr.]

Re: Starter wont overcome compression

I would disconnect,clean and re-connect all power leads and ground connections.You may not be getting ALL the power to the starter.Also check the battery red and black wires for corrosion.

 

[Mntom]

Re: Starter wont overcome compression

It doesn't have a single cylinder B&S Intek engine does it? I had one do the same thing when the temp was below 65*. Turns out the cam was not ground correctly. B&S told me this AFTER the warranty ran out.

 

[Florida]

Re: Starter wont overcome compression

Thanks for the help everyone but nevermind, I just broke it! The + cable connected to a bolt on the starter with a ring terminal and two nuts separated by a star lock washer. This was a bad idea as the star washer made it impossible to get a wrench on a nut. I ended up breaking the starter trying to disconnect the cable. This makes me mad. I think that this is another example of engineers not thinking things out. Why would they do that? The star washer between the two bolts interfered with the seating of the wrench.

 

[waterinthefuel]

Re: Starter wont overcome compression

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if you have a bad connection somewhere other than the starter, even a brand new starter won't solve your problem.

If the engine is less than 5 years old, I would seriously doubt it's the starter anyway unless it's had one hell of a life.

 

[scipper77]

Re: Starter wont overcome compression

this happened to my neighbor. He like you ended up damaging his starter in trying to repair. So he took it to a shop. I don't know what was wrong other than that he had way to much compression.

I would put a compression gauge on to see if this is the case. even if it won't turn over it should give a reading. sounds like you would have to turn the fly wheel manually at this point to boot.

 

[j_martin]

Re: Starter wont overcome compression

3. thoughts.

1. You take a POS wrench to a bench grinder to fit the half nut under the terminal.

2. I wonder if there's a centrifugal flipper compression release on the cam that's stuck.

3. After you get the starter replaced. If it still does this, hold the key down till something smokes, then follow your nose.

hope it helps
John