Fuse Issues on Lawn Tractor

[mossy_oak23]

Last week whenever I would start my lawn tractor it would blow a fuse. This suddenly happened after 20 years of reliability. I could start the tractor but every time I would shut it off and go to start it again the fuse would be blow?

So I saw that the terminal on the starter was hanging off and the braided copper wire inside the starter body was touching the starter body. I figured that this was potentially the problem that was causing the fuse to blow.

So I went and put yet another fuse in (keep in mind the tractor was working fine but it would just blow a fuse each start) and sparks shoot out of the fuse holder. It is a 15amp fuse. If I leave the fuse in the fuse holder smoke spews out of the engine and the starter.

 

[whitebc]

Sounds to me like you have a mouse/rat problem and there is another wire chewed somewhere that only gets hot when you crank the motor.

Had a similar problem with a four wheeler once...

 

[Brute 23]

The fuse is not the problem, in fact, its quite the opposite. The fuse is doing a great job. Keeping looking you have a short some where.

 

[upfrombottom]

The fuse is not the problem, in fact, its quite the opposite. The fuse is doing a great job. Keeping looking you have a short some where.

If the fuse doesn't blow when you turn the key to ignition, but does when you turn it to start, the problem is ether the starter relay or the starter itself. My guess would be the relay, could be just a loose connection causing it to pull more juice. On a tractor that is twenty years old it could be either. If it blows when you turn it to ignition, you have a short somewhere.