Hi everyone,

I have a Murray riding mower that won't start. Long story short: I was mowing my lawn a couple weeks ago and it was running just fine. I usually store the mower in my garage. Well, this one time I left it outside overnight and as luck would have it - it rained during the night. I had to leave the next morning for a week and forgot about the mower being outside. My fault. Well, it rained the entire time I was gone.
Upon return home, the weather had cleared up and I tried to move the mower into my garage for storage. The engine turned over just fine, but it would not start. I narrowed the problem down to the electrical system by removing the spark plug and checking for a spark. Nothing. Using the same plug on a different mower produced a strong spark.
So, I'm assuming that the riding mower has something wrong with the electrical system which is probably moisture related from all the rain it was exposed to. That said, its been in my garage for several days now so its had a chance to dry out pretty good. Yet, it still won't start.
My question is this: Could anyone please give me an idea of what might be causing this? Also, how can I determine exactly where the problem is so that i can repair it. This is the first time I've had this type of problem, and I would greatly appreciate any helpful advise I could get because I honestly don't know how to go about troubleshooting this problem
Thank you.

How old is the mower. It could be possible that the coil went bad at the same time.
Dean

You need to disconnect the kill switch wire from the tractor to the engine. This will determine if the problem lies with the electrical system on the tractor, or if the problem is with the engine only. There is a good possibility that there may be a problem in the safety interlock on the tractor. If you have good spark with the kill wire from the tractor disconnected, then you will have to trace through the various switches to determine the culprit. If it's a rear engine riding mower, my guess would be the operator presence switch connector.

How old is the mower. It could be possible that the coil went bad at the same time.
Dean

Thanks for the reply. I will look into that some more.

You need to disconnect the kill switch wire from the tractor to the engine. This will determine if the problem lies with the electrical system on the tractor, or if the problem is with the engine only. There is a good possibility that there may be a problem in the safety interlock on the tractor. If you have good spark with the kill wire from the tractor disconnected, then you will have to trace through the various switches to determine the culprit. If it's a rear engine riding mower, my guess would be the operator presence switch connector.

Hi, one more good idea to try! Thanks much for the reply. BTW, the engine is in the front. I will try the kill switch idea tomottow.

Sorry guys, but I am not a mechanic by any means. I'm lost with this whole thing but I'll give it my best shot. The mower is 10 years old. Maybe its just time for a new mower? Thing is, I am planning on putting my home on the market soon and I
ll be moving into an area where I won't need to mow the lawn any longer. Decisions, decisions!
Thanks again for your replies :-)