Small Engines (Lawn Mowers, etc.): New 26HP DGS6600 does not start, snow thrower, proper voltage

Question
Bought a 26HP Craftsman 917288600 DGS6600 garden tractor June 2008 with a snow thrower attachment. It ran ok in the summer and fall.
Min January 2009, it would not start. Call the service department and they replaced the solenoid 2/11/09. I went to start it up 2/19/08 and it did not start (same as before where the light comes on to indicate the battery is good but when I turn the key it makes a "click" noise and that is all). Somehow I think there is something that is frying the solenoids after a few days.
Craftsman technician will come look at it some time next week. Some of the sears.come reviews said it takes the technicians up to 3 visits to resolve some of the problems.
Is there anything else other than the solenoid that I could be looking for.
Regards,
Theo,


Answer
Electrical problems are extremely difficult to trouble shoot and sometimes it may take a tech a few visits to solve the problem, especially if it isn't broke when they visit.  In other words its hard to fix if it isn't broke!

The first thing I would recommend is have your battery tested.  You need to have the proper voltage and amperage.  It could be that you simply have a bad battery. Even though you indicator light says that you have a good battery, you may not have enough amperage to start the tractor.

Lets try this first before we overthink the problem.

One more thing, make sure that you have the ELECTRIC PTO switch pushed in to the OFF position when trying to start your tractor.  This will also give you the same symptom you are describing.

So in summery... Check to make sure your ELECTRIC PTO switch is not activated, and check the battery.