Terence the Tractor

In reply to EvanB :

I want that. I'll trade you a slightly used 22hp Craftsman. Actually if you still have my number text me. If not PM. 

If you end up needing any small parts for it or need diagrams, there is (maybe) a silver sticker under the seat. It should have a 917.xxxxx number. That what you want to use for googlin’ parts for that specific machine. 

In reply to TJL :

That actually means something. So when I needed a solenoid I went to the local small engine place. There was a part number on it so I showed that to the lady. I'd already googled it and found it all over and that it was a pretty standard part. She said that number wouldn't work. She asked a mechanic in the back then walked into her parts racks for a bit. Then she came back and said she needed some part number and to look under the seat. Said that she probably had it but needed that number to find it. I was like it's a freaking remote solenoid how hard can it be?  I walked into Advance and they had it sitting in their small engine section. I'd rather buy from a small business but I got the feeling she couldn't be bothered. 

In reply to Stampie :

From my experience most of those mowers/tractors that don't say something silly like "John Deere" on them use one of about 3 different solenoids. We carried all 3 of them at both of the chain parts houses I worked for and you could pretty much match them up by looking at how many posts were on it and  where they were.

In reply to Daylan C :

Yeah that's why I couldn't understand her not saying "oh yeah I got that E36 M3 right here" and me being happy to pay $5 more than the national chain down the road. 

Stampie said:

In reply to EvanB :

I want that. I'll trade you a slightly used 22hp Craftsman. Actually if you still have my number text me. If not PM. 

I sent you a text. After buying a zero turn I'm hopefully over messing with tractors for awhile. Unless it's a go cart or mini bike and i already have a few engines set aside for that.

In reply to Stampie :

Like Daylan said, there is only a few configurations. Take any of them, poke with a multimeter and they can all work. Some will have the electromagnet coil go between the 2 small posts as you would assume. Others have 2 front posts but the coil actually runs between the left front post and the mount, so it can ground to the chassis. One of our suppliers got a model that had the coil going front the left post and chassis. Twist was the right front post (which was assumed to be ground) had continuity with the plunger or post, so it became 12v+ when turned on. The ground wire went up in smoke because it was on the right front post and got shorted when used. 

So yeah get about the cheapest one and check continuity. Parts store folks usually dont think out of the box. Try getting a 5 pin relay. “Uhhh, what car is it for?” Not for a car, i just need some 5 pin relays. Then they had some that were reasonably priced, then others that they had for like 40$. 

In reply to TJL :

Sorry I don't work in parts anymore. I guess I was one of the rare ones that was used to cobbling weird E36 M3 together and would do my best to fufill requests like that. I will tell you that the modern inventory systems used are heavily geared towards a mindless drone just punching in an application. So if you have a description of what you need for something like that, it's either make a couple guesses until you find it or just go manually digging through your boxes of relays until you find something. And atleast one of the companies I worked for seemed to make an active effort not to hire people that had much outside automotive experience because they didn't want us spending a lot of time with one customer trying to find something like that. Which I always found annoying because I saw pretty quickly that if a customer came in needing something like that and you could get it for them, you probably had a repeat customer at that point. 

I'll end my unsolicited rant here and go about my day now.