Got this as a free-bee. Has an 18hp twin I/C model#422707,Type-1214-01,Code-9310045A. MTD lawn tractor. I am not familiar with the engine or the tractor. Most of my "Junk" is from the seventies. Anyway, I put a good battery in and get nothing. No click, no grunt,notta. I have cleaned the ground for the battery ,the battery terminals, the fused 7.5 amp wire coming from the switch to the ampmeter to the solenoid, replaced solenoid. Still nothing. There is a wire with a spade terminal coming from a saftey switch on the PTO lever that goes to the blade terminal on the solenoid. Is this the right setup?Part of the plug for this switch had a jumper wire in it. Is there a way to buy pass or jumper all the saftey switches just to see if the thing will crank?

yup, take a screwdriver, and cross the terminals on the solenoid. if that doesn't make the motor turn over, I would say the starter is bad

You can test with a jumper wire from the terminal that has the cable from the battery connected to it, jump from this to the spade terminal on the side of the solenoid. If you have two spade terminals on the side of the solenoid, then one of the spade terminals needs to be grounded.

Thank y'all for the quick responses last night. I tried to post a reply but I have satellite internet and we have tropical storm Faye bearing down on us here. If the smallest little cloud passes by it knocks my connection out. So now I have to connect through my cellphone. HUGHESNET SUCKS! ( Sorry, had to vent some frustration!) I am going to try the suggestions this AM and I'll post my findings. Thanks again.

I crossed the post on the solenoid and the motor turned over. I removed the wire with the spade terminal from the blade terminal on the solenoid and got nothing. tried it with the switch on and moving the switch to start and got nothing.
I mentioned in my first post there is a plug(with two spade terminals) that is jumped across itself. I thought this wire went to the PTO safety switch but it does not, one side of the plug goes to the switch the other side is the opposite end of the wire on the solenoid blade terminal. Should there be a fuse here? I tried jumping the wire to the solenoid from the side of the solenoid with the battery cable but got nothing. Any more ideas? Please help!

If the solenoid is properly grounded and jumping the solenoid gets no action. Then the solenoid is probably bad and needs replacing.

As far as I can tell the solenoid is grounded good. I think this one grounds through the base. There is a green wire that goes from where the solenoid bolts to panel ,almost under the dash,to the frame,just beside the battery. I have cleaned all I can with my dremall. I thought that this solenoid was good. Guess not. I'll go this AM and pick one up. I'll follow up with results. Thanks again.

Got new solenoid and she turned right over. Poured a little gas in the carb and she fired right up. I had already been through the carb and cleaned it up pretty well. I had drained all the gas out last year. There was a little gunk in there but not to bad.
Problem is now the tarp I had it sitting under wasn't as water proof as I thought. Looks like water has gotten into the gas tank. I put about a gallon of gasoline in the tank to see if the fuel pump would start pumping, well it pumps all right, nothing but water so far. So where should I go from here?

First off replace your gas cap if fuel if water is entering the tank through it, next drain out all the gas/water and fill with fresh gasoline. If your carburator has issues then you might want to purchase a rebuild it and rebuild it.

What would be the best way(I'm going for easiest) to drain the tank. I looked under the tank and I can't see where the hose connects to the tank. so I suppose there's some stuff to remove to see it ? I have a syphen hose with a bulb. would this get the water out good enough?
Also, when I was cleaning the carb, I noticed there was no spring (IPL Ref.#860,Part#691799) The guy that had the thing before me gave me a box of parts.I found spring Ref#392A and installed it. I didn't realize the other one was missing until today when I got all the water in there and thought I'd look through the IPL again before I break it down again. My question, if I find the spring, can someone tell me where it goes exactly?

Yesterday,I proceeded with draining the fuel tank. I looked into removing it completely. There ares four bolts well rusted holding the rear fender/seat assembly on so I decided to go with my bulb-syphen to to drain the gas tank. I disconnected the fuel filter, connected the bulb on the tank side and drained it from there. after I got out all I could from there, I jacked up the front end to be sure all residual would drain down into the "sump" of the tank.
When all was said and done I got about 3/4 gal of gas and water.After settling out,about 1/4 was water!And they say we've had drought conditions this past year?
Took carb back apart, let is soak in carb/parts cleaner for 3 or four hours. I wish someone could have let me know about the spring I'm missing. Cleaned all out with tip cleaners blew out with air. Reinstalled, added a squirt of gasoline to prime carb,she fired right up! Ran for about 15 -20 min. No problems.
Restarted it and it struggled somewhat.The flywheel is kicking back and stripping the (nylon) teeth on the starter.What could cause this? Also I checked the battery with my fluke,battery is not charging. I don't have the guard or the hood on it so the headlights are not installed.Does everything have to be hooked up to see the battery charge? Will someone help me out here please?

As long as the alternator is hooked up, the battery should charge. If you only have the 2 amp charging system, then your battery tester may not show that its charging. Check the battery voltage before you start the engine and then with the engine running, if there is an increase in voltage then the charger is working.

Thank you 30yearTech.I did check that yesterday after running it. The battery did show a little increase but I thought that was just the battery "building" itself backup.I'll verify that again. any idea about the "kickback" I mentioned earlier. Could that be from the battery being drained down? Thanks again.

the "Kickback" is probably your compression release not working properly, or your starter is getting weak, but since its eating up the ring gear, I doubt your starter is bad.

A somewhat simple fix for the compression release without tearing it apart, change the oil, and when you do, put some transmission fluid in with it to top it off, let it run for about a half hour or so, and then drain the oil, the transmission fluid will help break up any gunk in the motor, and around the compression release, and may help it start working properly again

the "Kickback" is probably your compression release not working properly, or your starter is getting weak, but since its eating up the ring gear, I doubt your starter is bad.

A somewhat simple fix for the compression release without tearing it apart, change the oil, and when you do, put some transmission fluid in with it to top it off, let it run for about a half hour or so, and then drain the oil, the transmission fluid will help break up any gunk in the motor, and around the compression release, and may help it start working properly again

I cannot recall ever seeing an opposed twin with a mechanical compression release. I think they all use the "bump" release which is just a raised portion on the cam lobe.

There are other reasons that the gear can strip on the starter. Worn busings in the end caps of the starter, gear installed upside down, wrong gear, damage on the ring gear on flywheel.

Kickback can also be caused by excessive carbon build up in the combustion chamber.

Thanks for the replies. I didn't work with it much yesterday. Feel like I need to step away from it for a minute. I am going to pull that starter and take a look at it. Mean time I'm going to put the battery on charge so I'll know it's good. Can I go with a metal ring gear on that starter? the flywheel looks good,I can see only one chip on a tooth and the ring gear should not make contact in that area.Thanks again and I'll keep updating.