The starter on my Craftsman Riding Mower is not engaging the flywheel. Help?

If you manually engage the gear (lift up on it while turning the shaft either clockwise or counterclockwise) then turn the key does it crank over or does it immediately disengage and freewheel again? If it disengages...it might be the battery connections are reversed causing it to spin backwards. Especically if you just bought a new battery. They make them with 2 diffrent terminal configurations....so if positive was say on the left on the old battery that doesn't mean it is on the new one...double check the symbols. What happens is if pos/neg are reversed the starter is spinning backwards...always trying to disengage instead of engage the bendix.

If not that and it tries to crank but slowly then its a weak battery as others have said or a bad connection somewhere...starter is not getting enough voltage to spin quick enough to throw the gear up the bendix. There is no solenoid coil (on the starter) on most lawn mower starters to help with gear engagement as there is on automobile starters.

Starter For Craftsman Riding Mower

Craftsman Riding Mower Starter

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The starter on my Craftsman Riding Mower is not engaging the flywheel. Help?

I have a Craftsman DYT 4000 Riding Mower. It wasn't starting, only making a buzzing noise when I turned the key. I thought it was the starter or solenoid, so I just installed a new solenoid and starter. Everything is hooked up, but when I turn the key, the starter gear does not raise up to...

Sounds like the starter motor is not turning fast enough to activate the bendix. Did the new starter come complete or did you transfer the gear and spring from the old one to the new one? Have you checked the voltage in the battery? All connections clean and tight including the ground cable from the battery to the tractor? Have you tried a different battery or jumping it with a good battery? I would take a good battery and jumper cables. Hook the jumper cables to the battery, ground the negative to the tractor and touch the positive to the starter terminal directly. It will spark some but that will tell you if the starter and the gear is working. When my sears tractor does what you describe it is due to a low battery every time.

Dont you have to engauge the clutch for it to start? If so you might want to check that to see if it is actually engauging anything. Not to sure how they work but their all pretty simple, also when you installed the started if its a direct connect to the flywheel, are the teeth in the groves? you can install a starter without being in the right position as the teeth from flywheel and starter touch and slide in so there is no connection.

Searching for a good answer on this too