I think I found the reason for slow crank
 

My 1450 has never had a real fast cranking motor and I always figured that when I had time I would check it out. Today I finally started.
Took a look at the wimpy corroded ground, made up a REAL ground cable out of 2 ga. welding cable and replaced it.
Made a real battery cable out of 2 ga. welding cable from the battery to the solenoid.
Funny thing, it really didn't make any difference. Then I checked the connection at the starter & cleaned that. No difference.
Ended up pulling the starter and this is what I found. I suspect someone smacked it with a hammer. I think I have a new one at the shop.

Yaaaa
Got the good out of that one! :bigeyes:

i believe my 1650 starter has a sticker on it that says "do not strike with hammer permanent damage will result" or something like that

My 800 starter has a warning label about DO NOT STRIKE!

I bought her last year and only had enough time to get running before mowing. I finally had time last weekend to start checking things out. It always cranked slow, I was hoping it was a connection issue.

I need to pull one of the decks apart and do the bearings next. But for $300 I expect to do some work on it.

Greg