Slow cranking 149
 

The K321 in my 149 seems to crank over very slowly. I have a brand new 340 CCA battery and I have swapped the starter/generator from my 125 and it still seems to struggle to crank fast enough to start. I don't know if it would ever start in real cold weather. I had thought it was a bad S/G but the swap has ruled that out. Are the bigger K321s just harder to start or is there more that I should look into?

The magnum 12 in the 1211 I have turns over about as fast as my 3 year old daughter can count, and always starts.

Does it stop cranking, or crank slowly, or not crank at all at times?

There are several things that you can do to help improve the cranking speed, like clean all connections-especially the ground connections to make sure that you have a really good contact to bare metal. I use high grit sandpaper to clean my connections. A new spark plug, clean the points, it might be time for a new coil and plug wire, which greatly improves the speed of cranking and since it is a 149, the hydro oil can be thick and slow it down, so new hytran and new filter may also help.

Cub Cadet 123

It always cranks. It just seems very lethargic. The wiring is a mess on this tractor. I plan to buy a new harness when things slow down at work. I'll be sure to clean all connections when I install the new wires. The points look fairly clean. I guess I could replace the plug and wire. How would the ignition components effect the cranking though? Do they suck up too much power due to higher resistance (as rusted/corroded/dirty connections would too) and slow down the starter?

As mentioned, ground is a big deal on these tractors. And the hydro fluid also makes a differance, more so in cold areas.
The reason I asked about the cranking was my 123 had a bad ACR automatic compression release, was just a thought. But if it were that it would crank a little and stop, back the SG by hand and try it again, sometimes it would go, and most times not.

Yes, like a good tune-up on a vehicle, new plug wires, dist. cap, plugs, etc. attention to a clean, including insulated, electrical system makes a difference in the electrical current....think it's called the isothermal conductivity or something like that (??). For instance, if wires were cut and spliced, then soldered without being wrapped, then some of that electrical current is lost as it is passed down the line to make it's connection. Here's an analogy, it's like you are going to your local cub dealer to buy some hy-tran to help improve the performance of your cub, but you decide to stop at McD's and service your Big Mac attack. Then you head back out to the dealer and there's a very nice looking babe having car trouble along the side of the road, so you stop to help her out. Afterwards, you head back out to the cub dealer and see a Super GT along the side of the road and you stop to ask, "How much?". Then you head back out to get the hy-tran......and an hour later you get to the dealer and find it's too late and they are closed! That's like the electrical current on it's mission to starting your cub......only a little embellished with my stupid story. The insulation makes sure that it focuses on its mission of getting there as efficiently as possible, without any distractions.

Cub Cadet 123

A new wiring harness should make a difference, it did on my 147.

My 1210 used to turn over slow until I replaced the battery cables with welding cable and ran the ground to the engine rather than the frame. Just my 2 cents but the factory cables are to small. :biggrin2:

Ground Cable
 

If not already installed try a ground cable from the S/G mount to the frame.