Small Engines (Lawn Mowers, etc.): Riding mower hard to turnover and wont start, briggs and stratton, battery cables

Question
My 8-years old Craftsman LT 1000 riding lawn mower (Model No. 917.272670 with Briggs and Stratton Engine Model No. 31C707 Type No. 0230-E1) is very hard to turnover and it won't start.  The battery and the starter appear to be ok.  Valve clearances are set at .005 intake and .007 exhaust.  Even when it was new, this lawn mower had never turned over real easy during starting.  The last time I had this problem (Fall 2010), adjusting the valve clearances did help.  However, this time it has not helped at all.  Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks and God bless.

Answer
Have you dis-connected and cleaned the battery terminal posts and battery cable ends with a wirebrush?  I have fixed a lot of mowers just by cleaning the battery connection.

How big, in diameter is the battery cables?  Typically manufactures use as small as wire as possible as it is cheaper.  I have seen a few products where we had to run larger cables.  Eventurally the manufacture admitted the cables were too small to handle the current and issued a service bullitin.

Do you have a multimeter to measure voltage drop across the cables?

Clean the battery connections and let me know if that helps.

Eric