[vlopddap]

Hi, I'm new here and my grand-father died a few weeks ago so I inherited of his Cub Cadet C-175H (around 2007-2008 I would say) garden tractor. Last year before he store the tractor for the winter it goes pretty well. It was stored into a barn BTW. But this spring when I tried to start it to bring it home, I never succeed to start it.

First of all, battery is dead... not a big surprise especially because it seem to flow a little bit from the plugs. Anyway a kindly neighbour of my grand-father bring me a brand new marine battery and even with the new battery on the tractor, the starter spin very slowly and very jerkily like if it still miss power! After a few minute we dismiss because the starter begin to smell overheated and becoming a little hot (not that much but we didn't take chance).

The tractor were well maintained, oil were changer last autumn (not missing oil), the gas smell normal and my grand-father put some gasoline stabilizer in the tank. Only problem is my grand-father always stored (after each use) the tractor into a very humid barn on clay! Even if the tractor is rather new, it have much rust everywhere.

Do you think the starter may be stuck after winter storage? I checked for a loose wire somewhere and everything seem to be pretty solid. There's some verdigris on most wires obviously but contact still seem solid and good I think.

I can't find the owner manual of the tractor and technical information are pretty hard to find on the internet for this specific model. I only discover the engine is actually a Tecumseh OVH180 and the tractor itself is known as MTD 600-Series compact tractor... it's pretty hard to find reliable technical informations because in a single tractor series you can get like 10 variances with 5 different engines/transmission combination!!

Thank you very much for your help!!

 

[JDBrian]

Welcome to GTTalk. Given that the tractor has a lot of rust I would start by checking and cleaning all the high current contacts in the starter circuit. You also need to make sure you have a good connection from the starter/motor chassis back to the - terminal on the battery. Once you have verified the connections then but a known good, fully charged battery on it and try to start it again. If that doesn't work you need to do some electrical troubleshooting to find out where the problem lies.If you could post some pictures of the tractor you may get more help with identifying it and getting technical info.

 

[vlopddap]

Thank you JDBrian!

I'm gonna begin by removing the entire hood assembly then I'm gonna make a pressure wash of engine bay with orange engine cleaner/degreaser because there's rotten grass and other crap everywhere in the engine bay! After a good cleanup I'm gonna see things better! :thumbs:

But for now the battery is dead and it seem to have leaked a little bit around the filling plugs, I'm not gonna take a chance to put it on a charger... because I already put a dead marine battery (not that old, like 4 years old) on the charger and the filling plugs blow up in the air after a few hours because fluid are boiling inside (kinda)! I'm gonna buy a new one I think.

I can't see ANY informations on the actual battery because the label are gone. How many starting amps do I need? I saw a 180A at Walmart for 20$, is that enough? Or I see a 280A (or is it 300A maybe?) at Costco for 40$... Walmart is on my way back home tonight, but otherwise I can go to Costco tomorrow.

Thank you!!

PS: Here's a few pictures I took of all information labels I found on the tractor...

 

[vlopddap]

Finally it turned out that my starter was completely dead (melted internals components) and I also used a too small battery for the tractor. I put a new starter (50$ eBay) and a 300A battery (50$ Walmart) and tractor start on 1/4 turn!! Now I need to do the full tune-up of the engine (spark plug, oil/filter change, fuel filter and air filter).