If your riding lawn mower won’t start, the first thing to check is the battery. I’m guilty of this as well. Perhaps you left the key in the accessory position, or maybe you left the lights on. Or, there’s the possibility that you have a parasitic draw which is draining the battery.
For me, most the time I’m dealing with old, abused machines. If they even have a battery, most likely it’s no bueno.
Tools Needed
Dead Battery Diagnosis
First, let’s determine if the battery is in fact dead. You’ll know that there’s an immediate problem if the engine doesn’t fire when you turn the ignition key.
It might click, or it might do nothing at all. That is an indication that the battery is weak or dead.
You can take a battery load tester and confirm that the battery is dead. Often, I’ll throw it on a charger overnight and then test it to see if it has held the charge or not. If it doesn’t, then you know it’s no good.
For the time being though, we just want to be able to start it.
If you’re reasonably certain that your battery is good – and you know the cause, then you have two choices.
I prefer to charge the battery, like I mentioned. Throw it on the charge on 2 amps and let it sit overnight.
This is always a better option than just jumping the battery.
While this does work, it CAN reduce the life of the battery. Once the machine is running, the charging system will continue to charge the battery.
If you decide to pursue this option, I would recommend a portable jumper pack to jump the battery. This will provide the necessary amperage to start the machine.
By now you’ve heard me mention a jumper pack in several articles. It is an extremely handy tool that serves various purposes. I highly recommend one, especially one that has an onboard air compressor. That way, you can also air up the tires when you’re picking up machines to flip.
How to Jump a Dead Battery
Using your jumper pack, simply connect the positive cable to the positive terminal on the battery. Then, connect the negative cable to ground (somewhere on the frame).
For what it’s worth, you can even remove the battery to charge it, and still jump the machine with the jumper pack.
The same procedure applies – connect the positive cable to the positive battery lead and the negative cable to ground.
You machine will think that there’s a battery installed, and it should fire right up when you turn that ignition key.
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