"The fuse that hooks to under the seat is not hooked up"
????? Hooks to what?

Try jumping 12V directly to the small terminal on the starter solenoid.
If the battery, solenoid & starter motor are good, it should crank.

That would leave the Ign. switch, limit switch, blade control switch & associated wiring as suspect.

"The fuse that hooks to under the seat is not hooked up"
????? Hooks to what?"

There is a switch that I assume disengages the machine when the seat is raised up. That's what I was referring to.

I already tried to hook up jumper cables to the solenoid and the battery so I guess I should try to troubleshoot the other switches.

Dis you jump to the SMALL solenoid terminal?
That bypasses your safety switches.

Sounds like you need to have someone else test the battery?

Jump it at the solenoid (w/ the key turned), starts crankin, Safety switch. No juice, solenoid. KNOWN good battery has to be sure.

When taking about jumping it at the solenoid, I took a battery cable and hooked up one end to the + side of the battery and the other cable to the side of the solenoid that has the red battery cable attached. I'm assuming this is correct?

Somehow in the back of my mind I'm thinking it has to be the solenoid. Several months ago, I had the same problem. I turn the key and nothing, I jumped the solenoid and the motor jumped and it turned over. I took the battery to Walmart who said it was good. I may take it somewhere else and check exactly how much juice it's putting out.

"When taking about jumping it at the solenoid, I took a battery cable and hooked up one end to the + side of the battery and the other cable to the side of the solenoid that has the red battery cable attached. I'm assuming this is correct?"
NOPE. You're just duplicating an existing circuit, which doesn't really prove a thing!

Until you pay attention and JUMP 12V to the SMALL solenoid terminal, you're wasting time! THAT will tell a lot about where the problem is.
WHy is it so difficult to do that?

"Until you pay attention and JUMP 12V to the SMALL solenoid terminal, you're wasting time! THAT will tell a lot about where the problem is.
WHy is it so difficult to do that?"

Not very difficult at all, I'm obviously not doing the correct thing which is why I was explaining in great detail what I was doing. I'm not a great mechanic but what is the difference between the solenoid and the "small solenoid" that you speak of? I appreciate any assistance on this board and will provide a link to a schematic if that will help explaining to me if I'm doing something wrong.

"Until you pay attention and JUMP 12V to the SMALL solenoid terminal, you're wasting time! THAT will tell a lot about where the problem is.
WHy is it so difficult to do that?"

Jeez Bill chill, not everyone is a master tractor mechanic like yourself apparently. What seems easy to you may not be something some one else has ever tried before.

What Bill is saying is this: When you look at your solenoid there should be 2 heavy guage red wires coming off of it and one (or 2) smaller guage wire(s). You need to jump from the battery positive terminal to the small terminal on the solenoid. It should attempt to start the engine. If it does, then you have a bad safety switch or starter switch. If it does not attempt to start, then you have to look at the solenoid possibly being bad. By doing what Bill has suggested you can then go in the proper direction rather than throwing parts and time at the problem. Let us know what the results are of jumping 12v to the small terminal on the solenoid and we can go from there.

Thanks for the explanation about the solenoid. First I took the wires off the solenoid, cleaned and reattached them. I tried to start it and the mower made a noise that was similar to a car fan. The engine didn't turn over. Then I jumped the battery to the part of the solenoid that didn't have the battery wire. Nothing happened except I saw a flash where the starter would be located by the engine. Reminded me of when a bulb burns out. I also noticed that now the fuse is also blown.

Sounds like you accidentally hit ground.

"I took a battery cable and hooked it up to the positive side of the battery and the solenoid"
You do have the battery NEG hooked up too, don't you?

The small terminal of the solenoid should have a "smaller" BLACK wire going to it.
Jumping 12V to it bypasses ALL safety switches etc. and isolates things down to the battery, solenoid and starter motor OR "the rest of the circuit".
We are determining which way to go.
IF the engine cranks with this "jumper method", we know the battery, solenoid & starter are good, IF NOT, ONE of them(at least) is bad.

Go to the Sears website and plug in your mower#.
It'll have a wiring diagram.

http://www.searspartsdirect.com

I just jumped the black wire to the battery and the engine attempted to start. So this means that somewhere a switch is bad?

Correct.
We now know that the battery, solenoid and starter motor are good. The problem is somewhere between the key switch and the little black wire.
BTW, if you do that with the key on, it'll probably run, in case you need to mow.

Go to the Sears link above and enter your mower number,
Click the link for the wiring system. (You can save the image with a R click)
It "APPEARS" the only safety switches Are ref# 7 & 10 (looks like 0).
7 is a limit switch?
10 is a "blade control switch".
You'll have to figure out the locations.

To test, unplug the individual switch connector and jumper the 2 black wires together on the connector. (possible loose connector?)
Then try a normal start.
IF the engine CRANKS, (it might not start, but I think it would. It might not shut off though) you've isolated the bad switch.

You have replaced the fuse, right?

I'll look at the diagram and try to test out the individual switches. I did replace the fuse and tried to start it normally and the fuse blew.

Thanks for the help

hey everyone
i have a john deere L110 and i tried to crank it today but it wont start it turns over but it doesnt sound like it hits
have any ideas?

my dynmark riding mower will not start my starter grinds then starts smoking how do i start the mower for now with out the starter its important cuz its snowing aand i needto get my things picked up and put away lol

When you connect positive cable to negative terminal on solenoid do you take black wire off terminal before testing. I didn't take off and wire heated up to where it was smoking. I hhope i didn't damage the wire, headlights would come on but engine would not turn over. Could anybody please advise.

I bought a new battery today and tried to start my mower and I just get a humming sound. Any suggestions? Thank you in advance for any help you can provide.