Craftsman tractor tempormental starting

[GardenFence]

When you say that sometimes it starts perfectly, it makes me suspicious of a bad connection. Check both battery terminals. Take wires right off and clean up both sides of connection. Positive wire will go to solenoid and then to starter. You could check these connections as well, but these are probably less likely to be dirty or loose. Be sure to have negative battery terminal disconnected when you work on these. If this problem was consistent all the time, I would suspect bad battery. Let us know what you find.
-Jay

I removed the battery wires; dipped them in baking soda and water, which cleaned off the corrosion nicely; cleaned the connections at the solenoid; then bought a new battery after having it checked and found it would take a charge but not hold it. Tractor now starts very quickly with no hesitation at all. I expect the main culprit was the poor battery (though it was only 2 years old), but cleaning the connections can only help as well, and may have been part of the problem. I'll keep them cleaner in the future as well.
Thanks for your assistance !

 

[jbarker855]

Glad to see you're back in action.:thumbsup:
-Jay

 

[mostly_gas]

I put grease on my posts and clean them every year. Get about 4-5 years on the battery