Riding lawn mower won't start? How do I find out what's wrong? PLEASE HELP?

Three55

I have a craftsman LT1500 riding mower(has Briggs and Stratton 500cc 17.5HP engine) brought in 2011. I parked it in the back yard since June of this summer(2012), and have not used it ever since (left it for about 2 months sitting there, didn't have time to start it). I covered it up with a rubber mat(covered whole mower except the wheels and part of blade housing).
I tried to start it yesterday and it didn't start the battery was low. So this morning I put jumper cables on it to a car, it kept clicking. Then after atleast 15 turns to the key, it cranked for about 3 seconds then finally started. I cut all of th grass, then turned it off. Tried to turn it on again but it wouldn't start even with jumper cables hooked up.
I just took the cover off of the engine, put WD-40 on all of the spinning parts, turned the key and still nothing. The clicking cake from near the battery which I guess is where the starter motor is.

How do I find out wether it the starter or battery or wiring? I haven't used this mower much, just left it sitting for a while. There is quite abit of surface rust on the carberator(it's the spinning part on the mower, I'm not too familiar with these engines)
Thanks

Answer
You need to buy a volt meter. You can get one for very cheap at wal-mart. Then check the battery voltage. The correct voltage will be posted on the battery. The battery may not be able to hold a charge if so it will need to be replaced. Also the lawnmower may not be charging the battery. You can check that by checking battery voltage with the engine running.

Can a weak battery effect the way my engine idles and runs? It sounds bad after sound system was installed.?

Travis

I am not sure if the guy at Car Toys drilled into the gas tank or something else when he grounded out the system or if it is something else but I noticed a hissing sound coming from under my car as soon as I got to my friends house after the installation. I was freaking out for a bit and then it stopped only to come back after we got back from getting a bite to eat. I have a Hyundai Genesis 2011. We got out of the car to make sure the noise hadn't returned and sure enough it had. My car sounded more like a damn lawn mower rather than its normal purring sound. On top of that the hissing sound was almost as if there was air leaking out of something. We came to the conclusion that if it wasn't a hole in the gas tank, then it had to be the fuel line or something. We examined it and after awhile we turned the engine off for a few minutes. When we turned it back on the hissing noise was gone and the exhaust sounded better but the engine was clicking pretty hard only subtly however. It still has a factory battery in it.
It's a 700 watt mono block amp and I'm running one 12" subwoofer. I'm almost positive the battery is going low bc at one point I could run the ignition for 10 minutes at a time without the warning coming on and now even if I get in the car for 1 minute with the ignition on it gives me a warning telling me to start my engine. Another note: I was driving home tonight and I stomped on the accelerator a little bit to see if it had limited power and sure enough it seemed like it wasn't near as responsive and the exhaust sounded really bad. It didn't feel like the same car...

Answer
I would look for a loose vacuum line or maybe a disconnected sensor in the engine bay, he may have disconnected something when connecting power to the system and forgot to plug it back in.

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