Dale Shaw wrote:Yep, clean ALL the contacts and grounds from the battery to the starter
This includes pulling the cables off the battery posts and giving them a good scrub with a battery brush. I recently had this problem, and it turned out to be corrosion between the positive post and the cable. The tractor started fine, but stalled, and when I pulled on the starter rod, nothing. Because the failure happened so suddenly, I suspected the starter. I did check most of the connections, but the positive cable was solidly on the battery post, so I just used an Ohmmeter to check it. Even on the 20 ohm setting, it showed zero, so I figured that one was good.
Replaced the starter and the same thing happened. She started, but stalled shortly thereafter, and again nothing out of the starter. I was able to start her by running jumpers from a 12v battery to the post on the starter switch and the base of the regulater, but as soon as I disconnected the positive clamp from the tractor, she died. Loosened the positive cable clamp from the battery, and sure enough, there was a good bit of corrosion. Could have saved myself the cost of the starter.