Originally Posted by Tomes

Hi folks,
How do I buy a service manual for my John Deere GT262 lawn tractor, about 5
years old? I cannot seem to find one on the net.

My problem is as follows:
As I was using it to pull stuff around, the battery light came on. I was
far from the house so I needed to keep on going, so I did. Made it back to
the house OK, checked the battery and it looked OK as far as I could tell
(in my limited wisdom...). I wiggled the connections around a bit and
retightened (it was tight but had a little bit [not much] of buildup on the
positive
side) in an effort to make a better contact and looked into the cells, which
seemed to have enough water because I could not see the plates, just liquid.
I started it up again and it died dead in about 10 seconds and then would
not crank. Battery dead. The unit is about 5 years old and is used in the
winter too; it lives in the shed outdoors. I replaced the battery ($15),
and the same thing happened after just a bit of mowing [sooner than I
expected]. So I believe that I need to troubleshoot and replace something
inside the engine as it is not charging up, just sucking the power dry. I
don't know what to do on my own, so I suppose I need the shop manual to
guide me through (unless someone wishes to walk me through this - I am OK
with a wrench but have never taken apart this type of engine). I have a
multimeter. If more details will help I will gladly provide.

Thanks very much,
Tomes