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(Doug Miller) wrote in
:

In article ,
wrote:
On Fri, 3 Jun 2005 21:20:41 -0400, Rocinante wrote:

After recharging the battery for the electric starter for my Toro
mower, the 40 amp fuse keeps blowing whenever I turn the key. The 12
volt rated battery is currently at 12.74 volts. Is the electric
starter bad, or is the battery overcharged?

12.74 volts is perfectly fine. There's nothing wrong with your
battery.

I should mention that the manual pull will start the engine easily.

That's good. That eliminates really ugly problems like a seized
engine.

There probably isn't anything wrong with your starter, either - most
likely, IMO, is that something in the wiring harness is shorted to
ground.

There's an easy way to tell, though: remove the starter and lay it on
the ground. Then connect a set of jumper cables from the battery to
the starter: from the negative battery terminal to the frame of the
starter, and from the positive battery terminal to the terminal(s) on
the starter. (Some starters have one terminal, some have two - if
yours has two, make sure you hit them both at once.)

If the starter motor spins, it's good, and your problem is in the
ignition switch or the wiring harness. Finding the problem could take
several hours' work with a voltmeter.

If it doesn't spin, well, you just found the problem. :-)

A safer alternative, if you can afford another fuse, is to just
disconnect the starter and tape up the wire end so it can't touch anything.
Now turn the ignition switch and see if it blows the fuse. If it does,
you know that something else is probably the culprit (although the
starter motor could still be bad once you get everything else fixed).