318 no start

weeder · Jul 1, 2016

HI everyone, a friend of mine stopped by the other day and wanted me to post this on here. He has a 1986 318 and it has sat for about a year. He wants to try and get it going but when he turns the key all it does it clicks. He has replaced the following.

1. PTO Switch
2. Neutral Safety switch
3. Light switch
4. Battery

Here are the #'s he gave me

1.John Deere 318 1986
2.#MOO318X368729
3.Motor-ONAN B43G
4.Motor serial # 863 96 4535

Well I hope this helps a little maybe you guys on here can help the guy I am going to try and get down there when I get a chance and help him too.
Well Thanks
weeder

2ndhalf · Jul 1, 2016

Starter or starter celenoid if it has one external to the starter. take the starter to NAPA have them test it. Takes 5 minutes to take that off.

Deere Dude · Jul 1, 2016

Maybe the cables or the grounding connection.

Dutch445 · Jul 1, 2016

could try jumping right to the starter to rule out it,

sometimes key switches carry current for the charging circuit and can go bad causing
voltage issues.

weeder · Jul 2, 2016

Dutch445 said:
could try jumping right to the starter to rule out it,

sometimes key switches carry current for the charging circuit and can go bad causing
voltage issues.

Is the starter easy to get to on a 318? Is there a way to jump the starter and not burn anything up?

weeder · Jul 3, 2016

weeder said:
Is the starter easy to get to on a 318? Is there a way to jump the starter and not burn anything up?

I heard that on a 318 you have to pull the engine to get to the starter? Is that true???

2ndhalf · Jul 4, 2016

weeder said:
I heard that on a 318 you have to pull the engine to get to the starter? Is that true???

I had a 318 with an Onan years ago. I cannot remember but I would be surprised if you had to pull the engine. But try the other things mentioned above by other posters first. Tight connections clean battery connections. Try jump starting it just in case battery is dead.